Chris Bryan

I bet Darren Jones thought Liam Byrne's infamous 2010 note was a great gag that still works. Reader, it never did.

From the archive: Labour could approve drilling at Rosebank, Jackdaw and a bunch of other sites without breaking 2024 manifesto pledge (They deliberately left this wiggle room; most people didn't notice) www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-...

Brent above $85. European gas back over €50/MWh as Hormuz escalates again. A reminder: A fifth of global oil and LNG passes through that strait. Every heat pump, EV and electrified factory shrinks this exposure. Electrons made at home cannot be blockaded in a shipping lane.

Excl: Energy bosses are calling on the next prime minister to "rethink" Labour's North Sea strategy, warning the UK government's fiscal and licensing policies are holding back investment, including for renewables. Something for Andy Burnham to mull over. www.scotsman.com/news/politic...

Big new survey of top business leaders reveals overwhelming majority expect the next decade to be shaped by rapid electrification. EVs, heat pumps, solar panels, industrial electrification, and batteries are set to become the norm surprisingly quickly. www.businessgreen.com/news/4531135...

“Britain back in the heart of Europe” but within my arbitrary red lines. Or abolishing hereditary peers but letting the Tories convert a load to life peers. Workers rights but not implemented for years. All gives the impression of someone dragged kicking and screaming to enact their own policies.

Keir Starmer’s speech on nudity apps encapsulates much of Labour’s MPs frustration with him. “Ultimatums” rather than action. Talk big, act small. Perhaps you then eventually do act big but not without losing an awful lot of goodwill in the process.

The rise of green energy is absolutely phenomenal. Mostly thanks to Chinese over capacity or subsidies. And not to be mentioned to the culture warrior right for whom only slave extracted finite resources count.

How about: a) I believe the UK should rejoin the EU; but b) Neither we nor Brussels are ready for a formal negotiation; and c) EU membership would not be a panacea for our national challenges; so c) I will work to build trust and lay foundations with the EU, while advancing other priorities.

Awful lot of folk don't seem to recognise the power of a political bandwagon, which is precisely what any half-decent campaign in Makerfield will be - sending Andy Burnham to sort out the Westminster mess will absolutely play to northern views of the south

Andy Burnham isn’t going to do a Truss. He isn’t going to sack the permanent secretary of HMT or do a major fiscal event with no OBR forecast. He isn’t going to attempt the largest borrowing-funded tax cuts in years.

Makerfield voted 65% Leave in 2016 (the 75th most Leave seat). Over the next few weeks, there’ll be plenty of news coverage about Brexit (reset negotiations, 10th anniversary). Andy Burnham is a rejoiner. If Reform can’t make Brexit work for them here, it’ll tell us a lot.

Incidentally, while confident Burnham wins Makerfield, I think this from @stephenkb.bsky.social is right about the impact of a defeat. Would make the last few weeks for Labour seem like happy times. www.ft.com/content/9e91...

Autotrader says electricity is now the UK's most popular fuel type. www.businessgreen.com/news/4529431...

They’re laughing at you!

Ever feel you need more good news? Me too. Here's some brilliant things happening in Britain that you won't have seen in the headlines 👇

I now see what happened with the Mandelson vetting. Ollie Robbins treated it as a normal ambassadorial appointment, where he had sole discretion on vetting. In fact, he should have treated it as the equivalent of a Ministerial appointment, where the PM would expect to be told of any issues. 1/

If you want to repair our relationship with Europe, seek a proper relationship with Europe. Join us in the Labour Movement for Europe fighting to do just that. www.labourmovementforeurope.uk/join

A day after slashing the UK’s growth forecasts, the IMF cited Britain as an example of an major economy which managed to trim its borrowings, after the UK’s deficit fell from 6.1% of GDP in 2024 to 5.4% in 2025.

You Tube 👍 ….

FACTCHECK UPDATE: No, the UK can't "be more like Norway" in the North Sea 🇬🇧 extracted most of its oil & gas after privatisation 🇳🇴 has much more left due to state stewardship 🤔Lawson spent UK windfall on tax cuts; Norway got a sovereign wealth fund www.carbonbrief.org/...

