HAD King Goodwill Zwelithini not opened his mouth, the country would have enjoyed the scant attention it is given at present across Europe, and the British media could have exercised a royal cavity search of Labour’s energy policy without being distracted by machetes.
Labour’s energy policy is astonishing — not because it was clearly written by some troubled left-wing people but because it is actually worse than that of the Green Party. Whereas the Greens want to remove carbon from the UK’s energy supply by 2050, Labour wants the same by 2030, leading to the conclusion that if the Green’s policy is rational lunacy, then Labour’s is unhinged lunacy.
On the issue of fracking, Labour, as only Labour can, has decided to rename it "onshore unconventional oil and gas extraction" in the hope of confusing its electorate more than it already does — with a mandatory emphasis on "robust environmental regulation" receiving more detail than the development of the resource itself.
The Greens, despite knowing little about the origins of fuel poverty, at least acknowledge that the UK suffers the worst levels in western Europe — whereas Labour completely ignores it. And this is possibly because Labour’s leader, Ed Miliband, during his term as energy and climate secretary, actually promoted it.
Last year, the UK’s Daily Mail published a fiery critique on Miliband’s father, the Marxist academic Ralph Miliband, titled, The Man Who Hated Britain, intended to interrogate Miliband senior’s patriotism to the UK (Miliband senior was a Belgian Jewish immigrant).
Despite its objective being lost in the reaction of sub-debates, featuring, among others, accusations of anti-Semitism and McCarthyism, Miliband senior’s influence on his son’s politics is undeniable, and Labour’s latest energy policy illustrates this. Ed Miliband is bad news but to understand this, it’s helpful to examine the forces responsible for shaping his beliefs long before his election as Labour leader (that is, the one where he stabbed his own brother in the back). Miliband’s brother, Gordon Brown’s former foreign secretary, David Miliband, inadvertently expressed just how profound this effect was when, in 2009, he claimed "in some cases, terrorism is justified".
He was, of course, referring to SA.
The Brothers Miliband have also spoken of their youth, walking into their Primrose Hill kitchen to discover the late communist Joe Slovo — a man who deeply admired Joseph Stalin and rejoiced at his various invasions — standing at the kitchen table. Another late Marxist, Eric Hobsbawm, was another close friend of Ralph Miliband’s.
Hobsbawm spoke of murder with as much ease as the former head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, expressed his loathing for the poor: during a TV interview, Hobsbawm was once asked whether the Soviet project under Stalin, something he regarded as miraculous, was worth the 15-or 20-million lives it had claimed.
"Yes," he whined.
If Labour supporters believe the consequences of this party’s policies will see the UK transformed into a contemporary version of Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore, then it’s advisable that they note Megawatt Park instead, to where partial visions beloved by Slovo and his ilk, revised then re-revised, have destroyed the ethos, the operational capacity and just about the legacy of Eskom.
If Labour supporters believe energy price freezes will stave off fuel poverty, or that the application of renewable facilities to replace existing power stations producing thousands of megawatts would be instantaneous, they should look to an environment of absolutely no energy but with regulatory proliferation, characterised by quangos and boards of no influence — doing no job whatsoever — appointed on binary criteria that they are all metropolitans and liberals or, my best, captured from a biography of a BBC Trust member: "so-and-so has spent most of their life upholding exemplars" (exactly how and exactly what "exemplars" are mysteriously unpublished).
But if there are Labour supporters who acknowledge this folly yet still wish to see Miliband in 10 Downing Street, then my advice to them is to do a Zwelithini, sharpish, claim the policy was sabotaged by people who consider the moon landing was staged, "oh dear, misunderstood, taken out of context, forgive and forget" — and replace it with a promise that reflects the spirit of Labour’s age: children should now swim wearing yellow safety jackets or something innovative like that.
• Reader works at Arwon SA Capital Partners.
Ed Miliband. Picture: REUTERS/SUZANNE PLUNKETT
HAD King Goodwill Zwelithini not opened his mouth, the country would have enjoyed the scant attention it is given at present across Europe, and the British media could have exercised a royal cavity search of Labour’s energy policy without being distracted by machetes.
Labour’s energy policy is astonishing — not because it was clearly written by some troubled left-wing people but because it is actually worse than that of the Green Party. Whereas the Greens want to remove carbon from the UK’s energy supply by 2050, Labour wants the same by 2030, leading to the conclusion that if the Green’s policy is rational lunacy, then Labour’s is unhinged lunacy.
On the issue of fracking, Labour, as only Labour can, has decided to rename it "onshore unconventional oil and gas extraction" in the hope of confusing its electorate more than it already does — with a mandatory emphasis on "robust environmental regulation" receiving more detail than the development of the resource itself.
The Greens, despite knowing little about the origins of fuel poverty, at least acknowledge that the UK suffers the worst levels in western Europe — whereas Labour completely ignores it. And this is possibly because Labour’s leader, Ed Miliband, during his term as energy and climate secretary, actually promoted it.
Last year, the UK’s Daily Mail published a fiery critique on Miliband’s father, the Marxist academic Ralph Miliband, titled, The Man Who Hated Britain, intended to interrogate Miliband senior’s patriotism to the UK (Miliband senior was a Belgian Jewish immigrant).
Despite its objective being lost in the reaction of sub-debates, featuring, among others, accusations of anti-Semitism and McCarthyism, Miliband senior’s influence on his son’s politics is undeniable, and Labour’s latest energy policy illustrates this. Ed Miliband is bad news but to understand this, it’s helpful to examine the forces responsible for shaping his beliefs long before his election as Labour leader (that is, the one where he stabbed his own brother in the back). Miliband’s brother, Gordon Brown’s former foreign secretary, David Miliband, inadvertently expressed just how profound this effect was when, in 2009, he claimed "in some cases, terrorism is justified".
He was, of course, referring to SA.
The Brothers Miliband have also spoken of their youth, walking into their Primrose Hill kitchen to discover the late communist Joe Slovo — a man who deeply admired Joseph Stalin and rejoiced at his various invasions — standing at the kitchen table. Another late Marxist, Eric Hobsbawm, was another close friend of Ralph Miliband’s.
Hobsbawm spoke of murder with as much ease as the former head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, expressed his loathing for the poor: during a TV interview, Hobsbawm was once asked whether the Soviet project under Stalin, something he regarded as miraculous, was worth the 15-or 20-million lives it had claimed.
"Yes," he whined.
If Labour supporters believe the consequences of this party’s policies will see the UK transformed into a contemporary version of Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore, then it’s advisable that they note Megawatt Park instead, to where partial visions beloved by Slovo and his ilk, revised then re-revised, have destroyed the ethos, the operational capacity and just about the legacy of Eskom.
If Labour supporters believe energy price freezes will stave off fuel poverty, or that the application of renewable facilities to replace existing power stations producing thousands of megawatts would be instantaneous, they should look to an environment of absolutely no energy but with regulatory proliferation, characterised by quangos and boards of no influence — doing no job whatsoever — appointed on binary criteria that they are all metropolitans and liberals or, my best, captured from a biography of a BBC Trust member: "so-and-so has spent most of their life upholding exemplars" (exactly how and exactly what "exemplars" are mysteriously unpublished).
But if there are Labour supporters who acknowledge this folly yet still wish to see Miliband in 10 Downing Street, then my advice to them is to do a Zwelithini, sharpish, claim the policy was sabotaged by people who consider the moon landing was staged, "oh dear, misunderstood, taken out of context, forgive and forget" — and replace it with a promise that reflects the spirit of Labour’s age: children should now swim wearing yellow safety jackets or something innovative like that.
• Reader works at Arwon SA Capital Partners.
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