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.

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):

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:

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.

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