Oil needs warships. Solar, wind & batteries don’t. 20% of global oil flows through one narrow strait. Tankers. Navies. Missiles. Risk premiums. Sunlight isn’t shipped. Wind isn’t escorted. Storage isn’t blockaded. Energy security is being rewritten. #Bettrification #Renewables #LFP #BESS #EVs⚡🔋🌍

Iran war = gas price shock incoming. ICE drivers brace. EV drivers plug in. Oil ties your budget to conflicts 8,000km away, shipping lanes, petrostates & war premiums. Electricity ties you to the panel on your roof & infrastructure already built. Not ideology > insulation + control. #Bettrification

Desertification has expanded for decades. Talatan in China wasn’t pristine wilderness — it was degraded, wind-eroded land. Today it hosts multi-GW solar, restored vegetation & grazing sheep. That’s not destruction. That’s what system redesign looks like. #Bettrification #Solar ⚡🌱

Alex Stubb on EU competitiveness - excellent "Economists look at crude GDP... but I look at our Gini coefficients.. & whether it's justice, least corrupt, open, welfare, environment, open media, gender equality.. I don't buy the argument we're doing bad. I'm actually bloody happy" MSC '26

My Times piece: There may be many political reasons for replacing Keir Starmer but to think of doing so when the economic outlook appears to be improving seems strange: In fiscal terms, it’s strange to be thinking of replacing Starmer www.thetimes.com/article/feb4...

Left: Muhammad Yusuf claims Peter Mandelson belongs in prison and calls Keir Starmer a disgrace who must quit. Right: Meanwhile Nathan Gill is in prison for Russian bribes - so applying the same Muhammad's standard, Farage is a disgrace and must resign.

Pretty much every bit of trouble this government has had since the very beginning has been self-inflicted.

I've decided to start a rumor that David Miliband is thinking of putting his name forward for the by-election.

🎧 New PAGE 94 Podcast OUT NOW This week: Crash and Burnham What is an ‘Andy Burnham’ and can it be stopped? Why has Trump made a photocopy of the UN and called it the Board of Peace? And was this episode description drafted by AI for an overworked journalist? (No, it wasn’t.) youtu.be/knLSSm2CmV4

I am elated that someone else has spotted this Burnham contradiction. He looked after himself by going for a third term as mayor of Manchester. He could have helped Labour by running to be an MP again.

Reminder: Reform UK wants ICE-style murders on British streets.

Big moment for Europe: in December, fully electric cars outsold petrol-only cars in the EU for the first time. This shows that clear, consistent policy works. Which is exactly why backtracking now would be a mistake. Rolling back targets or creating uncertainty would slow investment and innovation.

Burnham had his chance at the last General Election. He didn't have to seek a third term as Mayor of Manchester. There is no way he wouldn't have got a good constituency to fight, but he chose not to bring his "Manchester Method" along to help Labour fight the election.

🎯

China crossed 50% (53.9%) penetration in EV heavy-duty truck sales — not cars or buses: heavy freight, the brutally economic transport segment. 2025 sales hit 231,100 units (+182% YoY); annual penetration jumped to 28.9% from 13.6% in 2024. Tipping point — diesel demand destruction accelerates. #LFP

China’s NEV boom isn’t “subsidy-driven.” In 2025, NEVs were 54% of new passenger car sales (~12.86m units). National subsidies ended in 2022 — sales accelerated anyway. EVs are cost-competitive, ICE is penalised in cities, and electrification is strategic. This is what mature transitions look like.

Fossil fuels and ICE aren’t being “challenged.” They’re being made obsolete. Betting your economy on them in the 21st century is like investing in steam power after electrification — or horse carriages after the combustion engine. It’s not conservative. It’s suicidal. #EVs #BESS #Renewables #LFP

"Your base supporters are crucial because they're the ones sharing, discussing, and framing these moments in everyday conversations. When they're demoralised, they either stay silent or actively undermine your messaging, allowing opponents to dominate the narrative space." -@demofuturist.bsky.social

It's a pity you are not getting any media coverage because of other things going on.

“Must we always kiss Trump’s arse?” Piece from me on how our relationship with the US is abusive now, not “special” It's time for the UK and Europe to put our own interests first and break with a rogue superpower comment.press/starm10126

First rate from @billemmott.bsky.social - even though it has stolen some of my planned thunder! open.substack.com/pub/billemmo...

“If there was ever a tipping point in the dark age of fascism that engulfs America, it should be the cold-blooded murder of a young woman driving home from dropping her kid off at school.” (Repost with correct image)

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

Experts don’t lose public debates because they’re wrong. They lose because they’re hard to hear. In energy, complexity without a clear takeaway gets ignored. Simpler, louder stories take its place. My latest piece is about starting with clarity and then layering nuance. medium.com/@jan.rosenow...

The cynics think today's attack on Venezuela is staged and transactional. Maduro is allied with Putin, but in 2019 Putin offered Trump a swap: Russia cedes Venezuela and gets Ukraine. (See Fiona Hill's testimony in Trump's first impeachment trial, h/t @davetroy.com). Even Maduro may be in on it. 2/