Fracking
How Britain’s fracking industry was regulated into irrelevance
This week the fracking company Cuadrilla announced that it was permanently closing its two shale mines in Lancashire, after the…
Step on the gas
Britain is caught in an energy crisis of the government’s own making. It is true that gas prices have spiked…
Trump sealed the deal last night
First, let me pay brief homage to Kristen Welker, moderator of Thursday night’s debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.…
Why fracking matters
Sigmund Freud famously noted that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. In the case of fracking, even Freud would…
It’s all about Ohio
Dublin, Ohio Since the presidential election of 1944 when Ohio went with loser Thomas Dewey over winner Franklin Roosevelt, Ohio…
The Democrats are fracking insane
This article is in The Spectator’s March 2020 US edition. Subscribe here. What could be more emblematic of the American Dream than…
Drill down and it’s obvious: the fracking debate was lost long ago
Five years ago this week, George Osborne as chancellor announced a scheme to place tax revenues from shale gas fracking…
Does fracking really cause earthquakes?
Great shakes Shale gas commissioner Natascha Engel resigned in protest at what she called ‘absurd’ restrictions on fracking — in…
Hollande equals Thatcher? Not quite, Monsieur le President, but keep trying
Have you ever tried discussing the merits of gun control with a Texan, or of deregulated labour markets with a…
The best things in the world spring up by accident
Since no one has bothered to ask what my must-read book of last year was I’m going to tell you…
The Living Wage is nifty politics – but let’s see more help for small business too
What is George Osborne’s Living Wage? Is it a ploy to shift cost from the taxpayer to the employer by…
Get fracking
Over the past week, the government has finally made a decisive move to kickstart a fracking industry in Britain. Licences…
Fracking Lancashire
That democracy is a superior form of government to any other goes without saying. But in order to function, it…
Contagion of a different kind as Greece wriggles off the hook
The clear winner in the Greek crisis is the author of The Little Book of Negotiating Clichés, whose royalties must…
A challenge for Centrica’s new boss: persuade the public we need to get fracking
Iain Conn, who will succeed Sam Laidlaw as chief executive of Centrica, would have been a dead cert for the…
This oil price rise is a blip, not a spike – but it’s still a timely reminder to get fracking
‘Iraq turmoil sends crude oil prices to nine-month high’ is the sort of headline that used to send shivers down…
The left-liberal hold over the arts may be ending
If you happen to be reading this column at breakfast, I’d recommend you skip to something more agreeable like Dear…
Investment: Love for shale
Here’s how to get a slice of the fracking action
Portait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that English local authorities would be allowed to receive all the business rates…
Power struggle
Bills are still going up in the long term – unless the government acts
Investment: Power failures
Politics makes it hard to pick winners in the energy sector
Meet the real scourge of the English countryside
I’m off to Balcombe this weekend. In fact I might even carry a placard and paint my face with a…
Letters
Some doctors write Sir: Professor Meirion Thomas (‘Dangerous medicine’, 17 August) may be an excellent surgeon but he is uninformed…
Back off, nimbyists, or fracking will benefit Beijing more than Balcombe
The fracking debate has been brought to a new heat by David Cameron’s message to Home Counties nimbyists and eco-crusties…
Is the EU stopping Britain’s shale revolution?
A few months after the last election, Oliver Letwin warned Cabinet colleagues that a chunk of Britain’s income would be…
