Britain is leaving itself vulnerable with its pursuit of net zero - Yorkshire Post Letters

When will the decision makers in this country wake up to reality and stop pandering to pressure groups and Net Zero Zealots?

Recently, blast furnaces at major steelworks have closed down with planned replacement by Electric Arc Furnaces (EAFs), but there will be no replacement for three years or more.

There have been two thousand jobs lost in Scunthorpe, two thousand in South Wales plus the supply chain losses for each plant. The power for the EAFs will presumably be from wind farms or solar panels, each source intermittent and requiring back up from batteries or, dare one say it, oil, gas or coal fired stand by generators.

But much of the power, from whatever source, will inevitably have to be imported as we will not be using indigenous resources. Mining, quarrying and pumping oil and gas is outlawed in the pursuit of climate change resistance.

The blocking of an extension to open cast mining in the North East by Tory leader hopeful Robert Jenrick left heritage railways sourcing coal from abroad.

The refusal of planning permission for a new coal mine in Cumbria has left the steel industry, already teetering on the brink of collapse, needing to import more coal.

The loss of vital, strategic manufacturing businesses goes on relentlessly, many now owned by China, where coal is still king.

The list of excuses when the dire state of the economy is highlighted; the EU, Brexit, the Pandemic etc. will not be forgiven by our impoverished grandchildren. They will have to pay the bill for decades of mismanagement and pressure group destruction of farming, mining and manufacturing.

Sooner or later the UK will have to start making things again. Imports are increasing at a faster rate than exports and 'services' will never be strong enough to pay the balance.

The media (and the public) would learn the truth about the environmental equations of places like Drax, the Utilities and HS2 if they interviewed workers 'on the ground' rather than the overpaid CEOs and publicity regimes of these organisations.

The daily increase in the size of the UK population is just another factor to add to the equation.

It is surely time for drastic changes; to listen to industrialists, manufacturers and wealth producers rather than the doom mongers, environmental missionaries and biased media programmers.

Education will play a crucial role in the revitalisation of the economy but must produce more technicians and engineers and far fewer media studies performers and sociologists.

For the sake of future generations, there must be a change in priorities and an end to the self-inflicted decline of the nation.