Net Zero budget ‘a hammer blow’ aimed at public
Director's column
7 Mar
Andrew Montford
Green blob is still running the Tory show.
Jeremy Hunt’s budget was symptomatic of the problems with the Conservative Party, giving the impression of a government that is all but directionless because of the division in its parliamentary ranks between, on the one hand, the green blob and, on the other, a rump of old fashioned Conservatives, desperately trying to stop their colleagues from driving the party and the country into oblivion.
So on the one hand we had what was claimed to be a dramatic backtracking on the boiler tax and on the other hand a new ocean of subsidies for renewables.
On closer examination, there is rather less to the boiler tax retreat than meets the eye. The policy will remain in place, but the fines on boiler manufacturers, without which it is toothless, will not be introduced in next twelve months. Insiders, we are told, are saying that the necessary secondary legislation will not even be brought before Parliament this year, and thus almost certainly not under the current administration. Whether this amounts to a hill of beans is hard to say. Is it all a ruse to kick the policy into the long grass, while allowing Green Blob ministers Graham Stuart and Lord Callanan to save face? Or is the Green Blob assuming that Labour’s Ed Miliband will simply do the dirty on the British public in 2025? We will have to wait and see.
https://www.netzerowatch.com/all-news/budget-hammers-public-still-further
