It wasn’t Brexit or capitalism that got us into this mess – but try telling that to the new Puritans – The Telegraph

On any given week, I do a number of things that, increasingly, put me on the naughty step. Just yesterday I had high carbon-emitting agricultural produce for dinner (steak), and on Monday Im making a transatlantic flight back to Blighty, with another low-cost hop to France coming hot on its heels. Beyond generally chucking things in the right bin, I give as little thought to recycling as possible. I love to blast air conditioning, if available, when its truly boiling outside, and to blast the heating, equally, when its freezing. And, to make it all worse for the armies of cultural puritans finger-wagging everywhere from government to activism to the highest echelons of celebrity culture and the royal family, I dont feel bad about any of it. In fact, I regard flying, and advanced forms of consumption, from Amazons next-day deliveries of completely random stuff to the ability, following Ubers implosion, to summon a black cab in two minutes on an app, as nothing short of marvellous and just as it should be.

No, what I feel bad about is the fact that all that nice stuff good meat, flights and holidays, not having to overthink heating ones home or cooking or keeping lights on has already become extremely difficult for millions, and is only going to get worse when the mercury plummets. I feel bad about the fact not, as some seem to censoriously suggest, that we consumed, polluted and, with Brexit, voted ourselves into a brutal cost of living crisis, but rather that a grisly storm of silly priorities by the government, unavoidably outlandish spending during Covid, a muddled, under-used work force, a broken energy sector and the egregious Russian invasion of Ukraine has landed us here.

Its clear that Britain is hitting the skids, and, thanks to the added seasoning of relentless mass transport strikes, has already slid back to a 1970s-style economic and infrastructural mess. What is needed are solutions, not the further embrace of punitive finger-wagging.

We face several years, perhaps, of miserable drear and grind as costs and prices soar, and the inflation rate, currently at over 10 per cent, poisons economic stability. But those seizing on this perilous situation to blame capitalism, Brexit, and to lecture about climate change, are missing the point. The point is not that we got ourselves into this, that we spend too much, enjoy too much cheap travel and variety at the supermarket, got the energy market wrong, and had the audacity to want to break free of the EU. The point is that we need better thinking about markets, and better technology to reduce carbon emissions, fix the energy sector, water shortages, and the problems caused by long-distance food haulage. We need to creatively embrace the possibilities afforded by Brexit, not go down in the mire, ideological and practical, of a poorly-managed transition. The point, in short, is not just desserts, but making sure we can keep enjoying lots of delicious desserts, or, put in safer metaphorical terms, the fruits of modernity thoroughly and securely.

The working and middle classes are due a break. For years we have been berated about everything from plastic bag use to sugar consumption, slapped with eye-watering congestion charges, and disrupted by malodorous environmental and anti-capitalist protesters as we simply tried to commute to work. Covids universal cats cradle of nonsensical rules further entrenched the sense of being fatally and perpetually constrained.

If a break is not forthcoming in the present mess, we are at the very least due a bit of encouragement, a bit of hope. And yet there is no let-up. Last week, responding to the most recent heat wave, the focus was back on how we need to do and eat less of what we fancy. Henry Dimbleby, adviser on the governments food policy, and founder of Leon, the food chain, said that the only way for Britain to meet its biodiversity and climate targets was for the consumption of meat to be drastically curtailed, including through penalties. Meanwhile, despite the present government being one of the most aggressive pursuants of net zero on earth today, researchers are complaining that its not doing enough to heckle people into lifestyle changes. Yougov polling showed the July heatwave caused some panic and reflection about climate change among the public, but understandably not enough to make people want to change their lifestyles by forking out for an electric car, eating less red meat, and giving up flying.

To green-heads in policy and research, this is a shame; in their view, the little people should bite the bullet while the government should be less focused on innovation. It should stay mum about the possibilities of electric planes, for instance, and instead focus on making it harder for people to heat their homes or go on holiday. And while few would publicly clap their hands with glee while arguing that Brexit is causing millions to struggle to feed their families there is, nonetheless, a whiff of cackling Remainiac told-you-so-ism about the present moment too. Much was made in the usual quarters of a study earlier this summer on the effects of Brexit on Britains economic outlook. Put out by the Resolution Foundation, a thinktank, in partnership with the LSE, it was surprise surprise a celebration of all the allegedly grim outcomes Remainers warned of. The cost of living crisis, an apparent plummeting in both openness and competitiveness and all the rest of it was explored in fairly one-sided detail.

Brexit has certainly caused some economic constriction, but next to sensible embrace of the broader picture, there is no reason it should not be relatively short-term. Its the same for the rest of the current horror show. Indeed, the main thing about the present mess is not that we deserve it, but that we deserve to get out of it as quickly as possible.

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It wasn't Brexit or capitalism that got us into this mess - but try telling that to the new Puritans - The Telegraph