Starmer must call energy summit akin to 2008 crisis response, Labour MP says
Keir Starmer should convene a global energy summit of the same order as Gordon Brown’s response to the 2008 financial crisis and put Britain on a “war footing” to reduce its exposure to fossil fuels, a Labour MP and former government adviser has said.Polly Billington, who was an aide in Brown’s government, warned that economic pain was “hurtling down the tracks” and a bigger response was needed to protect the British people from the consequences of the US-Israeli war on Iran.The MP for East Thanet said the impending energy crisis caused by the war was “as big as the financial crash” and required “a response of equal magnitude”.She said the increase in prices would not be temporary or regional, and that “economic pain, falling living standards and social anger create fertile ground for extremist politics”.While she said the government’s convening of 35 countries to discuss the reopening of the strait of Hormuz was a good step, a bigger global response was needed on energy.
“We could be bringing together allies to agree emergency cooperation to stabilise energy markets, protect supply chains, coordinate strategic reserves, and accelerate the global transition away from fossil fuels,” she told the Guardian.“We could be strengthening the consensus that energy security is inseparable from global security, and that the alternative is a ‘Hunger Games’ world of resource conflict, scarcity and coercion.”Her call for a much bigger reaction to the energy crisis comes while many Labour MPs are privately concerned that the government is underreacting to the domestic impact of the war.At a press conference on Wednesday, the prime minister said the government was bearing down on the cost of living and the Treasury was working up plans for targeted support for energy bills for those who needed it most, if the war continued.However, some MPs are extremely nervous about the possible electoral consequences of higher petrol prices, energy bills and inflation that threaten to derail the government’s economic plans.
While Reform UK and the Conservatives are calling for more drilling for fossil fuels, the Liberal Democrats are urging a 10p cut in fuel duty as well as cutting VAT on public charging of electric vehicles, and the Greens are asking for universal support for energy bills.The Scottish National party demanded a recall of parliament from Easter recess, saying the government was “sleepwalking into a crisis” on energy.On Wednesday, Starmer downplayed the idea that families needed to change their behaviour to deal with the possibility of shortages, as seen in some parts of Asia.But experts have highlighted that shortages in fossil fuels in poorer countries will feed through to higher prices in the west.Billington argued that a “war footing” approach was needed to protect Britain for the long term.
She said the Treasury was right to rule out a universal bailout for energy bills but the route to national resilience was “reducing our exposure to fossil fuels”.“Plug-in solar panels on balconies and in back gardens should become as substantial to the energy security effort as Anderson shelters were to the war effort in 1939-45, allowing ordinary households to contribute to our collective resilience while also cutting their bills,” she said.Calling for a reduction in reliance on gas, she said the government “must be bolder” and said “no option should be off the table, even those that might once have been dismissed as too radical”.Another Labour MP said it was not enough for Starmer to list the government’s achievements in bringing down bills when it was clear from the headlines on the Iran war that prices would soon be heading in the opposite direction.“I want to hear more of a Labour plan about what we will do about it,” he said.
At a press conference on Thursday, Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, called rising fuel costs an extra “Trump-Farage-Badenoch tax” and called on the government to take more “action now to tackle the cost of Trump’s war and keep Britain moving”.
