Sunak’s new North Sea fossil fuel contracts are a statement: ‘I want the world to burn’
Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government has announced around 100 new contracts to extract oil and gas – polluting fossil fuels that cause global warming – from the North Sea.
He has claimed – unconvincingly – that this is in line with plans to make the UK a “net zero” polluter – one that does not contribute to global warming – by the year 2050, saying that the nation will still rely on fossil fuels for some of its energy needs for many decades to come, and it is less harmful to source it domestically than import it from abroad.
He is deliberately missing the point – of course – that if the UK doesn’t mine these substances and instead invests in more renewable energy, there would be no need to buy polluting crap from any other countries.
But logic isn’t his strong point. After all, this policy is based on his party’s sliver of success in the July by-elections, when its candidate in Uxbridge and South Ruislip narrowly kept that constituency out of Keir Starmer’s hands.
The win has been pinned on opposition to the Ultra-Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) that charges owners of polluting cars to travel in central London. In fact, it was probably a statement on Keir Starmer’s inability to lead a political party but, as Starmer won’t face that possibility, both parties have been attacking the ULEZ instead.
Well I didn't see that coming: that the next election is going to be about the Tories staking out claims for more oil, cars going faster, dirty cars carrying on pumping out fumes in cities, killing people…And the mandate for this is: 'we hung on in Uxbridge'? Is that it?
— Michael Rosen 💙💙🎓🎓 (@MichaelRosenYes) July 31, 2023
Yes.
There is now a big Tory campaign to claim that they are on the side of motorists while Starmer’s party is not. This involves attacking the Opposition party’s transport plans and claiming that it sides with media-maligned environmental campaigners like Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil (on the basis of a single donation from a supporter of the latter group):
✅ The Welsh Conservatives would reverse Labour's barmy road building ban, scrap their blanket 20mph speed limits and say no to congestion charges.
🥀 Meanwhile, Labour are in bed with Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion.
💪 We support motorists, Labour don't. pic.twitter.com/e9T9HGtldG
— Welsh Conservatives 🏴 (@WelshConserv) July 31, 2023
It’s a typical Tory tactic: divide and rule. They want to convince you that Starmer’s party is financially dependent on people who have already been vilified as crazies for their attempts to inform us about the genuinely insane pollution policies of the current Tory government. And who do the Tories depend on, financially?
The idea is to keep us from asking what is probably the only pertinent question about this affair:
Why are the Tories giving massive new oil and gas drilling contracts to the same giant energy companies that have been massively ripping off their customers to make obscene amounts of profit?
Only today, I notice that BP has announced £2 billion in profit, to go alongside British Gas’s nearly £1 billion. That is money that could have been revitalising the UK’s economy instead, but Sunak and his cronies have no interest in that.
Put it all together and it’s a massive political endorsement for global warming. And it’s utterly insane.
This Site has already reported on the wildfires sweeping across other parts of the globe. As the situation worsens – as it undoubtedly will with national governments blindly extending their reliance on fossil fuels and the companies that provide them – crops will fail.
We will run out of food and have to buy substandard cast-offs from other countries that will also be struggling.
And I have also mentioned scientists’ expectation that the flow of the Gulf Stream, that warms the UK, will be halted, meaning much colder winters and hotter summers. We don’t have the required infrastructure for either.
So it is no surprise that people who actually, genuinely understand the issues are using the social media to post messages like this:
Please screen-grab this tweet and keep it handy when food prices soar , water-wars break out , your house burns down , your business is washed away , polar bears are extinct or in a few years time when a desperate and angry young person asks you who was responsible for killing… https://t.co/BlD9BBi8dG
— Chris Packham (@ChrisGPackham) July 31, 2023
Oh, and by the way, regarding the last part of Chris Packham’s tweet: it won’t even be Rishi Sunak, or Keir Starmer, who will be responsible.
If you vote either of them into power so that they can enact these disastrous policies, then responsibility for killing the world rests on you.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
I suspect the big greedy male owned corporate oil companies have been lobbying that carpet salesman Rishi Sunak for more licences to drill for oil in the north sea.
So once again greedy male owned corporate polluting companies will see their bloated profits zoar because destroying our planet is okay since the only ones benefitting will be the greedy fascist tories and their greedy profit obsessed fossil fuel industries!
Don’t worry about these latest so-called ‘licences’ enabling the oil companies to destroy marine life who are currently living in the North sea close to the Shetland Isles and also where these oil companies will soon be drilling for oil! Murdering marine life is fine because profits are far more important.
Not forgetting Sunak is a serial liar because majority of the oil and gas extracted from north sea is immediately sold to overseas companies – it never reaches little england!
The Labour candidate in the recent Uxbridge and Ruislip South by election was imposed centrally. I think, therefore, that it is almost inconceivable that he would have ditched the ULEZ expansion plan without Starmer’s approval.
If Labour had actually defended it and advocated it instead of running away, then I can see no reason really why they would not have picked up the few extra votes needed to win.