Ed Miliband hits peak madness – Vladimir Putin thinks we’re crackers | Personal Finance | Finance

Raised by Marxist intellectuals, it’s hardly surprising Red Ed has a back-to-front view of the world. One where Britain is always wrong and our enemies are always right, no matter how evil, murderous or duplicitous they may be. A world where Britain must constantly atone for its sins, both real and imagined, while everyone else gets a free pass. This has been on display ever since he was appointed energy secretary after the election. Now it’s hit a new level of madness.

Miliband’s first major act in power was to block all new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. It was the biggest single act of economic self-destruction I can remember from a cabinet minister. Successive governments have inflicted misery through bungling, stupidity and cowardice, but this was on a different level. Britain’s own energy secretary was deliberately sabotaging a key British industry and leaving us reliant on foreign regimes in the name of his net zero ideology. It’s sheer economic suicide.

Miliband hasn’t shifted. He repeatedly claims it won’t make any difference to our energy prices, but don’t believe him. That’s a deliberate diversion.

Shutting down domestic energy production will destroy jobs, hit exports, cut tax revenues, damage the balance of payments, weaken the pound, threaten our energy security, and most laughably of all, it won’t even cut carbon emissions.

Instead, it will increase them, as we import boat loads of foreign gas while handing tens of billions to overseas suppliers in the process. Miliband has never addressed any of these arguments. Just like he’s never explained why his pledge to create 600,000 green jobs and knock £300 off our energy bills turned out to be fantasy.

He’s destroyed more jobs than he will ever create, not just in the North Sea but by crushing British business under the highest energy bills in the world. As for our household bills, they’ll jump by more than £200 a year in July.

Yes, the Iran crisis has a part to play. But could there be a worse time to stop producing our own oil and gas than in the middle of a global energy shock? More sabotage. More madness. But not peak madness. This is peak Miliband madness.

To counter the energy shock, Keir Starmer’s Labour government is considering easing sanctions on Russian diesel, jet fuel and liquefied natural gas. Incredibly, Britain is shutting down its own North Sea production while opening the door to fuel that originates in Russia and will help top up tyrant Vladimir Putin’s depleted coffers.

North Sea oil and gas supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, creates billions in economic value and has some of the highest environmental standards anywhere in the world. But Ed Miliband’s net zero obsession still won’t allow it. Yet this government is happy to import Russian gas, which is far dirtier, both morally and environmentally.

It was Donald Trump who came up with the Putin concession. Trump has always had a soft spot for Putin. Britain shouldn’t have followed his lead.

In doing so, we’ve betrayed a vital ally that’s heroically standing up to a bloody dictator who’s a threat to all of Europe, including us. Ukrainian officials are rightly furious. They know this will help fund Putin’s brutal war machine. We might as well have sent him drones and missiles direct.

Yet thanks to Miliband, our own oil and gas is off limits. We all know he’s crackers. Putin must think we’re all crackers for putting up with him.