It is obvious that this century is demanding challenges and responses for which the British Conservative mindset is completely unprepared. The century doesn't need a small state, it needs an Agile state. The UK will be in serious economic and social trouble if more years of denial are not stopped.
Last week there was a small-state stupidity that gave a major area of 21st century economic activity to France and undermined our national security. The merger of OneWeb with France's Eutelsat was used to boost the EU space effort. These people are not competent at doing the job. Ineptness comes with the territory.
We lost ground in space because of the forced exit from the EU's Galileo and Copernicus programmes. Rescued from insolvency by a daring £500m bid by the UK government two years ago, OneWeb has an amazing 15% of all space available for service delivery to Earth. A constellation of satellites and the next phase of commercial space development are worth tens of billions of dollars. It slipped through our fingers last week.
Britain’s avowed aim is to be a globally competitive space power. Forget it. Be sure prime minister Truss will not dare to attempt any OneWebs
OneWeb had to change its satellite launch programme because of the war in Ukranian. The market must rule and tax cuts are more important than the British think. The OneWeb board gave the go-ahead for Eutelsat to buy the British out.
Britain will no longer have control over the future space systems developed by OneWeb or how any of its spectrum is used. Johnson is a liar, a constitutional vandal and corrupt, but he had the chutzpah to start the deal. Britain wants to be a global space power. Don't even think about it. The prime minister won't try any OneWebs.
It is not guff about tax cuts, aspiration, the magic of markets, attacking wokeness or bringing back grammar schools, it is the agility of the state that is needed.
It's a case in point. British consumers have high energy bills. The OneWeb deal has been applied to the electricity market. When directed by the "big state" Central Electricity Generating Board, the electricity tariffs were not the average price of electricity produced by different power generators, but rather the price of electricity produced by different power generators. Our bills are pitched at whatever price is necessary to bring the most expensive producer into the grid to complete the necessary base load, not reflecting the contribution from low-cost renewable and nuclear. The spot market price of gas is reflecting the rising consumer tariffs.
The market madness doesn't end there. Electricity doesn't change with the producer, it is invisible. Electricity is the least apt material for a market to be constituted. The doctrine is that different producers form a market selling electricity to one another within a short period of time. Is there a long-term contract? Is it better to take out the costs across all generators, rather than putting them into the highest cost generator? That means a lot of state.
The Ukraine war and rocketing oil and gas prices have destroyed the whole idea. Thirty suppliers have stopped doing business. Bills were always going to rise, but a more rational electricity production and pricing system, along with building in incentives to build low-cost renewable capacity fast, could have drawn some of the sting. The price differential between renewables and gas is no longer rational.
Do you have a solution? Every energy producer should be required to incorporate as a public benefit company in emergency legislation in order to put the consumer's interests first. The regulator of power generators should gather their open book costs and calculate a standard tariffs for all consumers that reflects the lower production costs of renewable and nuclear energy. Gas-fired generators that are expensive can apply to be nationalised or offered loans and grants in order to tide them over. Consumers shouldn't shoulder the hit over rising gas and oil prices.
Local communities should share some of the revenue from windfarms if planning laws are relaxed. Green power pools would allow renewable producers to sell their cheap energy to consumers. A national network of electricity charge points for cars should be created. The least well off should get the most out of the energy bill refunds.
This is the 21st-century Agile state in action and it will not win the votes of older Conservative party members who deify Mrs Thatcher. Giving away Britain's stake in space and attacking cheap renewable energy is a better way to go. That's good for the Conservatives. The real world and the Tories have never been so far apart.
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