Britons face winter of surging energy bills as Europe facing gas stockpile shortage

 Europe is hurtling toward a potential energy emergency this winter after gas stockpiles dropped to levels not seen in years, according to a report from The Telegraph.

Storage facilities across the continent stand just above 50 percent full in late July—a historically low figure for this time of year—leaving the region on course to begin the cold season with sites only about 75 percent full, well below the five-year average of 90 percent.

The shortfall stems directly from the ongoing conflict involving Iran, which has disrupted roughly one-fifth of global energy supplies and forced heavy drawdowns of reserves....<<<Read More>>>...

EU’s Green Deal is pushing Europe into decline

 The great majority of mankind aspires to more prosperity, which requires abundant and cheap energy. However, the EU is using its Green Deal to do the opposite.

In the following, Samuel Furfari highlights a report that reveals the EU is clinging to the pretence of leading an “energy transition” as Europe declines under the weight of “green” climate policies.

An Energy Institute report reveals a Europe clinging to the pretence of leading an “energy transition” as the continent declines under the weight of climate policies whose quixotically utopian objectives are negated elsewhere by fossil fuel-supported economic growth.

Data from the 75th edition of the annual ‘Statistical Review of World Energy‘ will surprise only those ignoring the facts: The world continues to depend massively on fossil fuels [more correctly, hydrocarbon fuels]. Solar and wind technologies, while expanding, still lag ever-rising energy demand, which last year reached a record 600 exajoules. (That’s 600 quintillion joules, where a joule is equal to the work necessary to create one watt of power for one second.)

Of total primary energy consumption, 86% came from fossil fuels – oil at 33.5%; coal, 27.6%; and natural gas, 25.1%. Accounting for just 3% were solar and wind, which are heavily promoted by the European Commission over the much-demonised hydrocarbons.

From 2015-2025, the first decade of the Paris Agreement on climate change, global energy consumption rose more than 14%, with sharply contrasting dynamics. European Union use declined about 1% annually, while consumption in the Asia-Pacific region grew 2.6%....<<<Read More>>>...

New UK PM Andy Burnham Has Supported a 90% Cut in Hydrocarbon Use Within 10 Years

 As Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham wanted to slash hydrocarbon use by 90% in 10 years. Now the new Energy Minister is making similar noises. Chris Morrison wonders if destroying modern society is still the plan.

Praise the Lord, a Saviour from the North walks amongst us. The UK’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has apparently hinted that a tad more oil and gas might be taken from Britain’s remaining treasure trove lying undisturbed in the North Sea. Is this a push back on fanatical Net Zero treason as some commentators have suggested? Probably not. As always there is no need for conspiracy theories – just look at what they supported and said in the past. The new Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh is a green blob-funded whack job straight out of central climate casting, while the new tee-shirt wearing top dog is all signed up to the evil, society-destroying Climate and Nature (CAN) Bill....<<<Read More>>>... 

Burnham’s Net Zero Secretary Wants to Raise Tax to Stop People Flying

 Miatta Fahnbulleh advocated frequent-flyer levies that would add hundreds of pounds to the annual costs of regular travellers.

Now the Energy Secretary, she called for the taxes while chief executive of the New Economics Foundation think tank between 2017 and 2023.

During her time there, the think tank proposed in 2021 adding an escalating levy to tickets which would increase for every subsequent flight taken within a year, replacing the current Air Passenger Duty system.

Her appointment on Monday is likely to raise concerns that some of her previous policy proposals may be taken forward.

The think tank’s work has been incorporated into Labour policymaking in the past, including work on green industrial strategy and energy.

Richard Holden MP, the Shadow Transport Secretary, said families were already paying some of the highest flight taxes in the world “just to get away for a well-earned break”. “But Andy Burnham’s pick as Labour’s Energy Secretary wants to pile another tax on top,” he said.

He added British families were already being “taxed through the roof” and claimed the new taxes on air travel represented a punishment for “anyone who dares to fly for a holiday”.

