#farage

Nigel Farage has created a farcical by-election campaign - but novelty candidate Count Binface may have an early advantage.

While Britain is sweltering in the hottest May temperatures ever, the Express continues to champion the burning of more fossil fuels. Today we had this scare story.

“Britain has less than two weeks of gas reserves as Labour blocks new North Sea exploration” (Express: 24/05/26)

Oh my God! The country is going to grind to a halt and all because the wicked Labour Government wants the country to become self-sufficient in renewable energy.

Time and time again right-wing politicians and media outlets call for the expansion of North Sea oil and gas extraction and blame high prices on Labours failure to open up new sites. There are several things wrong with this argument.

First, all of the gas and oil is extracted from the North Sea is owned by private companies and sold on the world market. Successive governments, whether left or right-wing, simply sell fossil fuel companies the right to drill and extract. What these corporates do with the gas and oil that they extract is up to them. What no self-respecting capitalist will ever do is to do is sell it at a lower figure than the world market price.

Even if we did extract more North Sea oil and gas, you and I would not benefit by one penny. For that to happen we would have to do what Norway has done and nationalise the industry. Farage, Starmer and Badenoch are not going to do that.

The second fallacy is that if we did open up new oil and gas fields tomorrow, it would not have an instant effect. Exploration itself takes between 2-5 years depending on regulatory approval, weather, size of fields and rig availability. Development and planning  take around 3 years  and construction of infrastructure  -  pipe lines, processing facilities, platforms, connections to UK National Transmission System – takes another 3-5 years.

In short it takes between 5-10 years for new oil and gas to reach us, the consumer. Hardly the remedy it is often made out to be.

Finally, lets look at the scare-mongering headline of the Express again. Yes, Britain does have less than two weeks of gas reserves but this is normal. Historically, the UK has had 7-10 days of peak-winter gas demand in storage. This is because in 2017, under the Tories, the main gas storage site Rough, was closed down. Because Rough was owned by a private company (Centrica Storage Limited) there was nothing the Conservative government could do to stop them other than take over the site. This is not in the Conservative Party playbook.

For right-wing politicians it is for markets to decide what is best for their shareholders and this gas storage facility need major improvements and massive investment to maintain its safety. Rather than maintain a decent national gas storage capacity the Tory government let it close because that was the best option for shareholders.

Yes, Britain does have a very low gas reserves compared to other countries but this is because the interests of private capital were put above the needs of the nation. The government could have subsidised repairs, it could of declared Rough a national strategic asset and it could of insisted on a higher minimum storage level. It did none of these things.

Brexit meant interference from foreign, in this case US, political figures. Why would Epstein and Bannon want Johnson as PM? Pliable, mercurial, unscrupulous, untrustworthy, seeking his own advancement at the expense of others? Just what was wanted if you want to disrupt the UK and the EU.