On Sunday, alongside Nigel Farage, I launched a new cross-party campaign called ‘Vote Power Not Poverty’. Our aims are simple.
We are demanding a referendum on the life-changing Net Zero plans forced upon us by Westminster politicians. We want the British people to have a say, both on our energy future and on Britain’s energy security.
Over the spring and summer of 2022, we will be holding public meetings and rallies across the UK. With the help of an exceptional list of speakers, our aim is to galvanise the great British public into pushing back against a Net Zero agenda that will destroy British jobs, whilst making us poorer and colder.
Our first meeting will be held on Saturday 26th March at the 3D Centre. Bella St, Bolton BL3 4DU. Doors will open at 9:30am for an 11:00am start!
You may already know that we had planned to have our first rally at the University of Bolton Stadium. This is a venue we know well and have used before. Yet, after weeks of discussions and with the rally already advertised, we received an email just 24 hours after launching the event, informing us that the Board of Directors for the stadium would no longer accommodate us.
The growing cancel culture in Britain is determined to stifle free speech and open discussion, even on matters that are of huge national interest. They don’t believe the great British public should be allowed to hear ideas from outside of the status quo.
This isn’t the first time we’ve come up against this kind of behaviour and it won’t be the last. We must take a stand together, to put a stop to this toxic culture of closing down debate and discussion.
We’ve made clear from that outset that we all care about the environment and we all want cleaner air. We all want to do our bit. But Westminster’s Net Zero is the wrong bit, at the wrong price, in the wrong timeframe.
The Westminster Net Zero plans will force us to change the cars we drive, change the way we heat our homes, change how much we travel and what we eat.
Given the scale of these plans, we feel that at the very least there should be a national debate to look at other, better solutions; solutions that can deliver cleaner, greener energy but without impoverishing millions of people and forcing businesses and industry abroad.
British households are already buckling under the increasing costs of energy. It is estimated that more than 10% of households in the UK are now being forced to choose between heating and eating. And that number is rising, fast!
We have huge energy resources here in the U.K. that we can use for much cheaper energy bills! Right now, about half of our energy supply is being imported from abroad, including from Russia and the Middle East. We used to be a net exporter of energy but politicians over the last decade chose to ignore our own gas, instead sending our money and jobs overseas.
The good news is that we have a real treasure under our feet, called Shale Gas! There is 50 years worth of shale gas, estimated to be worth over £1 trillion, right under our feet. What’s more important is that we, the people, own this treasure. So, let’s use it!
Shale gas can be extracted by a variety of technologies, including new techniques. Shale gas does not mean fracking! They’re not one and the same thing. Let’s be a world leader in progressing new technologies to extract this treasure that we all own and can give us much cheaper energy bills.
I’m encouraging you to come along, listen to what Nigel and I have to say, get involved in our campaign and help us to do what we’ve done before, put the power back into the hands of the British people, where it belongs. It’s time for our country to Vote for Power, Not Poverty.
I hope you can play your part.
