Heroes: Look in the Mirror, Tell me, What do you see? 

 

“I’ll be your mirror 

Reflect what you are, in case you don’t know 

I’ll be the wind, the rain and the sunset 

The light on your door to show that you’re home” 

 

There comes a time when we all have to look at ourselves and decide what we want, and what we are prepared to do to get it. 

 
For example, the NHS. We all know its crumbling, underfunded, understaffed, whilst, at the same time patients become more demanding. My wife tells me that at her surgery barely a day goes by without a patient shouting at the reception staff. 

We have a choice, there’s always a choice; we can have either the NHS we want or the NHS we are prepared to pay for. Too many complainers want both; it isn’t that easy. The NHS we want is going to cost, that money will likely have to come from increased taxes. Or, a more even split of the tax burden. 

Global warming is the same, there’s no point tut-tutting watching the news if you aren’t prepared to accept some pain to put things right. If an extended ULEZ zone contributes to that, so be it. 

The Tories aren’t about to do anything about anything. They exist for two reasons; the maintenance of power, and ensuring that the “have’s” continue to prosper. 
 

‘there’s no point tut-tutting watching the news if you aren’t prepared to accept some pain to put things right’

 
They grasped the implication of the extended ULEZ zone post-the Uxbridge byelection like a drowning man and a life raft. “Light-blue” Kier, so petrified of losing, immediately question the plan  which is the policy of a Labour mayor, saying; “We are doing something very wrong if policies put forward by the Labour party end up on each and every Tory leaflet. We’ve got to face up to that and learn the lessons.” 

 Sunak is so taken with the opportunity that he has become the motorists’ friend. This is nothing but squalid, desperate political posturing, there’s no morally acceptable excuse for any party to retreat on this.  

July was officially the hottest month in world history. The UN general secretary, António Guterres, warned that the era of global warming has now become the era of global boiling.. The case for a redoubling of efforts to curb greenhouse gases could hardly be plainer. 

Instead, our PM announces an expansion in drilling for the oil and gas that are driving the emissions that are transforming the world’s climate. Rishi Sunak stands accused of fuelling the fires. 

The strategy is clear; we have no interest in winding down the industry and keeping the resources in the ground as part of the transition to the net zero target, we are going to max out production of the North Sea’s remaining reserves. 
 

‘Rishi Sunak stands accused of fuelling the fires’

 
The Tories stance is nothing new; “We’re not going to save the planet by putting our country out of business,” George Osborne said in 2011. All Sunak’s decision confirms is their lack of commitment to green policies. 

Along with the new licenses he announced the creation of two more carbon capture usage and storage (“CCS”) centres. This is window dressing intended that the government continues to treat its clean technology and net zero targets seriously. In reality, they amount to letting energy companies off the hook and refusing to implement difficult decisions. 

CCS has been championed as the magic fix for climate breakdown by successive UK governments. The sole purpose of CCS is to justify the granting of more oil and gas licences, on the grounds that one day someone might be able to capture and bury the CO2 they produce. Unfortunately, most of the very few projects brought to fruition around the world have failed. 

What we are witnessing is the government easing up on its green commitments under pressure from the right-wing press and the party grassroots in the hope that this can revive Tory fortunes in the general election. This might be based on what happened it the Uxbridge byelection after, but its genesis pre-dates that. 

The party has over time been moving in an angrier and more libertarian direction over many issues. There was Brexit, the Covid deniers, now it’s CO2 emissions.  

Paul Bledsoe, an ally of President Joe Biden and a former climate adviser to Bill Clinton, said the Conservative government was increasingly seen in the US as backsliding on climate commitments, with the North Sea oil drilling scheme just the latest example. 

“Far-right Tories are beginning to resemble US Republicans, a development that can only undermine UK credibility internationally and improve Labour party prospects.”  

Whatever they might pretend their commitment to cleaner cars and net zero targets is of secondary importance to wining the next general election. It’s an admission that the government put itself ahead of the electorate. In doing so it demonstrates that they underestimate the public and their priorities. 
 

‘it demonstrates that they underestimate the public and their priorities’

 
They are also underestimating the power of private capital. The billionaire Australian mining tycoon and investor Andrew Forrest has led international condemnation of the UK’s new oil rush, saying he would pull his major investment from the country if the prime minister pursued “clickbait” fossil fuel policies. 

“I am a major investor here,” Forrest told Bloomberg News on a visit to London. “If I see this country steering itself over a cliff backing fossil fuel, I am going to start pulling out. I will push my investments over to North America … I must invest where I know I have proper leadership, not leadership which is on a clickbait cycle.” 

