The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change

Tony Blair warns Europe risks falling behind without major overhaul - 5 reforms needed

Sir Tony Blair has warned that Europe risks "falling behind" on energy because the continent has treated it as a "climate issue".

His think tank told how power prices are up to three times higher than other nations, with 60% of its energy being dependent on imports...

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) described how Europe must shift from a "climate-first, climate only" approach to energy if it wants to stay on par with the United States and China.

The paper argues that India, China and the US, which together make up more than half of global emissions, have prioritised supply.

It said clean power in those nations is being deployed in systems "designed first and foremost to deliver reliable and low cost power."

Nothing we wouldn't expect from Tony Blair, but it takes a gargantuan level of self-regarding chutzpah to pretend that this problem has recently been uncovered by the Right People.

It shows what voters are up again when charlatans like Blair strut their stuff on the international stage, especially voters who pay attention to the real world. They are not the majority and Blair knows it.

Yet if he thinks the time is finally right for this ridiculously late political 'discovery', then it perhaps it is. We've seen a few clues already.

Starmer's Reputation Spreads

TASS won't be averse to negative Starmer stories, but who is? 

UK prime minister sidelined from election campaign due to 'toxic image' — newspaper

LONDON, May 5. /TASS/. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been forced to step back from the ruling Labor [sic] Party’s election campaign due to his extremely low personal popularity, The Daily Telegraph reported...

According to The Daily Telegraph, due to Starmer’s "toxic image," Labor members have chosen to distance themselves from the prime minister. "He really is toxic. There’s a visceral loathing of him and it’s spread through all the vectors; it’s not just one group. He’s just seen as a completely insincere, two-faced person. Starmer has no followers, he only has enemies - it’s incredible," a high-ranking Labor Party source told the newspaper.

Half Van Race

 

Politics is a rough game

Reform pledges to open migrant detention centres in Green-voting areas

Reform UK’s pledge to build new detention centres for people awaiting deportation in areas that vote for the Green Party has been branded “grotesque” by rival parties.

Nigel Farage's party also promised that none of the hubs would open in places with a Reform council or MP if the party wins the next election. Instead, it said, it would "prioritise" sending migrants to Green-held areas because Zack Polanski's party supports "open borders".

The Green Party seems to be learning that politics is a rough game. They support open borders as an aspirational policy with some fudging over implementation, so they don't have much of an answer to this move by Reform. 

The response below for example - not a good effort, not good enough as an electioneering counter - 


A Green Party spokesman said: "Reform keep making unserious announcements to try and distract voters from the fact they want to privatise our NHS."

Greens are still learning politics seems to be the message here. Maybe they will eventually learn some economics, engineering and environmental science too. Or possibly not - that would dilute their message.

The Preposterous Enigma

Is there after all a key to the preposterous enigma of the universe?

Arnold Bennett - Imperial Palace (1930)


The universe is impossibly vast, we know this and Bennett was right, its unimaginable vastness is an enigma. 

Yet everything we know tells us that the entire universe is governed by laws which operate from the preposterously vast, down, down, down, smaller and yet smaller, down, down down to the polymer molecules of Sir Keir Starmer’s trousers.

Now that is a preposterous enigma.

Net Zero Rail Travel

 

The real scandal behind the Mandelson saga

Nada Kakabadse and Tim Knox have an excellent CAPX piece on government obsession with process over outcome. All normal people understand how important the difference is, in daily life we don't try to make good decisions merely by ticking boxes.


The real scandal behind the Mandelson saga

• A bad appointment cannot be rescued by good process
• Britain keeps ticking boxes while trust keeps collapsing
• Our state seems to think if you follow the rules, then the outcomes are secondary

Here is an idiotic question for an England football fan this summer. Which would they prefer winning? The World Cup itself? Or the FIFA Fair Play Trophy, awarded to the side with the best disciplinary record during the tournament?

The answer: it might be nice if England plays decently, but all of us would hugely prefer winning the real thing. Rules matter. But they are meant to support good outcomes, not replace them.

This preference for good outcomes over process applies to most of life. When we are shopping for a jar of coffee, it is a bonus to know that it has been ethically sourced. But for most of us, the primary deciding factor will be the quality of the coffee. A bad coffee, however ethically sourced, will remain a bad coffee.

One place where this does not hold is Westminster. And the Mandelson saga is the perfect illustration of how bad things are.

The whole piece is well worth reading for many reasons. Topical ones are not only the Mandelson saga, but also the absurdly futile government emphasis on economic growth by ticking ideological boxes.  

Survey research by Ipsos, in partnership with the Institute for Government, found that 49% of respondents rated the Government’s performance as poor, and 63% expressed disappointment with its record since the election. Only 23% believed governments could make substantial progress on key priorities over the next decade.

This matters because competence-based distrust is different from moral condemnation. A voter who thinks politicians are dishonest has lost faith in their character. A voter who thinks government cannot deliver has lost faith in the system’s capacity. Both are present in Britain today, and they reinforce each other.