Craig Mackinlay: Thanet column for week ending February 4

Written by the MP for South Thanet, Kent

Since my last article of just two weeks ago, the interest of the main media outlets remain unchanged; still wall-to-wall coverage of ‘Partygate’.

As I write this on Monday morning, we are still waiting for the Sue Gray report and we now have the Met Police conducting their own investigation.

Whilst not trying to diminish the gravity of the stupidity that went on in Downing Street and the seriousness under the Ministerial Code of misleading Parliament, we shouldn’t forget that 125,000 well supplied Russian troops are amassed on the Ukraine border, sowing the seeds of a serious border incursion and potential for armed conflict in Eastern Europe.

We have a looming energy price crisis which remains unaddressed either in the short term through a well-constructed, costly although sorely needed relief mechanism, nor anything sensible to address the medium and longer-term failings of our energy policy.

My fear is that all the while we import gas rather than use the ample reserves we were blessed with, do not address our woeful storage capacity and continue the dash for unreliable renewables, support for which requires a 23.5 per cent surcharge on electricity bills just to make the maths work, then we’ll be having the same conversation next year.

It cannot be sensible, on any geopolitical assessment, to rely on foreign imports for such a fundamental requirement of normal life and business.

In the case of purchasing from Russia, it takes little to work out that if Europe was not buying Russian gas to the tune of tens of billions of pounds and euros per year then it is doubtful that President Putin would be able to finance new weapons and large armies to threaten other countries.

The overbearing reliance on gas supplies from Russia also gives Putin great leverage which is translating into disunity between NATO allies because of the threat of turning off the gas taps.

I do not have any overriding objection to renewables and am positively in favour of the need to leave a cleaner world than we found it – energy mix is sensible but does our dash towards Net Zero give us:

• (a) Energy security,
• (b) Affordability,
• (c) Practical solutions that make life better,
• (d) Are the vulnerable and lower paid protected
• and (e) Is there a better way?

The current strategy is failing across measures (a) to (d) which leads on to the natural conclusion of (e).

Even if renewables could be scaled up and storage of excess electrical energy achievable at a reasonable cost, none of this can happen overnight.

Even then, given the risk to the grid as is being seen with severe storms in the north of the country, is reliance on 100 per cent electricity for all our needs for motive power, heating and cooking at all sensible?

Gas will be an important part of the mix for many years to come no matter what the pipedreams are.

There are significant cost of living pressures just around the corner, not least because of energy prices. These alone will feed into inflation across most everything we buy, whether food or goods.

The next step will be understandable demands for wage rises by all those in work and for higher benefits and support by those who are not.

We all face increased Council Tax bills on April 1 and unless something gives an increase in National Insurance remains on the cards which cannot be sensible at this time reducing take-home pay further.

Some sensible wins. It looks as though the requirement for mandatory vaccination for NHS and care workers in order for their employment not to be terminated is to be scrapped.

I voted against this and many other draconian measures across the pandemic.

Whilst such a move may have had some validity if the vaccination, against the then Delta variant, had stopped infection and transmission to close to 100 per cent, then, putting issues of personal choice regarding medical procedures aside, such measures could be argued for.

With the distinctly milder Omicron variant now in control, such a measure, which could have seen the loss of tens of thousands of valuable NHS workers, was clearly a solution to a different problem, now gone.

Much afoot on the Levelling Up Fund plans for Ramsgate. I’ve been involved with numerous meetings. The plans for the commercial port are still somewhat abstract and I fear looming differences of opinion on the horizon.

A lively time to be ‘at the sharp end’ of the political scene.