Forrest, one of the wealthiest people in Australia, is a major proponent of green hydrogen where the power is produced from renewables. His Fortescue Future Industries investment vehicle has a cash mountain of billions of dollars and has signed a major deal with JCB, as well as building a factory to produce batteries and electric powertrains for heavy industry vehicles and trains in Oxfordshire. 

Every time I turn on the news or read a newspaper I hear the term “crisis”. The country is simply being left to rot, as are the majority of the population, mired in debt, and hit by a tsunami of inflation and rising interest rates. 
 

‘The country is simply being left to rot, as are the majority of the population, mired in debt, and hit by a tsunami of inflation and rising interest rates’

 
Which?, the consumer group, reported this week that the number of people missing payments on essential household bills like energy, phone and water is as high as it was over the winter. 

Even though prices rises have eased slightly, around 2.4 million households missed at least one bill payment in the month to mid-July, Which? estimates. 

Which? said 770,000 failed to make mortgage or rent payments. 

One in twenty renters and one in thirty mortgage holders defaulted on a payment, it estimated. 

Around 1.5 million missed payments on household bills such as energy, water, phone or council tax. Nearly two thirds of that group missed more than one payment. 

Less than a fifth of people asked said they thought their household financial situation would get better over the next 12 months, while four in 10 (37%) said they thought it would get worse. 

Dear, oh dear. But Nigel Farage has been declined by Coutts; priorities dear boy, priorities. 

The solution to the above lies with the government, they alone have the power to remove barriers to change. 

And these powers have been exercised in recent years; there was the bailout of the banks during the GCF, and the hosing of the economy with money during the Covid pandemic. Both proved that  governments can act speedily, collectively and decisively if the crisis is deemed big enough. Or, more importantly, when it’s the governments priority  

There is no reason why the same approach cannot be adopted in the fight against climate change, or the cost-of-living crisis, other than it isn’t a priority. In addition, as soon as the electorate hears the cost they cry wolf; it’s your choice you can have what you want, or what you are prepared to pay for. 
 

‘Brexit and austerity destroyed the prospects for many of our children, we could, at least, leave them a planet to inhabit’

 
In summary, this leads me to question the current functions of government and opposition. In my view neither are serving the people, therefore they aren’t fit for purpose. We are back where we were before the Brexit referendum, the electorate in losing faith in politicians. 

The Uxbridge byelection result goes someway to proving that. 

The Tories, resigned to defeat, picked a local candidate without interference from above, whereas Labour, desperate to prove a point, overlooked the constituency recommendation in favour of central offices preference. 

This was manna from heaven for the Tories, who presented the choice as “Camden Danny” v “Hillingdon Steve”. Labour’s showed their man in a suit stood outside public buildings – all stats and antiseptic, whereas the Tories showed their candidate in jeans having a pint in a local beer garden. As a result the campaign didn’t just attack Ulez, “they forged it into a weapon of cultural mistrust: your rights, their diktat.”  

“These people from Hackney and Lewisham have a one-size-fits-all mindset,” is how local Tory chair Richard Mills explains it. “They live in £1.5m homes and think they know what’s best for outer London.” 

There is Brexit history here, too; the borough of Hillingdon, in which Uxbridge sits, was one of the few outposts of London that voted “leave”. As the EU referendum was never really about Europe, so this referendum on Ulez (as the Tories termed it) wasn’t about green policies. It was a revival of that same disillusionment based on out-of-touch political elites. 
 

‘The Tories have made their priorities clear; the maintenance of power and looking after their own’

 
Labour meanwhile ran a centrist campaign orchestrated by central office, which ignored its local members to the extent that they couldn’t post anything on their WhatsApp group.  

For all of us, including governments, there are choices and priorities. It is often said that actions speak louder than words, unfortunately many politicians fall foul of that. 

The Tories have made their priorities clear; the maintenance of power and looking after their own. Labour are desperate to attain power, and, to do so they are prepared to shed their principles and policies, becoming closet Tories. 

Farage saw their opportunity the GFC presented; disillusionment and resent was rife. I still believe he can be a political force, simply because he listens and communicates better. Populism, for many presents solutions, but, in practise, they perform better in opposition than government. 

Brexit and austerity destroyed the prospects for many of our children, we could, at least, leave them a planet to inhabit. 
 

“I look out my window, what do I see? 

A crack in the sky and a hand reaching down to me 

All the nightmares came today 

And it looks as though they’re here to stay” 

 
‘No comment required’ he said; and he’s right, but how about I sneak this one in – has Rishi Sunak declared war on the planet?
 
@coldwarsteve
 

 

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

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