[Tubby Isaacs]

Ah, look who's among these MPs.

The UK’s green economy is worth £100bn a year and represents 1m jobs, which tend to be higher paying than average, according to a recent report by CBI Economics. Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP for York Central, called for Burnham to keep it on track. “We must press on with the energy transition. Drilling more will not cut energy costs as oil and gas will be sold into the global market,” she said. “The energy secretary [Ed Miliband] has called this right and must keep on course to secure a just transition [to clean energy jobs].”

Why does drilling mean retreat from the energy transition? Selling stuff on world markets used to be regarded as a good thing, didn't it?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Fuck me, Barry Gardiner can do even worse than Maskell.

Barry Gardiner, the Labour MP for Brent West, said: “Drilling more won’t stem the loss of jobs in oil and gas, they have been falling for years despite attempts to prop up the industry. I ask my colleagues – whose side are we on? Donald Trump, the climate denier, who wants us to ‘drill, baby, drill’, and the oil and gas companies who have made billions [in the last two energy shocks], or ordinary people who are dealing with rising energy bills and are worried about weather that gets more extreme every year?”

What were the quotes like that didn't make it into the article? The idea that this would make the Government into some sort of Trumper administration is laughable. And has he heard of the windfall tax on oil and gas?

[Youngian]

The idea that this would make the Government into some sort of Trumper administration is laughable. And has he heard of the windfall tax on oil and gas?

So you grant a licence to extract the remaining high hanging fruit in a near empty basin, what then? Another licence then another. Its the addict's psychology of one more hit or drink. Barry's right that the government should stand their ground on Net Zero.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It's nothing like an addiction though. Even if you wanted to drill forever, like Farage, you couldn't because there will come a point when renewables have reduced export demand, and the remainder is too costly to bother with. Most important thing we can control is our own consumption, and there's no reason we can't get on with Net Zero, as we have been doing while extracting oil. God knows what populist Andy is going to do, but if he fails it won't be because we're producing oil.

Over £13bn has come from the oil windfall tax in 4 years. Projected to go down to about £100m in 2030. That's a lot of money to have to find from somewhere else. No other government has had so much that needs money spending on it as this one.