Grant Shapps has been in government quite a long time and as well as being Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party he has also had the following appointments.

1.    Minister for state for International Development, May 2015 till November 2015.

This department finds ways to throw taxpayers money at foreign governments.

2.    Secretary of State for Transport, July 2019 till September 2022.

He used the Covid period to have towns in his constituency and elsewhere block off through roads with planters making them into cul-de-sacs, to continue the war against the motorist.

The justification was to encourage people to walk or cycle or use public transport to reduce pollution from car use and ultimately save the planet. His action has just speeded up the use of on-line shopping the decline of the high street.

3.    Secretary of State for the Home office under Liz Truss 19-25 October 2022.

4.    Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, (BEIS). 

This had an emphasis on building more wind farms which continued the decline in granting licences and planning permissions for mining of coal, drilling for oil, and included a moratorium for fracking for gas. Now we have to import these things at enormous expense, if they are available, and with the Russian gas turned off we will need to import enormous amounts of Liquefied Natural Gas from the USA to prevent gas rationing.

5.    Rishi Sunak has done a mini reshuffle, a bit like tidying the deckchairs on Titanic after it hit the iceberg, and he has now put the fox into the chicken run. Grant Shapps has become Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. This is a classic oxymoron, where words have conflicting meaning, such as ‘Army Intelligence’. 

The quest for Net Zero with more renewables and less fossil fuels will increase energy insecurity and unreliability and continue to drive up costs. The renewable industry can never get rid of fossil fuels because the latter are always fully available at maximum output 24/7/365. The renewable industry is in effect adding an additional unreliable energy infrastructure that is unable to replace the previous reliable one. All that does is waste taxpayers’ money, and it won’t save the planet.

Coal produces less CO₂ than woodchip and is required for heavy industry and especially steel making, which is the most used metal for everything from tin cans, domestic appliances, cars, ships, bridges etc. It cannot be economically made using electricity at four times the real price. Why import coal when it is estimated we have enough under the UK to last until at least 2400, and possibly till 2600AD. Banning its use here just drives those industries overseas. The idiots have taken over the asylum!

The new department is supposed to bring together all that is necessary to implement the new drive towards Net Zero. Unfortunately, they have tied the hands of Grant Shapps by making all planning decisions subject to the approval of Michael Gove in the Levelling Up Department.  You just couldn’t make this up!

Net Zero is not about the environment. It is about creating a world totalitarian communist state, with a relatively small group of incredibly wealthy oligarchs, while the rest of humanity has an equal share of the misery.

Antony Nailer

Energy Spokesman for the UK Independence Party