The new energy revolution is coming - whether you like it or not, says Andrew Marr
5 June 2023, 18:18
Andrew Marr says there is a new industrial revolution coming whether we like it or not.
Speaking at the start of Monday's Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, he said the difficulty of transition to renewable sources of energy - and the ending of jobs in dying fossil fuel sectors - will perplex future governments.
"Most political stories aren't nearly as important as they first appear," he said in his monologue.
"Big row, outrage in the Commons, a leak, a split… and then a few days later it's really hard to remember what all the fuss was about.
"The stories that go phut. And then sometimes there are the stories that are the reverse of that - the ones which look at first sight quite modest but turn out to really matter - stories we're all going to have to think hard about, the stories that go fizz.
"Today's story, you won't be surprised to hear, is of the latter kind. Gary Smith, who's the general secretary of the GMB union, has attacked the Labour Party, which he backs, for its green energy policy. This includes banning new licences for oil and gas in the North Sea.
Listen and subscribe to Unprecedented: Inside Downing Street on Global Player
"Smith told his union conference in Brighton earlier today that the future requires a mix of energy – new nuclear, renewables hydrogen, and oil and gas.
"He's worried about the impact on oil workers, whom he represents. Sharon Graham, General Secretary of the Unite union, agrees. She says Britain can't have "a repeat of the devastation wrought on workers and their communities by the closure of the coal mines.
"So Keir Starmer appears to be caught between the unions, comparing him to Margaret Thatcher on a bad day, and the numerous green and environmental groups who very much hope he stands firm.
Watch Tonight with Andrew Marr exclusively on Global Player every Monday to Thursday from 6pm to 7pm
"He's expected to respond to the unions tomorrow. So why does this matter so much - even more, say, than the fate of an errant television presenter, or the diary scheduling of Prince Harry of Montecito?
"Isn't it all just an internal argument in an opposition party - another of those ‘here today, gone tomorrow” stories I was talking about earlier?
"Well the truth is - both because of climate change and rapidly evolving new technologies such as artificial intelligence - we are heading at speed towards a new industrial revolution, including an energy revolution, whether we like it or not.
"Those are facts bigger than conventional politics. They're going to perplex whatever government we elect next. And we also know that throughout history, technologically-driven economic change - steam engines, woollen mills, the internal combustion engine, computerisation - produce losers as well as winners, and can cause huge social disruption.
You can also listen to the podcast Tonight with Andrew Marr only on Global Player.
"Why should our immediate future be any different? And yet all these things are also political because we vote about them.
"If Labour's in trouble over its green revolution, then the epicentre of that trouble's surely Scotland, so reliant on North Sea oil and gas jobs which the party seems determined to get rid of.
"How many jobs? According to Nature Scotland, which advises the Scottish government, its oil and gas industry supports around 196,000 jobs there.
"It's true that wind farms are supporting thousands of jobs in Scotland, but nothing like that number. This is a human problem but also of course a political one."
