Ross Clark

Ross Clark

Ross Clark is a leader writer and columnist who has written for The Spectator for three decades. He writes on Substack, at Ross on Why?

Monday

Ross Clark

My smart Volvo has managed to scrap itself

From our UK edition

For much of the past few years, car production has been compromised by a global shortage of microchips. Why no manufacturer has seized the opportunity to market a microchip-free car (i.e. like all cars manufactured before the 1980s) I don’t know. I would certainly swap my too-clever-for-its-own-good Volvo V60 for such a model. I haven’t met anyone outside a Volvo dealership who thinks this is anything other than absurd In fact, I would happily swap my Volvo for a pair of walking boots. They would be of far greater use. Over the past four months my boots have taken me 200 miles across Iceland and 120 miles (as well as ten miles vertically) across Corsica.

Saturday

Ross Clark

Did the iPhone kill Britain’s productivity?

From our UK edition

In the year 2007 Gordon Brown became prime minister, Northern Rock went bust and the iPhone was introduced. But something silently and invisibly calamitous must also have happened in Britain, because it was the year that productivity growth in Britain all but ceased. Tempting though it may be to blame some or all of the above, no-one seems to be able quite to put their finger on it. It should, however, be the single biggest conversation in Britain because without productivity growth we cannot as a nation grow richer, and we cannot award ourselves above-inflation pay rises – or at least not without inflation catching up with them a few months later. As the economist Paul Krugman puts it, productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is nearly everything.

Friday

Ross Clark

The UK’s GDP is proving Remainers wrong

From our UK edition

You can almost sense the agonising among hardcore remainers, the howls of anguish. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revised the UK’s economic growth figures since Covid upwards. Instead of still struggling to reach its pre-pandemic high it seems that the UK economy in fact surpassed 2019 levels two years ago.  Previously, the ONS had estimated the economy in the last quarter of 2021 to be 1.2 per cent smaller than pre-pandemic. It now calculates that in fact it was 0.6 per cent larger. The ONS says its initial forecasts were compromised by the difficulties of calculating GDP during the pandemic. Is there a bias which has led to the damage to the UK from Brexit being over-estimated?

Thursday

Ross Clark

Has the true cost of net zero finally been revealed?

From our UK edition

When the Commons nodded through Britain’s legally-binding net zero target in 2019 all MPs had to go on was the Climate Change Committee’s estimate that the whole process would cost £1 trillion. MPs failed to probe this figure and the government didn’t even try to calculate one. Indeed, when the Treasury attempted to come up with its own figure in 2021 it gave up, saying it couldn’t be done because there are too many unknowables. Net zero will require technologies, such as hydrogen production via electrolysis of water, which are still in an early stage of development and have not yet been scaled up. Now the think tank Civitas has weighed in with its own analysis. And its conclusion?

Wednesday

Ross Clark

Net zero zealots will probably find a way to stop Rosebank

From our UK edition

So, Rosebank is to go ahead, or so we think. The North Sea Transition Authority has granted a licence for the extraction of oil and gas from the field, which lies to the west of the Shetlands. For its part, Labour has said that while it opposes the project, it will not withdraw the licences should it win power next year. Despite the best efforts of Mark Carney and others, someone evidently thinks it is worth investing £3.1 billion in new oil and gas production. That is the sum that the developers, Equinor and Ithaca Energy, say they will invest in the first phase of the scheme. Eventually, more than £8 billion is expected to be invested. But this isn’t, one suspects, the last word on the subject.

Ross Clark

Will Ulez spell the end for Sadiq Khan?

From our UK edition

Sadiq Khan showed little sign of being discomfited by the result of the Uxbridge by-election in July. In spite of Keir Starmer imploring him to reflect on his Ulez expansion he went ahead anyway, with a token offer in the form of slightly enhanced grants for motorists replacing elderly vehicles. But perhaps Khan should have taken more notice of Starmer. A poll by JL Partners for the Sun this morning reveals that Khan’s lead over Conservative candidate Susan Hall has fallen to 3 per cent, with Khan now on 35 per cent of the vote and Hall 32 per cent.

Tuesday

Ross Clark

Is it foolish to think the world can achieve net zero by 2050?

