Isn’t it delightful when you know the government’s got your back?
I wonder how the residents of the British Isles would feel if they knew that, because the only thing the Labour government there has in the citizens’ collective back is a shiv.
That’s been brutally brought home in the weeks following the American action in Iran and the subsequent throttling of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz by Iran.
The climate cult crazies in Labour, chief among them Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, have been acting as if the sudden dearth of fossil fuel supplies into the country are merely another inconvenient burp for Brits to get over, even as they probably revel internally over the possibility of the lack of fuel and/or the exorbitant cost shutting every last little engine driven anything down.
Local papers are telling folks where to find the ‘cheapest’ petrol in their area – ‘cheapest’ being relative.
Cheapest places to get petrol and diesel in Greater Manchester today – Monday, April 6 https://t.co/C5zyxfBoZF
— Manchester News MEN (@MENnewsdesk) April 6, 2026
Europe is in for a squeeze, and so are consumers, a squeeze already showing up at the pumps.
…That has sent petrol and diesel prices soaring as well, with the cost of filling up a typical family car with diesel now above £100 for the first time since 2022.
But it’s not only prices that Europe needs to worry about.
In the coming weeks, Britain and its allies on the Continent will also face the very real prospect of fuel shortages.
In anticipation of this, the European Union has already urged member states to reduce demand by encouraging citizens to work from home while driving and flying less.
That is in stark contrast to Britain, where Sir Keir Starmer has so far stopped short of telling the public to change their behaviour in any way.
Europe sourced around 60pc of its jet fuel and 20pc of its diesel from the Gulf last year.
Alan Gelder, senior vice president at consultancy Wood Mackenzie, fears that if the conflict runs on for months, the economic impact of the oil crunch could be similar to the pandemic, as the loss of barrels is not far off the drop in demand triggered by lockdown restrictions.
“Everybody can recall how much mobility was restricted during Covid times,” he adds. “If the Strait of Hormuz is closed for a prolonged period, that’s the level of demand that needs to come down to match supply.
“In a global context, it’s the biggest energy shock we’ve probably ever gone through.”
Experts are saying air traffic will be the ‘canary in the coal mine’ as aviation fuel stocks will be the first depleted.
…With the last tankers that left the Gulf before the war not far from arriving in Europe, airline bosses have been warned that we are fast approaching a situation where there will not be enough fuel for all flights currently scheduled.
That raises the prospect of cancelled summer holidays if no solution is found, building on thousands of flights that were already scrapped last month.
The last known shipment of jet fuel to the UK, aboard the tanker Yasa Hawk, is expected to arrive early this week.
There are fears among airline executives that shortages could begin to bite as soon as late April or early May, according to aviation analyst Alex Macheras.
“Flight schedules will have to shrink, because airlines will not be able to deliver the schedules they’ve sold, and it’s going to drive up fares as well because an airline’s number one overhead is fuel,” he says.
Some carriers have already begun cutting flights because of the surging cost of jet fuel, which has doubled in price to about $195 per barrel since the end of February when the conflict broke out.
Miliband is expected to finally give approval to a North Sea natural gas project that has been languishing on the vine since 2024, and, if he does, something like a million homes could benefit from the well by next winter.
It’s unconscionable that the rabid climate cultist allowed it to take so long and his fellow citizens to suffer hideous electric and gas rates in the meantime.
…Ed Miliband is expected to give the green light to the first major North Sea oil and gasfield project in almost ten years as ministers face political pressure to increase drilling during the war in Iran.
Whitehall officials say the energy secretary is minded to approve the Jackdaw gasfield, 150 miles off Aberdeen, which could begin supplying gas to more than a million homes this winter. The company says it could produce the equivalent of 6 per cent of the UK’s future gas supply.
But the man is still unwilling to allow drilling and exploration in another gas and oil field that has also been sitting neglected and ignored by the Labor government for the past two years. Going forward on that field, said the British energy minister, would amount to ‘climate vandalism.‘
…Both are located in the North Sea, with Jackdaw – off Aberdeen – mainly containing gas, and Rosebank – near the Shetland Islands – having both gas and oil.
In Labour’s 2024 manifesto, Sir Keir Starmer promise his government would “not issue new licences to explore new fields”.
