We fear PM’s ‘net zero’ plans may become a millstone round our economy’s neck
Zero money
BORIS Johnson’s “net zero” plans are a gigantic gamble. If he loses, the voting public will pick up a truly ruinous tab.
For, while we welcome that some costings are finally on the table, they are jaw-dropping.
The PM is betting that Britain’s entrepreneurial genius will pull off this eco revolution and create a tsunami of green jobs.
A few signs are promising. Like the pledge by Octopus Energy to push down the price of buying and installing a heat pump, currently beyond most wallets, as low as a gas boiler.
But many of Boris’s eco promises are wishful thinking. He is mortgaging Britain to technologies that don’t yet work.
Or, like electric cars, they are still both extravagantly overpriced AND poor substitutes for those we use now. Meanwhile, the incentives to buy them are low . . . and shrinking.
We fear net zero may become a millstone round our economy’s neck while other nations less committed to it thrive. The Treasury’s realism is bleaker still.
It warns of a black hole of at least £97billion in the finances as the tax take from fossil fuels plummets, meaning higher taxes elsewhere. It speaks of job losses and galloping inflation.
Net zero is the biggest upheaval for our infrastructure and economy since the Industrial Revolution, being hurried through in a fraction of the time. The Sun wants a cleaner, greener planet. But the cost looks overwhelming.
Emissions may hit net zero by 2050.
Our bank balances could get there much sooner.
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Resist, Rishi
THERE is never a good time to raise fuel duty. When petrol and diesel are close to a record high, it is even more unthinkable.
Families and businesses are being hammered by the surge in costs. Pump prices are a huge drag on the economy.
It would be madness for Rishi Sunak to add to that in next Wednesday’s Budget.
Or to impose ANY more tax hikes after the National Insurance rise. Rule ’em out, Rishi.
Vet’s betrayal
THE final six blighted years of Dennis Hutchings’ life shame successive PMs.
The old soldier served valiantly for 26 years. And yet, in his 70s and in desperately poor health, he was subjected to gruelling police questioning and then a trial over a 1974 killing in Northern Ireland which he was cleared of at the time.
Another soldier apparently confessed.
Dennis was determined to clear his name. Covid took him before he could.
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Despite the free passes Labour gave IRA killers years ago, Tory Governments were too afraid of Sinn Fein to end the prosecutions of our war veterans over dubious historic allegations.
Dennis deserved better. RIP.