From our UK edition

Most discussion of net zero in Britain seems strangely parochial. We only really talk about UK emissions, even though they account for only one percent of the global total. But how is the rest of the world getting on at reducing carbon emissions? This morning the International Energy Agency (IEA) published the latest edition of its ‘Net Zero Roadmap’ showing where the world is on reducing carbon emissions and what more it needs to do to eliminate them entirely.   First the good news. The world is on course to invest a record $1.8 trillion (£1.5 trillion) in clean energy over the course of 2023.

Ross Clark

Equal pay claims are a disaster for local councils

From our UK edition

Bankrupt councils have gotten into trouble through profligate spending on loony projects like month-long Pride events and training staff in critical race theory. That might be true, but it is only partially true. Another big factor, it is becoming painfully clear, is equal pay claims – which have cost Birmingham City Council up to £760 million alone. Next in the firing line is Sheffield, where the GMB union claims to have opened the lid on a simmering pot of injustice which it plans to follow up with multi-million pound claims against the council.

Monday

Ross Clark

As Lego has found out, the world isn’t ready to give up plastic

From our UK edition

Predictions of the demise of the fossil fuel industry are based almost wholly on energy. In future, goes the argument, we are going to use clean energy and so we will be able to leave fossil fuels in the ground as ‘stranded assets’, as Mark Carney would call them.  It is proving hard enough to decarbonise the energy sector, but it tends to be forgotten that at present we rely on coal, gas and oil for many other things, too, such as fertilisers, a reducing agent in the steelmaking process and the manufacture of plastics. While there may be substitutes in theory for some of these uses, the experience of Lego demonstrates how difficult it is to replace oil.

Sunday

Ross Clark

Why is Sunak cutting a tax only paid by the rich?

From our UK edition

Last week, Rishi Sunak struck a blow for ordinary people against the elitist project that is net zero, assuring them that a government led by him will not be loading them with tens of thousands of pounds in costs for fitting heat pumps, forcing them to buy an impractical electric car or stinging them in taxes for flying off on holiday. The opposition, at least in the shape of Ed Miliband, fell right into his trap. As polls have shown over and over again, public support for net zero tends to melt away very fast when it comes to asking them about issues which threaten to affect them personally.

Saturday

Ross Clark

Cutting back HS2 would make the best of a bad job

From our UK edition

HS2 has become like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail: the one who carries on fighting, reassuring himself ‘tis but a scratch’ as, one by one, he is relieved of his limbs. First it was the Birmingham to Leeds limb, then the link between Manchester and the North West Coast mainline. The bit between Old Oak Common and Euston has been hanging by a ligament for a while.  Now it seems that Rishi Sunak is about to swipe his sword through the Birmingham to Manchester arm. That would leave just a truncated line which will speed you from Birmingham to the outskirts of London at 200 mph before dumping you behind Wormwood Scrubs jail.

Friday

Ross Clark

Falling wages aren’t stopping shoppers from hitting the high street

From our UK edition

It looks like a case of recession postponed – again. Figures from the Office for National Statistics this morning show that retail sales volumes were up 0.4 per cent in August. These figures followed a shock fall of 1.2 per cent in July reported last month (and even this has been revised downwards to a fall of 1.1 per cent). Over the past three months – perhaps a better guide than month on month figures – sales volumes are up 0.3 per cent. Somehow, in spite of wages, which until last month had been falling in real terms, consumers are finding the means, and the will, to carry on spending. Today’s figures are in many ways the mirror image of July’s. Food sales volumes were up 1.2 per cent, compared to a drop of 2.6 per cent in July. Non-food sales were up 0.

Wednesday

Ross Clark

The flaw in Rishi Sunak’s plan to water down net zero

From our UK edition

Rishi Sunak will reportedly make a speech later this week watering down some of the targets the government has set itself on achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, although that target itself will not be touched). The proposed ban on new petrol and diesel cars will be put back by five years to 2035, which would bring Britain in line with the EU. The ban on new oil-fired boilers will be put back from 2026 to 2035, thus relieving the Conservatives of the prospect of mass grumbling in one of their natural constituencies, rural areas. Even in 2035, it seems, the target will be to reduce installations only by 80 per cent, in recognition than many homes are difficult to bring up to the insulation standards required for heat pumps to work effectively.

