The energy crisis is a failure of politics

Many of the thorniest problems of politics come down to the same thing: timeframes. Big problems generally require solutions that take a long time to develop and implement. But the decision to do this must be made by politicians who work to much shorter timetables: news cycles measured in days and weeks, ministerial appointments that last months, and elections that are never more than a few years off.

The approaching pain of rising energy prices is a case in point. It may well be surprising and new that European wholesale gas prices rose by 800 per cent last year. It is neither surprising nor new that the UK depends for much of its heat on importing gas bought on volatile international markets. The equivalent of around half of the gas we import is burned in boilers to heat our homes.

Also not novel is the fact that we don’t have enough storage capacity to stockpile gas as a (limited) hedge against price fluctuations.