Godfrey Bloom

As anybody who has seen the satire, Yes, Minister will know, when politicians want to hide the fact that their government is not performing well, they simply change the method by which its performance is measured. And they get an 'independent' expert to justify changing it. In just this way, the Department for Energy and Climate Change commissioned a report, which, surprise surprise, has now concluded that the measure of 'fuel poverty' should be changed.

You can read the Hills Report on Fuel Poverty here.

This has come about because the government is embarrassed by the fact that the number of households living in fuel poverty has risen from 1.2 million to 4 million between 2004 and 2009. It is now likely much higher. They have been warned by many authorities on the subject that excessive climate and energy policies will have the effect of forcing businesses to close, unemployment to rise, and people to suffer, and in some cases die, as they cannot afford their energy bills. But they ignored the advice.

There is no point fiddling the statistics. Rising energy costs have been caused by policy. We know this because in countries where there isn't such an emphasis on climate change and renewable energy legislation, such as the USA, there has been no rise in domestic prices. The debate about what the 'real' measure of 'fuel poverty' ought to be could go on forever. But common sense alone tells us that when energy costs rise, more people suffer. This attempts to make the problem looks smaller, and shift responsibility away from the government is grotesque. If the government abandoned its climate targets, stopped offering huge subsidies to renewable energy generators, and allowed suppliers to compete freely, prices would fall, and 'fuel poverty' would not be an issue.

A BBC article gives the government's agenda away: lots of calls for yet more intervention, and claims that the problem can be solved by subsidised insulation programmes.

The government's own Fuel Poverty Advisory Group (FPAG) has called on it to use projected revenues from a minimum price on carbon and carbon trading to tackle fuel poverty.

The government said it is already tackling the problem through a range of other measures, including the Warm Homes Discount, which offers help with bills to low-income households.

"The number of fuel-poor households helped by government-backed schemes is likely to more than halve over the next three years, despite fuel poverty levels having almost tripled in five years," said Derek Lickorish, chairman of the FPAG.

This can only make the problem worse. Expect higher bills. Expect more fuel poverty.

The FT reports that

Eon has fallen to its first annual loss as Germany’s nuclear phase-out, high wholesale natural gas prices, and economic slowdown left deep scars on the country’s largest utility.

The German government has decided to close eight of the country's seventeen nuclear power plants. As a result, the cost of electricity has gone up, eleven thousand jobs were lost in one company--Eon--alone, and stockholders have seen their dividends cut. Eon now is investing abroad. What a great success story!

I protest the indignity of International Women’s Day. Instituted by the Socialist Party Of America in 1909, when even the West was not impermeable to revolutionary fervour, this Valentine’s day for the unloved and Mothers’ day for the childless has no place in our society of 2012. Of course, it comes as no surprise to me that the desperately arcane institutions of the European Union are adhering to this deeply offensive ritual - like some isolated Contemplative Community devoted to the rites of long discredited ideology. Why should people be singled out as if their sex made them vulnerable and worthy of some kind of encouragement? The Con-Dem coalition, with their proposed misconception of marriage, are only deepening my concearns that our elected and imposed leaders think the basic human condition is a new frontier for politicisation. As a member of the Womens’ Rights Committee and a true Liberal Conservative, I am torn between criticising the expense of the Parliament’s associated activities (see video below), and countering the misplaced sentimentality by calling for an ‘International Mens’ day.

I spent some time on the Canadian training area with the Yorkshire Regiment. They made me the best cup of tea I have ever had in the field.

I was in Afghanistan a couple of years ago to see our servicemen at work. They are truly magnificent. One can only imagine the pain their families are going through at the moment; it is shared by the Nation at this time.

Being a soldier in these troubled times is not easy, being at home waiting for them can be worse.

Dear Sir,

If it is ever realised, the plan to build a pipeline across Yorkshire that will send CO2 from our industries under the North Sea will cost £hundreds of millions, possibly billions. Meanwhile, businesses are closing. Jobs are being lost. The elderly and young working families cannot afford their bills.

Whether or not you agree with me that climate change is so much hooey, you must nonetheless agree that sensible priorities should inform policy-making. Our immediate problems are caused not by climate change, but climate change policies.

The pipeline's advocates say it will create jobs. Nonsense. Making energy more expensive cannot create opportunities; it only destroys them by taking money out of the productive economy. It puts hard-earned cash into the pockets of those who have befriended environmental bureaucrats and government ministers.

One way we could reduce costs and create jobs at no public expense is by allowing the exploration of the shale gas fields across the North of England. But two almost imperceptible tremors have held up progress for an entire year. The rising costs of energy are far more dangerous to the people of Yorkshire than climate change or earthquakes. This pipeline plan should be scrapped, alongside the UK's dangerous and expensive climate change and energy policies.

Yours faithfully

Godfrey Bloom MEP Environment Committee in the European Parliament