There is nothing in the government’s announcement on energy that persuades me that energy prices will be brought under control soon or even in the far future. The rehashed announcement on new nuclear plants is wishful thinking. We simply don’t have the skill sets or the capacity to build eight new plants, even if we had a successful design – which we don’t. This isn’t going to happen because it can’t happen. There is no reason to believe new builds won’t be plagued by the same technical and contractual problems experienced by Hinkley Point.

As regards offshore wind, the industry is going to be hard put simply replacing the existing capacity which is dropping out due to old age. Then, since most of the best sites have been taken, they are mostly reliant for new capacity on floating wind turbines – untried technology with no data at all on durability and lifetime costs. The floating area “resource” is some of the roughest water on the planet. This is a leap in the dark, and not something on which anyone rational could base a substantial part of our energy policy.

As to the boost for solar, it’s hard to fathom why such a low yield technology was even considered. Solar in the UK has an output of only 11 percent of installed capacity while taking up vast tracts of land that would be better used as farmland.

Business and Energy Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said: “The simple truth is that the more cheap, clean power we generate within our borders, the less exposed we will be to eye-watering fossil fuel prices set by global markets we can’t control”. But the boost in renewables will not lead to the decommissioning of a single gas power station. Last December saw the UK going weeks without much usable wind forcing us to fire up old coal power plants that were scheduled for closure. Every GW of renewable capacity must have backup. Because of wind energy we are more dependent on fossil fuels (even if we use less gas) – and forced to buy wholesale gas at peak prices.

This is essentially like buying a car that only starts on three days of the week, but you don’t even know which days so you have to keep an additional normal car that starts any day. Remembering, of course, that because you have two cars, you have two lots of insurance, two lots of depreciation and two lots of maintenance.

If the Tories were serious about securing our future energy supply, they would ditch renewables entirely. We need new gas plant and gas storage to serve in the interim until new nuclear comes on line. Renewables only divert investment away from more viable generation while creating major grid stability problems that cost billions to mitigate.

It is now a certainty that Britain’s energy crisis will deepen. There are no energy storage solutions on the horizon that can take the place of gas, and no sign that energy storage would be cost effective if it could. Minerals required for batteries are skyrocketing in price. If there are even two of the eight new generation nuclear plants in operation within a decade it will be something of a small miracle – and that won’t be nearly enough. We have missed the boat for affordable energy. We may need to explore new coal burning plant.

You would think this might inform our current foreign policy but on that score, Boris Johnson seems determined to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian. NATO shills seem convinced that Ukraine can win outright and even retake disputed eastern territories. They’re hoping a defeat triggers regime change, making the rather large assumption that whoever follows Putin will be an improvement. It is also a mistake to think Putin will go quietly. A Ukrainian defeat of Russian conventional forces will see Putin escalate further, doing all he can to inflict maximum damage on Western interests.

With that sees prices of everything skyrocketing across the board – which, more than any other factor, will pour cold water on Johnson’s Net Zero ambitions. Net Zero is a transition to a mineral intensive energy grid. The subsequent global food crisis could provoke another wave of mass immigration that could further destabilise European politics. Marine Le Pen may not win this time around, but after four years of rampant inflation and a massive decline in living standards, anything could happen.

The first item on any energy security agenda should be to end the war as quickly as possible, even if that means forcing Zelensky into negotiations. Johnson’s witless embrace of Zelensky is the height of irresponsibility.

Nobody serious thinks Net Zero is a workable timeline or even a realistic policy. It was ludicrous before but especially so now as the geopolitical tides are shifting. Today Russia is suspended from the UN Human Rights Council, thereby effectively ending the post-WW2 peace architecture. For what that was worth. We are now set to see a decline of Western influence through one of its main instrument of influence. A shift away from Russia means creating new dependencies on China for rare earth minerals and metals. We have outsourced and dismantled much of our own domestic production capabilities by pretending China was a market economy.

By way of two decade of green energy policy which has been hostile to most viable forms of energy, Britain and Europe are dangerously exposed and scrambling for resources to maintain even a basic standard of living. We are about to see thirty years of economic progress across Europe completely wiped out. We’ve left it too late to act and our political class still hasn’t grasped the urgency of our predicament. Johnson is playing fantasy politics. He is setting us up for a fall, but on the presumption that he won’t be PM by the time the system goes belly-up.

When Net Zero collides with reality there will be massive implications. Our past prosperity has all been built on relatively affordable energy and fuels but with that gone, we will see a jobs crisis not seen for decades. Our derelict towns will becomes war zones and crime will explode. The poorest can forget about home heating and even middle class households will have to scale back their car use. That may be what the green lunatics wanted all along, but with that goes grinding poverty, ill health and a collapse of public services.

Sadly, our fate is all but sealed. The public has yet to realise the danger, while the opposition does not seek to oppose at all. Labour promises to implement the same suicidal policies while doubling onshore wind. Meanwhile, former energy minister Ed Miliband has appeared on Sky News today to argue than men should be allowed to compete in women’s sports. Britain no longer has a serious politics capable of resolving our problems – and in fact is the root cause of most of them. Unless something fundamental changes, our days as a free and prosperous country are numbered.