In traditional Tory style, it has been a good few days to bury bad news.
The death of the Queen has rightly overshadowed every aspect of British life.
But it has also shifted the attention away from some of the more worrying aspects of new Prime Minister Liz Truss’s appointments.
Fossil-fuel loving Jacob Rees-Mogg is now Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is frankly the last person who should be in charge of climate.
This is the man who once stated that “carbon dioxide emissions have risen but the effect of the climate remains debated”, and said the reopening of shale gas sites was “an interesting opportunity”.
He blamed “climate alarmism” for high energy bills, pushing David Cameron to “cut the green crap” like incentives for solar, wind and energy efficiency, which has added £150 to every energy bill.
He has also compared fracking threats to a “rock fall in a disused coal mine”, and in 2014 he was referred to the parliamentary standards watchdog for failing to disclose interests in Somerset Capital.
The company has millions of pounds invested in fossil fuel, mining and tobacco firms. Oh, and he recently said that “every last drop” of oil should be extracted from the North Sea.
Next up is Steve Baker, who once said “we are at risk from extreme policies” and accused climate campaigners of “terrifying children”.
He will now serve as a junior minister in the Northern Ireland Office.
Until last week he was a trustee at the Global Warming Policy Foundation, the UK’s most influential climate science denial think-tank.
On top of this, Mark Spencer, who alongside Rees-Mogg played a role in derailing much of the animal welfare agenda, including a promised ban on fur imports, is now Defra minister.
These appointments, combined with Truss’s decision to end the fracking ban and give the go-ahead for a North Sea oil drilling frenzy, say all you need to know about her commitments to climate, animal welfare and the cost-of-living crisis.
They will do nothing to help lower energy bills and instead boost profits. Terrifyingly they will fuel climate chaos.
As the nation mourns, it would not be a surprise to find more controversial short-sighted proposals slipped through, putting us all at risk.
