As we move towards Christmas, we need to give considerable thought to the very harsh conditions under which many Ukranians will be trying to celebrate.
Russian forces are deliberately destroying Ukranian energy structure.
In some sense the same thing is happening in the West, far more slowly, using rule of law and against far greater resilience and no foreign invasion.
So the lesson, beyond the need to stand in solidarity with the oppressed and brutalised, is that reliable, affordable energy is absolutely vital to any society.
Those whose sense of privilege has caused them to lose sight of that primal reality should not be granted authority.
The climate alarmists, who are finally getting what they wanted and don’t seem to like it much, will merely blame the current energy situation on a crisis stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Well no.
There wouldn’t be an energy crisis resulting in one country invading another if Europe was energy self-sufficient or even had reasonable alternative suppliers other than the country that did the invading. It is entirely a self-inflicted geopolitical wound, and a serious one. (Tynwald take note).
When you think of basic needs, the phrase ‘food, clothing and shelter’ naturally springs to mind.
And it was clearly a huge leap forward in human wellbeing when we tamed fire and could cook food. But modern agriculture is energy-intensive in ways that even chasing a mammoth was not, including the production and application of fertiliser that many governments have somehow concluded is a mortal threat to our survival not a key element of it.
And shelter is a bleak affair unless, in a cold climate, it can be heated.
When people are cold, they work hard and think hard about how to get warm.
Thinking of course is hard work at least for politicians and decision makers, but the best they seem to come up with is to lift the debt ceilings so they can borrow even more money to subsidise people’s energy bills. It is not, repeat not, to develop more sources of RELIABLE energy.
As the UK’s ONS has said, cold kills 10 to 20 times more people than heat.
Yes, cold kills, not as quickly as a Russian missile that hits your house but, as Putin and his hench-thugs know all too well when they aim their missiles at power plants, very certainly.
So here in the west it is difficult for us, but spare a thought to those really cold in Ukraine. And ask yourself how foolish it would be to make our problems even worse in so many dimensions because of a phantom threat from a plant food.
Eddie Perkins
Port St Mary
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