One Man’s Meat is Another Man’s Poison
It’s all a matter of taste
Posted on 07 Oct 25
by Mark HodgsonIn AI, bills, carbon capture and storage, carbon dioxide emissions, climate change, Conservation, energy, Energy bills, Environmentalism, fossil-fuels, Fracking, Guardian, Journalism, Local Authorities, Miliband, Net Zero, planning, politics, renewables, satire, Silly Season, Solar power, Trump, Uncategorized, wind power
I am not President Trump’s greatest fan – a long way from it. I don’t like him one little bit, and had I been an American citizen, I would never have voted for him. Even when I agree with him (sort of) about things like the mistake that is being made in the mad rush to renewable energy, I worry about the fact that he is on “the same side” as me. I have my doubts about the apocalyptic climate change narrative (I must have, or I wouldn’t write for a website called “Climate Scepticism”) but I think his grandstanding in front of the United Nations and calling climate change a “con job” probably harmed the sceptics’ cause more than it helped it. Very little in life is straightforward, many issues are highly nuanced, and blunt language such as that used by Trump strikes me as being likely to be very wrong (even when he’s sort of right) due to the lack of nuance. Using a slegehammer to crack a nut is, I hope, not my way. Having said all of that, I don’t think I suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome in the way that much of the mainstream media does. If anything, I confess, my derangement syndrome is around Mr Ed Miliband, a man who I regard as more dangerous to the UK’s interests than Donald Trump could ever be.
And so, when I saw a headline in the Guardian yesterday (“Trump’s hatred for renewables means the US is falling behind the rest of the world – As well as embracing ‘beautiful coal’, the president has set about obliterating clean energy projects”) it occurred to me that similar language could be used about Mr Miliband with regard to his diametrically opposite energy policy. Why not re-write it? That might be fun. The original Guardian article can be found here for comparison purposes. What follows is my re-writing of it. It’s not possible to produce a verbatim re-write (if you see what I mean), but I have tried to stay faithful to the style and format.
Miliband’s hatred for fossil fuels means the UK is falling behind the rest of the world – As well as embracing ‘renewables’, the Energy Secretary has set about obliterating UK fossil fuel use
In July 2015 Ed Miliband, who, then as now, was MP for Doncaster North in the once-thriving South Yorkshire coalfield, and just a few weeks earlier was Labour Party leader, attacked the then Conservative government’s Business Secretary as she condemned the Hatfield coalmine to closure. He said the government’s failure to provide more funding for the colliery was “wrong” and that it was a “harsh decision, not a one nation decision.” Going further, he also said “The miners feel they’ve had the rug pulled from under them. I do not believe this decision makes economic sense, industrial sense or is morally right.”
Today, his words are jarring. The world continues to dawdle politically in its response to the climate crisis and fossil fuels remain extensively used globally. Miliband, though, has shifted.
https://cliscep.com/2025/10/07/one-mans-meat-is-another-mans-poison/
