Playing With Fire

With its determination to extract more fossil fuels and its useless adaptation plans, does the UK government have any idea what it is igniting? By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 10th September 2026 Pinch yourself, it’s happening again. Here is a Labour government spending a vast amount of political capital to earn tiny material gains, while risking huge political losses. It occurred repeatedly under Keir Starmer, and now – with the impending decision to approve further gas and oil drilling in the North Sea – it is happening under Andy Burnham. You rack your brains to explain it, but no rational explanation comes. Burnham is studiously cryptic about his reasons. His clearest statement to date goes as follows: “There is a resource there. When people are struggling, we can’t ignore that.” Does he mean that oil and gas workers are struggling? If so, this decision will be of little use to them. The Jackdaw gasfield, likely to be approved this week, will generate a grand total of…