Shadow Chancellor and Devon MP Mel Stride recently stated: 'We have some of the highest energy costs in Europe, and, regrettably, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is determined to only make this worse.' 'It is abundantly clear that our Energy Secretary is more interested in ploughing evermore bill payers' cash into various initiatives, including blanketing over farmland with expensive solar farms than actually driving down energy prices.'

Mel Stride's audacity is outrageous. The cheapest form of electricity generation is onshore wind, closely followed by solar. In 2015 David Cameron declared 'cut the green crap', effectively curtailing all onshore wind generation. The subsequent extra reliance on gas became critical in 2022. In March of that year Mel Stride said: 'The Russian invasion of Ukraine has rightly led to the Government reviewing how we source our energy supplies.

We need to be more self-reliant than we have been to date, going further and faster to produce renewable energy here in the UK. There was always going to have to be a shift away from importing gas in order to meet our net zero ambitions by 2050 but this must now happen as a matter of urgency.

It is no longer simply an environmental issue - energy independence should be viewed as part of our national security. Soaring gas and oil prices are also hitting family finances hard, with pensioners and poorer people among the worst affected, and increasing our domestic supply of energy will help bring prices down.'

Strange how closely this mirrors what Ed Miliband said on April 24 this year: 'Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine we saw family finances, business finances and public finances wrecked as fossil fuel prices rocketed on the global markets, and therefore here in Britain.'

'It is for this reason that energy security is also at the heart of economic security - because it is central to living standards, job creation and economic growth.' 'For the UK, there is an exciting vision of energy security and abundance from cheap home-grown, low-carbon power.'

Strange that the two statements, just three years apart, are so similar. Strange, however, that Mel Stride has now had to descend into parroting the views of his beleaguered leader, Kemi Badenoch, who says Net Zero by 2050 is 'impossible'. It is obvious that if Mel Stride's audacity is outrageous, his hypocrisy is shameless.

Yours faithfully,

Mike Baldwin

Via Email

I refer to a letter in last week’s paper by T. Denman in which he, towards the end, asserts that …”on the letters page, we find readers dismissing…the perpetual non-issue of proportional voting systems.”

Of course some people will not approve of the reform of our voting system to a fair and proportional representation (PR) voting system. That would, for whatever reason, be their opinion. Mr. Denman opines that PR is a “perpetual non-issue”.

That sounds to me that, not only is it his opinion, but is also stated as an unsubstantiated fact.

I prefer actual facts to nebulous opinions. Let’s have a look at some:

- The National Centre for Social Research’s British Social Attitudes survey of 2022 reports that: ‘51% now favour reform to the voting system for elections to the House of Commons, up from 27% in 2011 and 43% in 2017’. I call that an issue!

- It has been an issue for Ireland, South Africa, Germany and New Zealand. All have PR systems having changed (with the exception of Germany) from their existing First Past The Post (FPTP) system …which is our system in the UK.

Referendums in those countries confirm that they want to keep PR. (N.b. Us Brits installed a PR system in Germany after 1945 “…to promote stability.”)

- Ukraine, Albania and North Macedonia adopted FPTP in the early 90s as the USSR and Yugoslavia fell apart. Within a couple of election cycles they had all ditched FPTP and adopted PR. They joined the 37 other countries in Europe which have PR.

- There is a huge movement in Canada to change to PR. Justin Trudeau, the recent outgoing President, said that having failed to enact electoral reform [from FPTP] was one of his biggest regrets.

It appears that this is a very real and present issue in fact. The non-issue is countries with PR trying to change to FPTP. Why? Because there aren’t any. (Having said that…Belarus and Hungary are having a good try but only because they’re heading towards dictatorship/authoritarianism. Like the UK?)

What mystifies me is why some people feel the need to promote opinions that are unfounded, misleading and …to be honest…wrong.

I always end my response to this type of letter by suggesting that we might have a cuppa and chat together, so that we can both better understand where we’re coming from. Nobody ever takes me up on that offer. I can be contacted by email at: [email protected]

Laurie Taylor

Totnes

Out of the stygian, dystopian gloom of broken, battered Britain, a candle flickers into light. The Supreme Court concludes, as most of us always knew, that, in matters of sexuality, biology is paramount.

You can adopt any pronoun you like, but you can’t escape or negate biological sex.

But many allowed themselves to be deluded on this by a bunch of vociferous ideologues. Largely based in the notoriously partisan social ‘science’ departments in our universities, ‘human rights’ scammers, the world of the artistic ‘luvvies’, the ‘diversity’ obsessed NHS and educational commissars, and the numerous quangos that now run our demoralised country.

Turns out the TERFs were right all along, and their opponents were SMURFs (Smug Muppets Undermining Real Feminism).

More dangerously, women were placed in greater sexual danger with all this nonsense. Indeed, women, real ones, have never been more sexually threatened than in the modern UK.

Another reason for this, now becoming clear from the national ‘crime league tables’ is the sheer amount of sex crime committed by certain cultures we have been allowing to build up in this country, legally and, increasingly, illegally.

Multi-sexuality, as with multiculturalism, is now increasingly exposed for the dangerous experiment it was.

Comrades Scott and Baldwin can fulminate all they like in your letters page (April 24) about the wonders of socialism and Labour, and the dangers of Reform.

But it’s clear that the UK needs radical solutions before we sink into the North Sea and Atlantic, drowning in imported tribal conflict and disputes about pronouns.

Right on, as we used to say in my youth.

T. Denman

Totnes

So, another week sees even more change under our Labour government.

First, we saw the continued rollout of free school breakfast clubs.

Second, The Labour Government announced a review ahead of the next major step towards cleaning up the water sector having already passed landmark legislation to tackle the scandal.

Third, it was announced that online registration is now offered at almost all GP practices.

Fourth, we saw the announcement of £617 million set aside for investment in community pharmacies.

Fifth, it was announced that pubs are to stay open later to mark VE Day.

And sixth, the Government announced 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments. An important step to stop people suffering due to lack of access to NHS dentists and treatment

Yet again. Promises made and promises kept!

Yours etc

Geoffrey Brooking