As Rishi Sunak transforms himself into the driver’s champion and rightwingers savage net zero targets as a fascist plot of the wokerati, get ready for the thing you thought impossible: a general election even stupider than the last. Essentially, it’s looking as if it will be a referendum on whether climate change exists. What better time for such a dumb question, than right when we can all see it?
It won’t always be expressed so simply. Sometimes it will be: “Who will stand up for the humble driver of diesel cars, already squeezed in so many directions, in ways that I, not even quite a billionaire, can totally understand?” Other times it will be: “What can we do about Just Stop Oil protesters, who pose an existential threat to society with their vile and undemocratic tactics?” Probably only at the Faragist fringes will people openly repudiate the goal of net zero, while the Conservative core picks more contestable battles on low-traffic neighbourhoods, oil and gas licences, heat pumps.