Under the frequent-flyer tax proposal, the first flight taken by any individual in a given year would be exempt. The proposal was designed in part to keep costs neutral for lower-earners, who typically travel less, and to also protect family holidays. However, costs would then ratchet up in increments.

Under one model, for example, the tax on the first flight would be £0, the second flight £25, and each additional increment would increase by £10 thereafter (£35, £45, £55) for each subsequent flight. By the 10th flight the total green tax bill would come to £585.

The costs would be even higher for those travelling for business, representing a significant cost to companies.

It would be felt most by higher earners, who fly more, with models suggesting the highest 20% of earners would cut flying by around 30%, while the lowest 20% would be unaffected....<<<Read More>>>...

Of Course Heat Pump Use is Going to Be Rationed – What Did You Think a ‘Smart Meter’ was For?

 As the heatwave hysteria somewhat subsided, the Telegraph revealed that in the future, use of heat pumps might be rationed at times of energy shortages. 

The Guardian, meanwhile, reported that the Prime Minister’s replacement, Andy Burnham is considering proposals to “make heat pumps cheaper to run than boilers”. The occupier of Number 10 may have changed but a profound unreality is still driving the policy agenda.

The main problem afflicting the green agenda was always physics. The second was economics. And the third was democracy. Heat pumps capture this sequence of problems perfectly. Green technology attempts to convert diffuse, ambient energy into useful energy – heat, in the case of heat pumps. And it does this in place of using a dense energy resource such as gas. But the relative density of these energy sources means that the machine that collects ambient energy must be so much larger, plus its capacities do not fully overlap with what it purportedly replaces. 

Consequently, a heat pump is at least six times as expensive as a gas combi boiler, occupies a much larger part of a home, responds less effectively to a household’s needs and requires the making of substantial alterations to the home and the behaviour of the occupants in order to function as expected. For those many reasons, most people have rejected them. 

And for that reason, successive governments have said that homes will have heat pumps whether they’re wanted or not, because the superior product that they replace will be ‘phased out’....<<<Read More>>>...

Officials urge people to stay inside from the US Midwest to East Coast as toxic smoke from wildfires spreads

 Heavy, pungent smoke from wildfires darkened skies across large stretches of the United States on Thursday, stretching from the Great Lakes region to parts of the East Coast and significantly reducing visibility in many areas.

According to a report from The Associated Press, officials issued urgent advisories for residents to remain indoors or wear protective masks when venturing outside, as air quality deteriorated to unhealthy and even hazardous levels.

The smoke originates primarily from fires burning in Canada, with additional contributions from blazes in northern Minnesota. A persistent high-pressure system has been holding the haze close to the ground, intensifying its impact. In Detroit, where air quality ranked among the poorest globally for major cities, National Weather Service meteorologist Steven Freitag described the situation as extreme....<<<Read More>>>...

Andy Burnham was the ID card minister under Blair; now he wants to urgently ban under-16s from accessing online content

 From May 2005 to May 2006, Andy Burnham was a Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Home Office in Tony Blair’s government.

At that time, he pushed for digital IDs to be imposed on the population. On the campaign trail, he said that it was not the right time for Starmer to introduce digital IDs. Now, he’s saying that methods to ban under-16s need to be “urgently” put in place.

Any method used to ban under-16s from online content is the first step in imposing digital IDs.

It’s commonplace for politicians to lie to the public. Burnham is one of those politicians who will say anything to gain support and votes, while acting out the opposite. What Burnham says on the campaign trail to win votes and what Burnham does when he’s in office are two different thing

And then there’s the doublespeak and/or Globalese that propagandists employ...<<<Read More>>>...

Rupert Lowe: The Fabian Society is deliberately trying to wreck the UK

In a recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, Rupert Lowe MP said that the shadowy group known as the Fabian Society was deliberately trying to wreck the UK.

“It’s the most extraordinary organisation,” Lowe told Rogan. “Their emblem is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, as if that doesn’t tell you what they’re doing.”

