The financial support package set out by the Government today will come as a relief to millions of households and businesses. Part of this plan will also involve expanding our energy supply, including fracking and North Sea oil and gas.
The former is more of a distraction, given the level of local opposition to such licences, while our offshore gas reserves are simply “too small to impact meaningfully the prices faced by UK consumers”, as pointed out by Lord Deben, chair of Climate Change Committee, and Sir John Armitt, chair of the National Infrastructure Commission, in a joint letter to the Prime Minister yesterday.
We cannot give up on net zero. Instead, we must ramp up our clean energy generation. That means removing restrictions on onshore wind developments and rolling out more offshore wind, solar and nuclear power.
And we must also accelerate retrofitting Britain’s leaky homes to boost our energy efficiency and cut bills at source. That will require a seismic jump in home insulation rates, heat pumps and also mandating public bodies improve the efficiency of their own buildings. These measures will cut usage, costs and our carbon emissions.
This is a fossil fuel crisis that will require clean energy solutions. It is never easy in the midst of a crisis to plan for the next one, but that is the task we face.
Justice at break point
Our justice system is in crisis. Things have deteriorated to the point that defendants — some accused of arson, robbery and supplying large quantities of cocaine and heroin — are being released from custody as their trial dates get pushed ever further into the future.
Cases were backlogged even prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, and now the Legal Aid strike is pushing the system to break point.
Thousands of trials and sentencing hearings have had to be abandoned amid a six-month standoff between barristers and ministers over funding. Judge Martin Edmunds QC, Recorder of Kensington and Chelsea, ruled that “We are now faced with a systemic failure”, and that the Ministry of Justice had an “obligation” to provide Legal Aid funding and ensure a sufficient number of barristers are attracted to the system.
Our criminal courts now have an astonishing 60,000 case backlog. Trials are listed to take place in 2025. This cannot go on.
What is needed is a sign the Government is committed to addressing these concerns. And that must begin with urgent talks to help clear the backlog of cases in order to revive our criminal justice system.
The drugs might work
Scientists at King’s College London are taking part in a potentially game-changing clinical trial to assess whether the compounds inherent in magic mushrooms could be leveraged to treat anorexia nervosa.
As with medical cannabis, we should not be afraid to make full use of all drugs at our disposal, regardless of casual reputations, in the pursuit of medical treatment.
