Is Tony Blair still the real leader of the Labour Party?
It seems that some cabinet ministers prefer to dance to his tune than they do to Sir Keir Starmer's.
Interestingly, it was reported today that a number of cabinet ministers have been challenging Keir Starmer on the failure to give more licences to drill for oil in the North Sea, saying that it gives the wrong impression, makes it look as if the Government doesn't care.
And they look at polling, which says that the overwhelming majority of Labour voters and voters generally prioritise cheap energy over the net zero agenda.
There's also some commentary saying that Ed Miliband is not perhaps as popular as he once was, because he's one of the people who told Starmer that he ought to go.
Now, I've been arguing for ages that we ought to use all our resources for a number of reasons.
First of all, anything we get out of North Sea is cash and jobs for this country, regardless of what then happens to international prices.
Secondly, pricing is always set at the margin. So if you create an extra drop of oil, if that is not part of the current demand, then prices fall slightly.
Jacob Rees-Mogg reacts as Labour figures push back against the Government's energy policy, and its refusal to grant licences to drill in the North Sea
|GB NEWS
We saw this so clearly in 2020 when actually oil prices went negative because there was too much supply and a collapse in demand because of Covid.
Oil prices are very sensitive to supply and demand. You also give yourself your own security of supply if you refine that oil in your own refineries.
If only we weren't shutting all our refineries because prices were too high, then on gas there isn't a real global price.
There is a series of regional prices depending on the ability to export your gas. We can re-export liquefied gas.
We never have exported our ordinary gas because we've always been a market for it ourselves, and therefore the supplier you bring in from the North Sea has tended to be cheaper.
When we were entirely dependent on our own North Sea gas, the price was much lower, and if we went for fracking for shale gas, we could have vast quantities of cheap gas.
You should always maximise your own resources, and even if you're a wild green, if any wild greens watch GB News between 8pm and 9pm, you're very welcome.
But if you are a wild green, that one wild green out there, you should still be supporting this because it's more environmentally friendly to use our own gas than it is to bring it in from America or from Qatar, where you've got to liquefy it and then reclassify it, which of course uses energy, which creates emissions.
So whatever way you look at it, Blair is right. Miliband is wrong. Starmer is piggy in the middle. So will piggy be squeezed, or will he be out of office before he has time to turn the budget?