The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation that co-founded the Labour Party, which to this day formulates and controls the Labour Party’s policies. There are over 6,000 members of the Fabian Society and it boasts being “the future of the left since 1884.”

“Every Labour prime minister has been a Fabian and today 100s of Labour politicians are members of the society, including Labour leader Keir Starmer MP and more than half his cabinet, as well as senior figures in devolved and local government. Our elected executive committee currently includes five Labour frontbenchers....<<<Read More>>>...

 

Burnham “Plans £38 Billion Tax Raid’

 Andy Burnham is to launch a £38 billion tax raid on the wealthy to fund a spending spree in office, analysis by Reform UK has found – taking Labour’s total tax increases to more than £100 billion a year. The Telegraph has the story.

A report into the Prime Minister-in-waiting’s pledges found Burnham would bring Labour’s total increase in taxation from around £66 billion to more than £100 billion a year.

This includes promises of a ‘care levy’ of up to 10% of the value of estates after death, reforming the rates of capital gains tax (CGT) and imposing National Insurance on landlords’ rental income.

Implementing a torrent of new taxes not mentioned in Labour’s 2024 manifesto will increase pressure on Burnham to call an early election. He is due to be elected unopposed as Labour leader and Prime Minister on Friday.

Robert Jenrick, Reform’s Economy Spokesman, said: “Andy Burnham has spent 20 years reaching for other people’s money – a death tax on family homes, a graduate tax on young people getting their first pay cheque, a £14 billion raid on savings and investment and new levies on everything from your parking space at work to your weekend away.

“Taken together with Rachel Reeves’s record, Labour could well raise more than £100 billion a year of tax rises. If Mr Burnham disputes this, the remedy is simple: rule these 10 taxes out, by name, today.”...<<<Read More>>>...

Renewables Heatwave Trouble Points to Britain’s Blackouts Future

 A series of events in recent weeks has set alarm bells ringing about the fragility of our electricity system.

On Wednesday, the National Energy System Operator, NESO, issued an Electricity Margin Notice (EMN) to the market, giving participants the opportunity to make any additional generation or flexibility available during the forecast period. It said its forecasts indicated tight electricity margins during Thursday evening’s peak period, which it laughingly blamed on extreme temperatures across Europe reducing the availability of some generation...<<<Read More>>>...

Emotional surveillance is the next level of Orwellian technology

 Meanwhile .... back in the pantomime, the parasite elite have their Agenda 2030 fear narratives in full swing. Everywhere you look on the internet there are unwitting bots spreading the propaganda on behalf of the parasites. 

Stories appear daily on social media about the incoming Agenda 2030 and its dystopian control measures ... and sadly, its entering into the perceptions and the sub-conscious of the gullible humans. 

They see and believe the sources of this bot spreading, without questioning who is releasing the propaganda news to these sources. The parasites have set their intention off and have infiltrated all areas of the internet, even the well intentioned conspiracy sites. Its a wish fulfillment exercise for what is left of the parasites, who despite their media declarations that say contrary, are not as much in control as the stories make out .... here is one such bot spreading story .... its time to take everything you read on these matters with a pinch or two of good quality salt ....

++++++++++++++++

According to a report from Biometric Update, the next evolution in digital identity and security systems is moving beyond traditional biometrics and behavioral data to analyze human emotions themselves.

San Francisco-based Valence AI has raised $5 million in seed funding and secured two U.S. patents for technology that detects emotional states in real time from live speech.

The company’s Pulse Emotion model analyzes vocal cues such as tone, pacing, and other indicators, converting them into structured data for use in voice agents, contact centers, sales, and support operations. This development signals a broader shift where emotional signals are being integrated into the trust and identity stack alongside device reputation, behavioral analytics, and transaction history....<<<Read More>>>...

