The sight of political elites posing for group photos and slapping each other on the back as they sign up to yet more unrealistic and stupidly expensive climate commitments was, for many, as good a reason as any to vote for Brexit. They serve as a reminder that our elites look more to each other for validation than they do their own electorates.

These tone-deaf, virtue signalling jamborees are a must for any politicians seeking status among the exclusive club of “world leaders”. We have a feral establishment that thinks nothing of signing away billions of our money on the say-so of an autistic teenager.

It was, then, somewhat surprising and encouraging to see that Rishi Sunak declined to attend COP27. But that didn’t last even a week. A few days of mewling from the left wing press and the BBC and Sunak has decided to appease them – even though those who made the most noise would never vote Tory in a billion years.

This morning, Sunak tweeted: “There is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change. There is no energy security without investing in renewables. That is why I will attend @COP27P next week: to deliver on Glasgow’s legacy of building a secure and sustainable future”.

It tells us everything we need to know about Sunak. Just another politicians who allows himself to be blown this way and that by any passing gust of media wind. But it also tells us that our political class has forgotten all the lessons of Brexit and has reverted to business as usual. They’re back to not giving a damn about their own voters. Not that they ever did. What did Johnson actually deliver apart from a dog’s dinner of Brexit deal?

This also tells us much about what we are to expect from a Sunak government. He’s sucked down deep on the renewable energy Kool-Aid, despite the growing mountain of evidence that intermittent energy is driving up bills and increasing our exposure to global energy shocks. Style over substance. This, combined with reinstating the ban on fracking, tells us Sunak has abandoned energy security in favour of eco-virtue signalling, and we’ll no doubt have more misery heaped upon us over the course of the COP27 conference.

In that respect, it’s as though we never left the EU. If there was any point in a “hard Brexit” it was to part ways with the EU’s insane climate and energy policies. The EU seems determined to deindustrialise and export every last manufacturing job to China – then subject Chinese imports of cement, iron and steel, aluminium and fertilisers to a carbon border tax. (all the elements, incidentally, necessary for the Net Zero transition). One could be forgiven for thinking that the EU intends to reach Net Zero by eliminating all commercial activity. Instead of parting ways, the UK remains in lockstep with the EU on this economic suicide trajectory.

The technocratic elites of Britain and Europe are pressing ahead with a fantasy, oblivious to the rampant inflation caused by lockdowns and the war in Ukraine. They remain dogged in their determination to make life harder and more expensive, pressing ahead with policies that cannot possibly work. After all, they’re quite nicely insulated from the consequences and they can keep blaming Putin.

Sunak asserts that “there is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change” – but with ill-conceived and punishing Net Zero policies, there is no prosperity at all – long term or otherwise. Decarbonisation has become a byword for deindustrialisation. Ultimately, there is no prosperity without secure and affordable energy. There is no prosperity without individual mobility. In one tweet, Sunak has made himself the leader of the “anti-growth coalition”.