A government source pointed Sky News to the fact nothing was said about previously granted consents in the policy platform.
Another said it was noted that Mr Miliband’s decision will be made in a quasi-judicial fashion, based on the law, rather than government or Labour Party policy.
In opposition, Mr Miliband branded Rosebank a “colossal waste of taxpayer money and climate vandalism”.
The British people, on the other hand, have had about enough of the Labour government’s vandalism of their wallets in the name of the climate. There are new gasoline taxes in the queue coming for the public this fall, weighing on public opinion, too.
Labour should lift its ban on drilling in the North Sea immediately to stop households being hammered by the cost of the Iran crisis, voters have said.
The findings – that Energy Secretary Ed Miliband should ditch Net Zero dogma and release the £165billion worth of oil and gas beneath British waters – come amid a growing Cabinet split on the issue and mounting pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to scrap planned petrol tax hikes in the autumn.
Since Iran began its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz following US and Israeli attacks, global energy prices have soared, with the cost of a litre of diesel in the UK heading towards the £2 mark.
Research conducted by former Conservative deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft has found that half of all voters think Mr Miliband should ‘drill, baby, drill’ – in the words of Donald Trump, who was elected in the US on a promise to ramp up gas and oil production.
And no one is swallowing Miliband’s very Obama-ish ‘drilling wouldn’t help lower the price of gas‘ when there are, in fact, several refineries still in operation in the UK.
The UK has four refineries. Would you like to redraft your question? https://t.co/ILGeHAUuVG
— Andrew Neil (@afneil) April 5, 2026
And why is natural gas alright in Miliband’s eyes, but not British oil?
…Miliband’s prejudice against hydrocarbons remains, and he is reportedly still objecting to developing the Rosebank oilfield off Shetland. This adds inconsistency to ignorance. Why would it be acceptable to use our own gas but not our own oil? Importing the stuff by tanker from lands far away only increases the UK’s carbon footprint, It is simply “bonkers”, according to the net-zero tycoon Dale Vince of Ecotricity last week.
Even Lord Browne, who, when he was chairman of BP, renamed it “Beyond Petroleum”, has told the BBC that the government should “absolutely” give the go-ahead for Jackdaw and Rosebank and license further exploration to give the UK energy security in a dangerous world.
Their hypocrisy is only exceeded by their arrogance once they grasp the reins of power.
But pressure is building on Keir Starmer’s remarkably inept and malignant government.
The ‘F’ word has even been raised in polite conversation, and Labour is the focus of everyone’s ire.
…Although Sir Keir Starmer has refused to comment publicly, citing the fact that it is a quasi-judicial decision for Miliband, Downing Street is acutely aware that public opinion on further drilling has been shifting as a result of the crisis in the Middle East.
Writing in The Times, the entrepreneur Sir James Dyson attacks the government for its policies on North Sea oil and calls for it to reconsider fracking.
He also accuses the government of adopting “revenge economics” with “politically vindictive” policies on enterprise and wealth creation.
“Labour has been incredibly slow to act on North Sea gas drilling and continues to block oil drilling and fracking while recklessly buying energy from other countries,” he writes. “This is folly.”
“As President Trump likes to remind us, the US has its own energy so can survive without the Strait of Hormuz being open, while Britain, under Ed Miliband’s perverse destruction of our energy assets, cannot.”
THIS IS FOLLY
Miliband is also becoming as well-known for his underhanded dealings in the energy sector as Starmer is for his treaties. Who ‘electrifies’ oil platforms?
Cultists.
…He’s blocking new licences, insisting on electrification of platforms which renders many projects impractical / uneconomic and he’s blocking the EPL changing into a windfall tax & this is only 1/2 the batter in that his whole dash for wind continues drives up electricity prices
Labor is beginning to fracture over Miliband’s intractable devotion to his cult.
Ed Miliband staring down Labour rebellion on North Sea oil as energy prices soarhttps://t.co/AaN8P0Xau4
— GB News (@GBNEWS) April 5, 2026
The price of diesel! 🤬 pic.twitter.com/H8tOO4ceQL
— Dr. Dame Katy Denise CH GBE 🏳️⚧️🇳🇬🪑 (@damekatydenise_) April 6, 2026
Prices are only going to go up.
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