 

Andy Burnham Will “Control” Immigration the Same Way He “Controlled” Homelessness – By Increasing It

Whilst mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham ‘solved’ homelessness there: by increasing it. Once elected in 2017, he pledged to end all rough sleeping in the city by 2020 through a scheme called A Bed Every Night, or ABEN – if he’d called it A Bed Every Day, it could have been ABED, which is an actual relevant word. The plan had even more serious problems than its botched acronym, because, despite initial success, by the time Andy left office the number of rough sleepers across Greater Manchester had begun to rise precipitously, almost doubling between 2022 and 2026. At this rate, the problem will soon end up even worse than when Andy became mayor in the first place.

The flaw was that, once indigents nationwide heard of Manchester’s ABEN and its early triumphs, they actively hitched to the city using its world-famous yellow bus network to take advantage of it, flooding the place with more hobos than a cardboard-box factory. The end result was tent-cities full of druggies and refugees, with the previous central parkland beauty-spot of Piccadilly Gardens now rechristened ‘Crackadilly Gardens‘. An unnamed city council source told local news outlet the Mill that: “A lot are under the perception they’re going to get a council house if they come to Manchester, which they aren’t.” The Mill spoke to one unhappy camper named Mohamed, who moved to Manchester from Birmingham, for one reason only: “I want a home.” A free one. Because he thinks he was promised one by Andy Burnham. Given Andy’s disturbingly similar plans for ‘reforming’ UK immigration policy, there may soon be many more freeloaders called Mohamed on their way to Manchester seeking a free house, too....<<<Read More>>>...

Cyber warfare is no longer directed by humans. It's being shaped by AI.

 We are approaching the most consequential transformation in cyber conflict in a generation.

The next wave of AI-driven cyber capabilities is not some distant prospect waiting over the horizon. It has already arrived. Yet much of the public conversation remains fixated on model releases, company valuations, and the race among technology firms to dominate the artificial intelligence marketplace. Inside government circles, however, the discussion has taken on a far greater sense of urgency.

Behind closed doors, national security officials are grappling with a reality that only recently seemed theoretical: artificial intelligence is beginning to alter the balance of power between attackers and defenders in cyberspace.

The change is not gradual. It is structural.

For the first time, nation-state actors are gaining the ability to conduct cyber operations at machine speed.

Vulnerabilities that once demanded months of painstaking work from highly specialized teams can now be uncovered in a matter of hours. Attack pathways that previously required deep technical expertise and years of accumulated experience can increasingly be mapped, refined, and executed through automation.

The most significant implication is not simply a dramatic increase in capability. It is a transformation in the underlying economics of cyber conflict itself. Cost, scale, speed, and accessibility are all shifting simultaneously, reshaping the strategic landscape in ways that governments are only beginning to understand.

For decades, sophisticated cyber operations required enormous investments. States needed specialized personnel, extensive infrastructure, intelligence pipelines, operational patience, and years of institutional expertise. Even the most advanced cyber powers faced limitations. Resources were finite. Expertise was scarce. Time remained a constraint.

Those limitations helped define the balance between offense and defense.

Today, that balance is beginning to fracture....<<<Read More>>>...

Who’s funding the campaign to push the ruinous net-zero agenda in the UK?

 A network of foundations, research groups and policy shops, often funded through foreign channels, is behind the push for net zero in the UK.

The Spectator calls this network the “Dark Green lobby.”

“[The Dark Green lobby] has been astonishingly successful in shaping policy, controlling debate and overruling elected governments in the courts. It has prevented the exploration of oil and gas in the North Sea, kept energy prices high and made us ever more dependent on Chinese technology,” the outlet said.

The Dark Green actor with the most influence is the Netherlands-based European Climate Foundation (“ECF”), which supports “700+ partner organisations” to “broaden political and public support for net zero.”

“The ECF hopes to ‘embed climate action in robust, future-proof frameworks that withstand political change’. In other words, sod the voters,” The Spectator said.

To this end, it spent €171 million (£146 million) last year to support climate action across Europe and beyond and has donated significant amounts of money to various British thinktanks, including...<<<Read More>>>...

SignalTrace: Licence plate cameras will soon track phones, digital wearables and even your pet

 SignalTrace is a surveillance platform that is being marketed to law enforcement and government agencies in the United States. It allows the collection of data from various personal digital devices, including smartphones and smartwatches, carried or worn by people associated with a particular vehicle.

