Alastair Stewart: I hate Extinction Rebellion's tactics but their policies deserve consideration

I do not wish a cold winter on anyone but I think there also has to be a limit on what the average tax-payer has to fund.

I cannot see long term energy prices falling without a revolution in supplies and choices.

A Government that expends all its energies - pun intended - on rigging markets rather than encouraging choice and competition is not a Government doing its job.

It is time they admitted that a policy of encouraging new energy suppliers into the market only to see them fold and pass customers on to other suppliers charging higher prices has failed.

It is time they admitted that a price cap that sees prices soar this month and soar again in April next year is not a policy fit for purpose.

Energy supply is central.

Deep breath and deep pockets for more nuclear energy, a rapid acceleration in the already promising alternative, renewable energy sources and in carbon capture.

Might that even be able to purchase a breather on the shut down of new hydro-carbon energy sources while meeting Cop26 targets?

I hate the tactics of the Extinction Rebellion mob and their spin offs but some of the policies they support, with stupid tactics, deserve consideration: speed up boiler conversations, speed up energy efficiency programmes for homes and businesses.

Businesses that use little energy, capitalise on IT & AI should be supported: they employ folk and generate wealth with less energy use than some of the older industries.

It isn’t intervention in the market that is wrong, it is the wrong sort of intervention that is wrong!

You can’t buck markets but you can harness them with forethought and imagination.

Get in there, Government: get in there.