Tuesday

Ross Clark

Why drivers are losing interest in electric cars

From our UK edition

In his promised review of net zero policies, Rishi Sunak has already ruled out postponing the proposed ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. Indeed, from the end of the year manufacturers are going to be under a mandate to make sure that a certain proportion of their sales are electric – although the details have not yet been published. But what chances of the car industry actually getting there? While sales of electric cars might seem to be healthy – the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) records that 193,221 pure electric cars were sold in the first eight months of 2023, up 40 per cent on the same period in 2022, the details tell a different story. Sales to corporate buyers are buoyant, encouraged by a favourable company car tax regime.

Monday

Ross Clark

Will Germany be the first to ditch its net zero commitments?

From our UK edition

Things are not going well in Germany’s bid to reach net zero by 2045, five years earlier even than Britain’s own unrealistic target. For months, the German government has been trying to devise a way to save its heavy industry from high energy prices which are sending production fleeing to Asia. Just last year, chemicals giant BASF announced that it would invest in a new £10 billion plant in China rather than Europe, thanks to the cost of energy. Now, the government seems to have found a way. It is going to raid its £200 billion climate transition fund, which was supposed to invest in green technology. The fund was also meant to compensate householders who have been groaning under the expense of policies such as next year’s proposed ban on new gas boilers.

Friday

Ross Clark

The dangerous dog crackdown shouldn’t stop with banning Bully XLs

From our UK edition

There isn’t much you can do in modern Britain without encountering some licensing scheme, but one area of life which really does need regulating remains free of any kind of bureaucratic control. You can, for now, go out and buy an American Bully XL puppy with no need for any kind of training – for you or the dog – before letting it loose on the High Street where it might take a fancy to shins of a passer-by and, quite possibly go onto kill them. Should that happen, you may well find yourself in the magistrates’ court, but why not some kind of pre-emptive system to keep violent dogs off the streets – and out of homes – before they kill?

Thursday

Ross Clark

Brexit Britain can benefit from Apple’s spat with Europe

From our UK edition

Are the EU and the US heading for a trade war by dirty means? I ask because for the second time in a week Apple finds itself on the sharp end of European regulations. First, the company was obliged to provide a standard USB socket and charger for its iPhone 15, as opposed to the specific charger previously used by Apple. Now, French regulators have declared that the iPhone 12 doesn’t reach Europe’s radiological protection standards. According to the Agence Nationale des Frequences, the device emits 5.74 watts of electromagnetic radiation per kilogramme – above the 4.0 watts allowed by European product standards. Apple insists that the device is fully-compliant.

Wednesday

Ross Clark

Bernard Looney and the sinister policing of office romances

From our UK edition

I doubt whether many people will feel a pang of sympathy for Bernard Looney, former chief executive of BP who has just resigned over his failure to fully disclosure historic relationships with fellow employees. Perhaps he should have resigned last year when he declared proudly that high oil prices had turned BP into a ‘cash machine’ – a remark which hastened the imposition of a windfall tax which the industry may come bitterly to regret the next time oil prices crash. Yet the remark didn’t do Looney much personal harm – his pay was doubled last year to over £4 million. He will have a pretty decent pension, too, to go off and spend more time on his love life.

Tuesday

Ross Clark

Is one badly filed flight plan really to blame for the airport chaos?

From our UK edition

A faulty flight plan filed by a French airline is unofficially being blamed for the meltdown in our national air traffic control system on Monday. While Nats (National Air Traffic Services) has declined to comment, it should come as no comfort if it turns out to have been a cock-up rather than – as many initially feared – a cyber attack. If one badly-filed flight plan can cause delays for days on end – as the airlines are warning us – it is an alarming reminder of how vulnerable our transport infrastructure has become. It wouldn’t take much input from a hostile state to bring the country to a halt. You can see the vulnerability everywhere – it is the price we pay for running transport so close to the bone.

Monday

Ross Clark

Net Zero is condemning more Brits to energy poverty

From our UK edition

Here’s another great idea from the net zero establishment: only heat your home when it is warm and sunny outdoors. In its Sixth Carbon Budget paper, the government’s Climate Change Committee advises homeowners to turn their heating on in the afternoon, so that they can turn it off again during the evening when demand for electricity is higher. ‘Where homes are sufficiently well-insulated,’ it says, ‘it is possible to pre-heat ahead of peak times, enabling access to cheaper tariffs which reflect the reduced costs associated with running networks and producing power during off-peak times.’ In other words, boil yourself when the outdoor temperature is relatively warm, and with any luck you might still be tolerably warm when it is freezing outdoors at eight in the evening.