M&S calls for crackdown on ‘brazen, organised, aggressive’ retail crime
Marks & Spencer has called on the government and London’s mayor to crack down on retail crime, saying it has become “more brazen, more organised and more aggressive”, after reporting an increase in shoplifting and violence at its stores.The M&S chief executive, Stuart Machin, has written to the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, and its retail director, Thinus Keeve, has written to the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, saying greater resources are needed for police to tackle the crime effectively and target repeat offenders and crime hotspots.“In the past week alone we have had gangs forcing open locked cabinets and stripping shelves, two men brazenly emptying the shelves of steak and walking out, a large group of young people ransacking a store before assaulting a security guard, a colleague head- butted trying to defuse a situation and another hospitalised after having ammonia thrown in their face,” Keeve wrote on the M&S website.“It is worse in London, but it is happening across the country, and it is becoming routine, because it seems there are no consequences.”Police responded to reports of antisocial behaviour involving a group of “several hundred young people” this week in Clapham, south London, as part of “link-ups” using social media apps, including TikTok and Snapchat
Put away the Aperol and raise a glass to Hugo spritz, the drink of the summer
Pub gardens and bar terraces have been awash with a sea of orange in recent years as Italy’s love of Aperol spritz spread to the UK. But this year the cocktail’s cousin, a Hugo spritz, will be the drink of the summer, according to supermarkets and bars.It is already being served across the country, including at Sea Containers on the banks of the Thames and Mayfair’s swanky Claridge’s hotel in London, 20 Stories bar in Manchester and the Bridge Tavern in Newcastle. Wetherspoons has the cocktail on its menu nationwide.“In the past year, we have noted that there has been a wider shift among our guests towards drinks with lower alcohol percentages, particularly during the day – a Hugo spritz fits rather neatly into this space,” said George Raju, director of bars at Claridge’s
Food prices spiked in March as Middle East conflict drove up energy costs, UN says
Food prices rose sharply in March as war in the Middle East drove up energy prices and freight costs around the world, a UN report says.An index of food commodity prices by the UN’s food and agriculture organisation increased by 2.4% in March, its second consecutive monthly rise.The index – which tracks grain, sugar, meat, dairy and vegetable oil costs – had risen for the first time in five months in February.The biggest increases were in vegetable oil and sugar prices, which increased by 5% and 7% respectively in March
Google to tap into gas plant for AI datacenter in sharp turn from climate goals
Google’s plan for a partnership with a natural gas power plant that could provide energy for one of its datacenters in Texas was unearthed by new research and confirmed by the company. The move is part of an ongoing about-face for the tech giant, which once pledged to be carbon neutral by 2030 and has long been seen as a pioneer in clean energy.The gas power plant is slated to be built in Armstrong county, a sparsely populated area in the Texas panhandle. According to a report by the research organization Cleanview, the project is being led by Crusoe Energy, which partnered with Google to develop the datacenter campus known as “Goodnight”, named after a nearby town.Crusoe filed for a permit in January to build the 933-megawatt power plant on the site of the Goodnight campus, which showed the facility would operate off the grid and provide energy to at least two buildings on the campus, according to Cleanview
Unhittable: are the modern era’s weightlifting, analytics-fueled pitchers too good?
A new book explores how technology and a host of maverick innovators have given rise to an exceptional crop of baseball playersIn a 1940 publicity stunt, the Cleveland Indians’ flamethrowing pitcher, Bob Feller, tested which was faster: One of his own blazing deliveries, or a motorcycle. Feller’s pitching won, hands down. But today, Feller’s once-remarkable speed has become commonplace, even bettered, as major leaguers routinely pass triple figures on the radar gun. The secret to this arms race? The advances in pitching analytics,often authored by people without any previous baseball pedigree.That’s part of the narrative of Unhittable, a new book by one such individual – Rob Friedman, more commonly known to his online followers as PitchingNinja
Stephen Colbert on Trump attending birthright citizenship hearing: ‘That’s mob-boss-level intimidation’
Late-night hosts tore into Donald Trump’s intimidation tactics at the supreme court hearing on birthright citizenship and another judge’s order to halt construction of his White House ballroom.Wednesday was “a big night on all the broadcast networks”, said Stephen Colbert on The Late Show, as Trump gave a primetime national address on the war in Iran.“It was concise, intelligent and brought the nation together with shared purpose,” Colbert said. “April fools! Trump gave a speech tonight, on the first night of Passover. So whether you’re Jewish or not, I recommend having had four glasses of wine
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Would more North Sea drilling mean lower energy prices for UK consumers?