Above: The 5th Labour of Hercules: Cleaning the Augean stables (by diverting a river).
The excellent and learned Doctor Richard North in his blog-post today (https://www.turbulenttimes.co.uk/news/front-page/energy-green-folly/) laments the present situation bitterly and suggests that we look to coal to provide the nation’s electrical power.
Sadly, I am of the opinion that this is not a short term option!
Whilst I am a climate change denier (Boo! Evil planet destroyer! Lunatic! Maniac! Moron! – just some of the printable things the ER activists living in the village just over a mile away from me use) and would fervently support and emergency programme of getting coal to power the grid, I am also a realist (I used to call myself a EuroRealist and always disliked the term “Brexiteer”).
What we have now is a whole generation of young people from toddlers to twenty somethings who have been been brainwashed by the notion of “Anthropogenic Climate Change”. These youngsters believe this nonsense as fervently as any devout Roman Catholic or Protestant Christian did during the reformation. It is form them an article of faith!
The fact is that many of these youngsters will take to the streets. We have already seen direct action from ER and “Insulate Britain”. A programme of coal renewal will result in this direct action being multiplied tenfold PLUS riots and what is euphemistically called “political violence”.
Go down this route and there will be blood on the streets.
Sadly, the only way I can see this situation being resolved is to let the economic and human disaster unfold with widespread power cuts and the concomitant economic collapse that will follow. This will result in the vast majority of the British Public rejecting in it’s entirety the notion of “Anthropogenic Climate Change”.
Here is the irony: Since being a youngster I have always supported the idea of “proportional representation”. I have been of the opinion that the STV (Single Transferable Vote) is on balance the best electoral system bar none! I have long wanted to see MPs for English constituencies sent to the Commons using this with large seven member constituencies with the power to decide how they elect their MPs being devolved to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly.
However: About the one advantage the terrible FPP (First Past the Post) system has is that in the event of extreme circumstances a wholesale “cleaning of the Augean stables” can come about. I would however be forced to admit that a certain Mr Nigel Farage is no Hercules!
So who would likely take power in these circumstances?
The opposition!
Of course, the Labour Party is currently as green as a boxwood hedge! However, unlike the Green Party, Labour’s cause is the welfare of and advancement of the working class and others (meaning those who come under the umbrella term “BAME”). In the event of an economic collapse brought about by the failure of a policy driven by “Anthropogenic Climate Change”, Labour’s leopard with change it’s spots and with the zeal of the newly converted will embark on a programme of fossil fuel renaissance which will make long time Labour member Piers Corbyn very happy indeed!
Of course Labour politicians and Labour party members will need someone to blame! They will blame the scientists and the people who backed them. They will however have to place some significant “red water” between these folk and themselves!
I fear (for my ER detractors) as Labour have many Muslim supporters and I reckon that this constituency will point the finger to a particular group!
So who will be the likely scapegoats?
Well, it happens to be a fact that many fervent Greens can be described as “New Agers”. There is a lot of Green politics associated with beliefs such as Wicca and other pagan beliefs. That many now follow these beliefs can be seen by the huge numbers who travel to Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice. Many Greens revere “Gaia” the Earth Goddess. These beliefs to a conservative Sunni Salafi Muslim are regarded as heretical. Thus expect a radical Labour government answerable to a large Muslim constituency to legislate a new Equalities and Anti-Discrimination Act.
Laws prohibiting blasphemy and blasphemous libel in the United Kingdom date back to the medieval times as common law and in some special cases as enacted legislation. The common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel were formally abolished in England and Wales in 2008 and in Scotland in 2021. Equivalent laws remain in Northern Ireland however. Expect these laws to reappear in a suitably altered form in the new legislation. The sad result will be that many Pagans, Wiccans and witches will be persecuted – although these persecution will amount to no more than non custodial sentences in most cases. The new laws will of course let the Green Christians and Jews “off the hook”!
The other fact is that we should consider other factors in the mix. The clock and the calendar. Her Majesty – long may she reign over us – is elderly and no person is immortal. At some point in the future, HRH the Prince of Wales will succeed to the throne. Now here is a splendid example of a dedicated “Green”! Clearly members of the new King’s household will discover that there were treacherous advisers in the old order and purge them with a ruthlessness that would win the admiration of the late and unlamented Joseph Stalin!
This will be done because one of the first things Labour will do is to replace the present structure of the Royal Household – which is under the control of the Sovereign to a new department of state, the Crown Department. This will have a cabinet minister at it’s head and will replace the office of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The Crown Department will also take charge of the Crown Estate. The staff of the new department will be drawn from the ranks of the civil service.
HRH the Prince of Wales is on record of saying many things. One has been that he wants (when he is King) to be the Defender of Faith, not Defender of The Faith. Expect therefore a group of religious leaders to become members of the Privy Council. These will include Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims and Sikhs. But NOT Pagans and Wiccans!
Since most Britons are not religious and will want politicians to restore their prosperity they will of course rapidly be won over to support the demonisation of Pagans and Wiccans! Let us remember that most Germans in the 1920s and 1930s were not anti-Semitic. It was only when the economic collapse of Germany came about that they began to vote for Hitler in significant numbers.
NB: I am NOT comparing Muslims and Labour Party members with the Nazis!