The goal of the technology is to “bridge the gap between vehicle and occupant,” creating a unique electronic fingerprint to follow people’s movements and associations.

They are no longer interested in tracking your car. They are interested in tracking you.

In 2024, a patent was granted to Leonardo, a leading global aerospace, defence, security and surveillance company, for an electronic detection system designed to help law enforcement identify people of interest using the signatures their electronic devices emit, such as fitness trackers, RFID tags and local signals from their mobile phones.

This technology underpins the ELSAG SignalTrace Intelligence System, which Leonardo is marketing to police, border security and other government agencies in the United States.

SignalTrace “bridges license plate recognition data with sensor-captured device identifiers – such as those from mobile phones, Bluetooth wearables, and vehicle systems – to create a unique, trackable ‘electronic fingerprint’ for investigative use,” according to an advertisement flyer.

The idea is to correlate these unique device identifiers to a vehicle license plate, 404 Media said. Putting it more succinctly, The Drive said, “License plate cameras will soon track phones, wearables, infotainment and even your pets.”...<<<Read More>>>...

Dale Vince: Ed Miliband Has Turned Net Zero Toxic

 Green energy tycoon Dale Vince has blamed Ed Miliband for the “toxification of Net Zero” and branded him unfit to become Chancellor. The Telegraph has more.

The Labour donor accused the Energy Secretary of putting “ideology before the economy” and questioned whether he had a grasp of “even the basic notion of value for money”.

Miliband’s spending record in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) demonstrated his economic incompetence, Vince told the Telegraph.

In particular, the green energy entrepreneur criticised the decision to commit tens of billions of pounds to heat pumps and carbon capture technology, the latter of which remains largely unproven on a global scale.

“It’s about economic competence,” he said. “It’s about having an understanding of even the basic notion of value for money. I question whether he has that when you look at spending decisions like carbon capture and storage.

“It’s madly uneconomic so this makes me question whether he’s putting ideology in front of [the] economy. We need something else from a Chancellor and someone who is more business-like.”

Since his appointment as Energy Secretary in July 2024, Miliband has committed to spending billions of taxpayer cash on green energy technologies as part of his mission to achieve clean power by 2030....<<<Read More>>>...

Miliband Forces Wind Firms to Back Unions or Lose Subsidies

 Ed Miliband has forced wind power companies to support trade unions by threatening to cut their subsidies. The Telegraph has the story.

Dozens of businesses supplying the offshore wind industry have been pressured into adopting pro-union rules after the Energy Secretary warned he would reduce their access to taxpayer funds unless they complied.

It means the companies will be required to meet certain requirements in the Employment Rights Act months before they are rolled out nationwide, including a new right for trade unions to enter their workplaces.

They will also have to provide unions with information identifying “major contractors” across the supply chain where “reasonably practicable”, and actively engage representatives in projects that concern them.

At least 37 companies have agreed to the commitments set out in Miliband’s new Offshore Wind Fair Work Charter – after the Government threatened to block their applications for clean energy subsidies if they failed to comply.

The Tories accused Miliband of risking an increase in energy bills by “effectively forcing the offshore wind industry to accept unionisation”.

In its flagship Employment Rights Act, passed last year, Labour introduced several measures aimed at boosting the presence of trade unions in the workplace.

The new rules, which were Angela Rayner’s pet project before her resignation from the Cabinet, will include a “statutory right of access”, forcing bosses to let unions into their offices, and a duty on firms to inform workers of their right to join a union when they start a new job....<<<Read More>>>...

The Government’s Latest Censorship Initiative is its Most Sinister Yet

 Over the last few months, free speech activists have been perturbed by proposals to age-gate social media for under-16s. Meantime, whilst all eyes were looking elsewhere, the Government has just slipped out a new raft of proposals which would profoundly reshape the online media landscape in the UK. In my view, whereas the impact of the proposed social media restrictions for kids on the free speech rights of adults has been overstated, this new initiative poses a far greater and invidious threat to our freedom of speech and access to information.

