An editorial in the Daily Mirror says, as the UK faces its second major heatwave of the summer, that “the situation in mainland Europe is also stark, with the continent on course for the worst drought in 500 years”. It continues: “The scorching heat is ruining crops, disrupting transport and putting lives at risk. There is no doubt we are now living with the consequences of the climate crisis.” The editorial concludes: “Right-wing politicians pushing for the UK to abandon its efforts to curb carbon emissions are not just denying the evidence in front of their faces. They are also putting the country on a dangerous course.” An editorial in the
Guardian says: “A massive energy price shock is due when the cap on domestic bills is lifted at the start of October…Neither of the candidates [to be the next UK prime minister] has displayed any imagination in responding to the cost of living crisis.” A comment from
Guardian economics editor Larry Elliot says of the cost of living crisis, the housing crisis, the “looming drought” and the struggling NHS: “These crises are all distinct and special in their own way but they also have a common theme: a failure to invest stretching back decades. An obsession with efficiency has meant infrastructure has been run into the ground rather than upgraded.” Elliot notes: “A report by the energy firm EDF found almost 60% of 21m homes in England and Wales only met insulation standards of the mid-1970s or earlier – costing households up to £930 a year in higher energy bills.” For the
Times, chief leader writer Simon Nixon comments under the headline: “Britain’s infrastructure needs a huge overhaul, but who should pay for it?” He continues: “That challenge is even more urgent given the vast emerging infrastructure gaps that all countries are facing as they seek to adapt to climate change and deliver on net-zero commitments.” Nixon concludes: “An honest debate is needed about what infrastructure is needed and how the cost will be shared between taxpayers and customers. The alternative is much more disruption in future of the kind we have seen this summer.”
In the
Daily Telegraph meanwhile, Sunday Telegraph editor Allister Heath has a comment titled: “The horrifying truth behind the coming collapse of basketcase Britain.” (Heath explains: “the rot started on that sunny day in May 1997 when a fresh-faced Tony Blair swept [to power]”.) On the energy crisis, he argues: “War and Covid are the triggers, but the underlying disaster was homemade. Imagine, just imagine, if, as Margaret Thatcher had wanted, we had built a nuclear power station a year; allowed fracking and not waged a crazed, war against domestic oil, gas and coal before we had built up alternative capacity; if Nimbystic rules hadn’t prevented new infrastructure; if governments had planned properly for geopolitical shocks. We would have been fine.” (Again, the UK has a
legislated target to “maximise economic recovery” of its North Sea fossil fuel resources. It was ) For the
Daily Express, columnist Leo McKinstry writes: “Soaring energy bills are a sign of failure to exploit UK supplies.” He adds that while it “is fashionable to put the blame on the war in Ukraine…the problems have been exacerbated at home by successive governments, whose policies have mixed green dogma with wilful neglect”. McKinstry adds: “Britain should be one of the luckiest nations on earth when it comes to the supply of energy. We not only have unrivalled expertise in nuclear power, wind turbines and hydro technology, but we also have tremendous reserves of oil, coal, natural gas and shale gas.” He says: “One estimate is that there could be as much as 2,000 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of shale gas in our island”. (The British Geological Survey put the figure at
1,329tcf in 2013 but in 2019 estimated
just 140tcf.) McKinstry continues: “Yet the ideological quest by officialdom to achieve the target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 means these resources are increasingly ignored.” For the
Daily Telegraph, climate-sceptic columnist Ross Clark writes under the headline: “Sadiq Khan’s hatred of cars is out of control.” Another
Daily Telegraph comment is titled: “Extinction Rebellion should take up grouse shooting.”