Ed Miliband really is the end, reflects our scribe

It has barely been a day since Swift analysed Ed Miliband's weird and not so wonderful custodianship of our energy policy: (https://www.popularconservatism.com/the_brothers_grim).

He was planning to take a rest from shooting fish in barrels, but Ed’s latest sin is so egregious it must be recorded.

Today Ed is flying (bad move, according to his own policies), to China (worse) to discuss energy policy, but he will not discuss coal (abysmal).

His hosts built a record number of coal-fired power plants 2024 – two a week. We however closed our last one in 2024 and no new coal mining is permitted, whatever the demand.

To meet the Chinese climate envoy without a word on coal is not to ignore the elephant in the room: it is to look away politely as an entire herd of the beasts thunder through.

One can picture the scene as Ed gurns and smirks his way through the meeting while his hosts chuckle behind their hands and mutter to one another the Chinese equivalent of “We’ve got a right chump here”.

Dear readers, Swift is a man of considerable patience, but it really is time Keir Starmer completed his record of policy u-turns (defence, welfare, public sector, NHS) by removing Ed from a position where he can do so much damage and revisiting the UK’s net zero ambitions through the correct lens: promoting economic activity, protecting household budgets and encouraging industrial growth.

Yet we are apparently still aspiring to be a world leader in decarbonisation. No earthly reason why, little impact on the globe, just the self-esteem of transitory politicians, smug civil servants and swivel-eyed campaigning eco-pests.

Will someone - anyone - make it stop?