The proposals are contained in a Green Paper, published this week, called ‘Watch This Space’. Described by Ian Murray, the Minister for Creative Industries, Media and Art, as setting out a “new strategic direction” for the Government’s media policy, the new measures would require social media companies to prioritise content from ‘traditional’ so-called public service broadcasters – the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and so on – over that of independent media outlets. This would therefore (although this is not spelt out expressly in the paper) de-prioritise, i.e., suppress, content from independent content creators. The effect would be to rewire the algorithms according to which content is delivered to our social media feeds. It would take us from content driven by preference and audience demand towards a system structurally hardwired and legally obliged to direct us to traditional media brands – the very titles that such a large proportion of the public have turned away from.

Given that some 70% of all UK news content is now read digitally, the impact of these measures on the online public square and on the ability of UK audiences to access information sources of their choosing can hardly be overstated....<<<Read More>>>...

Air Conditioning Torn From Homes Under Net Zero Clampdown

 Homeowners are being forced to tear out air conditioning from their properties under Net Zero laws that prioritise “passive cooling” and only permit “active cooling” as a “last resort”. The Telegraph has the story.

Council planning officers ordered residents to remove air-con units over fears they produce too much carbon dioxide, stating they should only be used as a “last resort”.

The Net Zero clampdown is part of building regulations that state “active cooling” should only ever be allowed when all other means of “passive cooling”, such as opening windows or using fans, have been exhausted.

The Tories said Britain was being “kept in the dark ages” under a Net Zero mindset that denies people “modern conveniences that are completely normal in other countries”.

Meanwhile, temperatures are forecast to reach as high as 40°C this week, with Britain sweltering under a record heatwave that has forced schools to close, brought trains to a halt and led to the Met Office issuing a red “risk-to-life” warning.

Widely published advice states planning permission is not required to install air-con. However, planning is required in certain situations, such as in conservation areas, and there are different rules for flats, leasehold homes, as well as shared buildings.

It means there is a risk units are installed under the assumption they are permitted, but are later caught by council enforcement officers.

In one of a string of cases uncovered by the Telegraph, a resident living in North London was forced to “permanently remove” two air-con units from the back of their home.

Planning inspectors working for Camden council said there was “no justification” for the air-con units and that they failed to comply with the local authority’s so-called “cooling hierarchy”.

In an appeal, the resident was told to open the windows and balcony doors of their first-floor flat to ventilate the property “by natural means”....<<<Read More>>>...

Under-16 social media ban will be used to shut down political dissenters

Just days before he announced his resignation, Keir Starmer announced a plan to ban under-16s in the UK from accessing social media.

The proposed ban will lead to a massive government-controlled surveillance infrastructure. It will be exploited to monitor and control the behaviour and speech of all, including adults. The UK government has form; the proposed ban will be used to shut down political dissenters rather than just restricting underage internet use.

This morning, Sir Keir Starmer announced his resignation as UK Prime Minister. Though his government is not the first to restrict citizens’ speech in Britain, one of his darker legacies is the intensification of Britain’s censorship regime. Indeed, his parting gift, just a week before his resignation, was the announcement of a plan to ban under-16s from accessing social media in Britain. Unless his successor does a U-turn in the coming months, Britain is on course to introduce one of the most far-reaching social media surveillance systems in the world.

Starmer announced his plan to exclude under-16s from social media at a press conference on 15 June. He planned to introduce a comprehensive social media ban for under-16s, a step he argued was necessary to “give kids their childhood back.” “Tech giants had their chance and failed,” he said, “but we’re stepping in to protect children, back parents and set a new normal for future generations.”

Starmer’s fighting words were dripping with benevolence and nobility. But as Ronald Reagan once said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help’.” Government officials have a compelling interest in protecting their own power and enhancing their control over society. So, when they advocate a major intervention in the public sphere and wax lyrical about “saving our children,” it is not wise to just take their word for it....<<<Read More>>>...