There was no summer of 1976 when I was a child in
Scotland. There was no drought. The grass was green. There were no water shortages.
But it is hotter now than I ever remember it getting back then. As the
temperature in Aberdeenshire approaches the mid-twenties, I find it too hot. My
bed is no longer cool, my car needs its fan, I no longer where a coat in August
in Aberdeen, which before was rare indeed. Things have changed.
I used to live in a very large house that was built in
the 18th century. We had a wood burning stove in the sitting room, but the
house was too large and too draughty to make central heating worthwhile. So, the
radiators stayed off.
I lived in the attic. I had a single electric heater,
but I was encouraged to only use it when necessary and then only briefly. It
was much colder then. Snow was normal in the winter. I can remember being driven
on roads with a path cut through the snow on either side. I haven’t seen such
snow since then.
It is a simple matter of experience to say that the
climate has changed. It’s hotter here in the summer and much milder in the winter.
Most winters now involve perhaps a few days of snow with only a few days below zero.
I am hoping for an ultra-mild winter this year, because I am going to try to go
back to barely using heating just like I did as a child.
I have better things to do with £4000 than create hot
air. Of course, for some people heat is a matter of survival. But for most of
us who are reasonably fit and healthy it is a matter of habit. I will try to
heat myself rather than heat the air around me.
Why are we in this mess? We have become too reliant on
buying energy from elsewhere and far too reliant on energy that is intermittent.
The price of energy like everything else depends on supply and demand. There is
not enough supply while demand has not fallen. Therefore, the price has increased.
While I accept that the climate has changed, the response
to global warming will in part be responsible for many of us being cold this
winter.
Environmentalists are responsible for the political
consensus that has led us to the attempt to abandon fossil fuels too quickly
and before we have a viable alternative ready.
We have invested vast amounts into renewable energy,
but it cannot on its own heat our country. I have nothing against solar panels
or wind farms. They make a useful contribution. But on a dull, windless cold
day we need a supply of energy that is not intermittent.
Our power stations can either be powered by gas, coal
or splitting atoms. We don’t have fusion power yet and we don’t have anything
else that can do the job.
Britain could right now be self-sufficient in gas if
we had continued to exploit to the full the reserves under the North Sea and if
we had fracked where possible under the ground. We could likewise be self-sufficient
in energy if we had built enough nuclear power stations. The Greens opposed all
of these things, so when you are cold blame them.
It is too late to rectify these mistakes. We cannot
instantly build new nuclear power stations. So, what can be done.
I will insulate myself and my house as best I can and use
as little energy as I can manage. I don’t expect the Government to pay my
heating bill.
The Government already owes too much (debt) and
borrows too much (deficit). Many of us spent the pandemic not working with the
Government paying our wages. There comes a point when this has to stop.
I read a comment by a Scottish nationalist in the
Herald the other day saying that the UK Government should have a second
furlough scheme to pay our energy bills. But Scottish nationalists also want Scotland
to vote to leave the UK in October next year. The SNP’s last plan was that an independent
Scotland would not pay a share of the national debt, but only yearly payments
covering the interest. So, a second furlough for Scotland would be like going
to the bank to get free money while telling it that you didn’t intend to pay it
back.
This is untenable. Scotland cannot expect the UK
Treasury to bail it out, while continuing to threaten to walk away. Present debt
is contingent on future citizens paying taxes, or it is unsustainable. If you
are planning not to be a future citizen, you cannot morally add to a debt you
don’t intend to pay back.
I think it is reasonable for the Government to subsidise
the energy costs of those who desperately need them. The elderly and the sick
can reasonably expect help in a caring society. But the rest of us need to be a
touch more self-reliant.
We live in a reasonably well-off country comparable to
most others in Western Europe, but our standard of living is not automatic. We
have expectations about healthcare and benefits and an average standard of
living that depend on Britain producing things and selling things.
Its all very well some left-wing Scottish nationalists
talking about our having a right to these things. But not every one in the
world can afford our lifestyle, nor do they have our opportunities.
There are no intrinsic rights. There is only a society
that can afford to grant rights that are contingent on that society working
hard enough to make the profits that pay for them.
Britain had a one-off response to the pandemic, by
giving furlough. If it were repeated this year, it would hardly be a one off,
but rather a habit to be repeated every time there was a crisis.
Government spending must be reduced if we are to make
the wealth that will provide a still better standard of living for future generations.
Let us find the quickest cheapest route to energy
developing all useful technologies including renewables, but let us also
recognise that the solution to climate change is through free market innovation
rather than state subsidy.
Let us drive petrol cars until electric cars become so
cheap to buy and fuel that we choose them ourselves. Let us keep our houses warm
with gas drilled or fracked in Britain. That is the way that Britain will have
the sort of economy that can discover the technologies of the future that will
make fossil fuels obsolete.
The Conservatives will rightly be blamed if energy
becomes too expensive for us to buy, but the solution is not going to be
Labour or the SNP pretending that Government can pay for everything. That way
lies public spending increasing to the point where we approach communism.
If the Government has to pay your heating, it may as
well pay for your housing, your shopping and your holidays. I would rather shiver
through the winter than lose my sense of self-reliance, because this alone is
the guarantee of my freedom. Socialism will tell you what to buy and give you
only shop in which to buy it. The price for your loss of freedom will be your
poverty.
