“Blowing my own Trumpet” circa 1961

As a teenager, I studied the trumpet, and played it (rather badly) in the School Orchestra. Since then, I’ve tried to avoid blowing my own trumpet (or at least, not too hard!). But I scored a small success in the last week of January, so please bear with me and let me tell you about it.

I frequently speak in the Industry & Energy Committee, ITRE, in Brussels, and on Monday Jan 26th I produced one of my better efforts. It was two and a half minutes of a concise but rather aggressive critique of European energy policy — which is practically suicidal and is doing huge damage to European economies, and to the British economy.

I Tweeted it, and sent copies to my rather extensive list of contacts around the industry. They liked it. One association of intensive energy users circulated it to their members, and as a result, I found it was already being discussed in animated terms by CBI representatives at an automotive event I attended in Brux next day. I was approached by an industry publication which has asked me for two articles on energy policy.

The speech was picked up on the Global Britain website, (which I cannot commend too highly for its excellent briefing papers on EU-related trade issues). And to cap it all, I was nominated by The Freedom Association as their Parliamentarian of the Week.

There is a striking contrast between, on the one hand, (most) MEPs and the EU institutions, and on the other hand, industry. The politicians are obsessed with climate hysteria, and with what they call “sustainability” (which is of course utterly unsustainable), while industry is focused on survival. So while I am often in a minority in the parliament, it is gratifying to find that major industries largely agree with the UKIP energy policy which I have developed. Indeed many on the industry side are prepared to say (privately at least) that UKIP is the only party with a rational energy policy. (And when I say “industry”, I don’t mean fat-cat capitalists. I mean growth and jobs and investment and exports and tax revenues and economic survival).

In politics, you need a thick skin. You face a steady stream of slings and arrows. So it’s good to get some positive feed-back, once in a while.