Darren Grimes: In addressing our catastrophic energy policy now, we can alleviate our reliance upon Russia

The reason Russia has been able to make sanctions ineffectual is down to the billions that, every single day, are spent by Europeans on Russian oil and gas.

Putin and his war machine have grown fat on a diet of European taxpayer cash, with economies like Germany and Italy terrified of the prospect of being weaned from the Russian teat.

It's about time Western countries were using all available means to alleviate a continent’s dependence and the cost burden to its taxpayers.

We know that decorating the English countryside in solar panels and windmills isn't going to power Europe.

We know we need to look again at things like shale gas extraction and resucitating North sea exploration.

My guest today, Tom Tugendhat MP has warned, the UK's cost of living crisis will be "driven by war", with gas, petrol and food prices surging.

Never mind the Nordstream 2 pipeline, binding Germany to Russia.

Successive governments across Europe have made many big mistakes in a mad dash to reduce carbon emissions.

A push for net-zero has had us driving around in diesel cars that they now say have created unsafe toxic plumes in cities.

It had us burning, and this isn’t a joke, folks, burning so-called renewable wood pellets that emit more carbon than the coal we rushed to replace.

But in the here and now.

We ought to recognise how serious this is.

Because I promise, folks, not one part of me regrets my vote for Brexit as Germany and Italy kowtow to Russia like Oliver Twist with his begging bowl saying “can I have some more” on bended knee.

I can’t believe when something is this serious, they say: if only we had more wind turbines, we’d be able to tackle Russian aggression.

What planet are you living on?

This is cartoon.

Governments that weren’t in such a rush to capitulate to a middle-class activist base wouldn’t implement policies that boost Putin's coffers and increases prices at home.

They would’ve invested long before now in nuclear plants, an energy source able to produce large amounts of energy and high skill, high wage jobs at home.

Instead, folks, we have ginormous wind turbines and solar panel after solar panel, which is helpful to Chinese companies but not much help for the Great British consumer.

We could have been exploring alternatives now as we wait for new nuclear plants to come online, as the Prime Minister himself said in his 2012 Telegraph column:

“It [fracking] is glorious news for humanity. It doesn’t need the subsidy of wind power. I don’t know whether it will work in Britain, but we should get fracking right away.”

Fracking in this country, the limited amounts we could exploit before it was banned, was proven to produce high-quality natural gas that could quickly meet the UK’s demand.

With smaller areas used than the acre after acre required for wind turbines and solar farms. America did it folks and created high quality gas, highly paid jobs and happy consumers at home.

We need to look at what we know works, not on some fantasy, unobtainable vision of what we'd like to be.

Our consumers are crying out for help and the people of Ukraine are too.

In addressing our catastrophic energy policy now, we can alleviate both our reliance upon Russia and our dogmatic fixation on expensive unreliables.

Come on Boris, the time to get real has years since passed.