Yet another own goal! – This time from the foot of Amber Rudd!

Good Friday is for many Christians a day of reflective prayerful contemplation. However, your Editor craves the indulgence of our Christian readership for today’s article which has an altogether more jocular tone.
In yesterday’s article we drew your attention Dear Reader to the seemingly bizarre capacity of both sides involved in the Brexit debate to score own goals. We referred to the Unfortunate Mr Johnson who, not content with assuming the appearance of a buffoon proceeded to become an actual buffoon and in front of a Commons committee!
But then Boris has never believed in doing things by halves! After all, if you are going to make a fool of yourself you might as well do it in the most embarrassing place you can think of!
Here at the British Gazette we knew it was only a matter of time before one of the characters from “the other side” would feel compelled not to leave the unfortunate Johnson to wander alone and unaccompanied in the wilderness that is Buffoon Land but would seek to join him there!
We can now report that Boris has been joined by a lady, The Right Honourable Amber Rudd, PC, MP the member of Hastings and Rye which is as our readers well know is in East Sussex, whose denizens according to those living in West Sussex are somewhat odd and become the more so the further east one travels!
Ms Rudd who unfortunately for the British People occupies the post of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change has it appears stepped in with both feet and has scored a spectacular own goal!
The unfortunate lady thinks she has found a new angle for “Project Fear”.
She tells us that leaving the EU could add “£500 million” to UK energy bills because President Putin “might hijack our energy security as a political pawn to bring Europe to its knees”.
Err!!!!!! Maybe, Dear Lady you should have engaged brain before putting mouth into gear!
IF Dear Lady you are right then being in the EU will be more harmful to us than being out!
Were Mr Putin to decide to “attack” Europe by massively raising gas and oil prices, as you claim, then would not we be better off in a free market where we can find other suppliers or come to a separate agreement with Russia over pricing?
Using your logic, if Putin were to imposes such rises on the EU then the higher prices will apply whether we are in or out. To imply that he will raise our fuel prices in isolation, while leaving the rest of the EU alone, is an obvious nonsense particularly if he is doing it, as you claim, to “hijack energy security to bring Europe to its knees”. It simply makes no sense to attempt to do this by forcing the UK to that position in isolation.
What Dear Lady has driven up energy costs, with a detrimental effect to both domestic and industrial energy bills, is the Climate Change Act, dubbed “the most expensive piece of legislation in British history”, which the government themselves calculate will cost the UK taxpayer “£720 billion” (at current prices) by 2050. Outside the EU this Act could be repealed and costs massively reduced as a consequence.
Other costs which could be slashed are the “carbon tax” (estimated to add £73 to household fuel bills) and the so called “carbon price floor” (estimated to add £105), altogether taking an additional £178 per year from domestic fuel bills by leaving the EU (source: EU statistics).
Far from being worse off outside the EU, as you claim, the facts show quite the reverse!
What really is the most depressing aspect of this is that it is such as the Unfortunate Rudd that this country sends forth to treat with foreign governments!
That is like sending your Editor onto the football pitch to compete against the likes of Mr Wayne Rooney!