In a Halloween ‘Boo,’ Britons Are Eying a Brexit-Type Referendum on the Green New Deal – New York Sun

As Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to address on Monday the opening at Glasgow of the COP26 summit on climate change, it seems that the Brexit spirit has not been exorcised from the United Kingdom.

It rises from the grave to take on the British equivalent of the Green New Deal. And just in time for Halloween. In answer to the Conservative Governments net zero agenda in response to anthropocentric climate change, Britons are stirring in indignation.

The idea of a referendum to set their representatives straight as in Brexit is starting to percolate. So suggests a poll commissioned by CAR26 (Climate-Analysis-Reason). It found that 42% surveyed support a national referendum with 30% opposed. Excluding the dont knows, that translates into 58% in favor of a referendum. They are not ready to give up the ghost of British independence, whether from bureaucrats in Brussels or presumptuous pols at home.

They are on to those intent on shutting down the most prosperous economic advances in human history. Mr. Johnson is reportedly prepared to imperil Britain to meet controversial targets making the country carbon neutral by 2050. Setting aside the science, which is far from being settled or conclusive, what are the consequences from the perspective of political economy?

Rather dire, particularly for low wage earners. The Government plans to mandate measures for the removal of gas boilers and the installation of low-carbon alternatives pumps expenditures costing as high as 20,000 a household, when additional decarbonization renovations are added. Thats just to retrofit housing.

How will electricity be generated? Coal-fired plants are out; solar- and wind-sources of energy are in. Never mind that their efficacy at both generating power, of sufficient strength and duration mind, the moon wont power solar panels is unreliable. Add to this the transportation costs when combustion engines are outlawed. In shops, stock shortages and empty shelves will become the new normal.

Mr. Johnson has no qualms about staking Britains survival in service of an empty ideology. Fortunately, others are not so sanguine. Like the hero of Brexit, Nigel Farage. This could well be my latest campaign, Mr Farage tweeted. Ive been saying that the rush to Net Zero and the way in which it is being done is going to be ruinous, he told his audience on the GB news network.

Itll lead, Mr. Farage added, to yet more huge transfers of money from the poor to the rich . . . And yet, just like the European Question, my growing sense of its been that out there in the Shires, people are asking, hang on whos paying for all of this?

Harkening back to his success in forcing the EU referendum in 2016, Mr Farage was forthright: Clearly, a lot of you out there feel this shouldnt be done without you being asked and actually, this wasnt really what you voted for in 2019, when Mr. Johnson won a staggering parliamentary majority to get Brexit accomplished.

Will the Government acquiesce to a referendum? Conservatives cannot be ignorant of David Camerons cynical agreement to a vote on EU membership. Having so alienated large segments of the population with lockdowns and threats of vaccine passports, Parliament would be hard pressed to ignore calls for a vote on Britains future.

If the Government were to win, battle lines will have formed for future contests on behalf of personal liberty. What, though, if the Government were to lose? Would Boris resign, taking Mr. Camerons departure from Downing Street as a precedent? Dont bet on it. Were he shamelessly to hold on to power, though, the Prime Ministers days at Number 10 would be numbered.

No less momentous would be the effect upon the Royal Family. So confident are Prince Charles and Prince William in the righteousness of their cause, it is difficult to believe they would sit out the referendum. Were they to lose, the British monarchy could well be discredited to its foundations.

Now that the idea of a climate-shutdown referendum has been run up the flagpole, all can read its signal. Britons are unhappy with Westminster. Preliminary poll numbers bear this out. Rivals to the Johnson ministry, whether climate-skeptical Tories in the Net Zero Scrutiny Group or opposition parties, will challenge the ruling Conservatives. Minor parties on the right could see fertile ground on which to rally Brexiteers repelled by Boriss antics.

We may even begin to see some common sense brought to bear on the whole question of environmental anthropocentrism. A defense of traditional British culture might no longer be considered politically impossible.

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[emailprotected] Image: A cloud study done in oil on paper in 1824 by John Constable. From the Yale Center for British Art, via Wikipedia Commons.

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In a Halloween 'Boo,' Britons Are Eying a Brexit-Type Referendum on the Green New Deal - New York Sun