The Cost of The Credit (and Green-con) Crunch

Taxpayers in Britain face up to 5p in the pound in extra taxes because of the credit crunch created by the banks, leading economists have warned," says The Sunday Times, bemoaning in its leader that, "It's the ordinary folk who carry the can."

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Indeed they do - particularly small businesses - and it was ever thus but, while the paper is rightly getting excited about this latest raid on our wallets, another one is around the corner which will cost us, potentially, even more.

That being the EU's emission trading scheme (ETS) which, with other levies and taxes, is set to add anything up to £15 billion a year to all our bills (no one knows precisely how much – so this is a conservative estimate) – also, by some strange coincidence, equivalent to 5p in the pound in extra taxes, and that is likely to be only a start.

.Worst still, this "tax" is regressive, which means those on lower incomes are hit proportionately harder than the wealthy.Amazingly, the political classes in Britain seem to be totally unaware of what awaits us. This is perhaps indicated by a post in Conservative Home today which "reveals" the exclusive news that a senior frontbencher has told the site that, "as part of an ongoing review of economic policy, higher green taxation is very unlikely to feature in the next Conservative manifesto."

.So "can politicians be that ignorant?" Can they be so ignorant that they are apparently so heedless of what it to come that they can make statements as utterly facile and meaningless as appears on the Conservative Home site.

Well yes es they can! – which makes Booker's column today a timely corrective.In his piece, he picks up the connection between Lehman Brothers and the climate change industry, and between the company and those two great climate change evangelists, al Gore and James Hanson. What drives this development is the growing realisation by European governments – and the EU commission – that the emissions reductions targets they have set themselves for 2020 and beyond are unachievable without massive damage to the economies of developed nations and, in particular, the need to force electricity generators to shut down their plants, leaving their customers cold and in the dark.

That Bankers Lehman Brothers – and before them Enron – were so keen on this scheme tells you all you need to know. It comes from the same stable as the securitisation packages of sub-prime mortgages, a financial empire built on foundations of sand.Many people warned of the dangers of the "credit crunch", but some of those who are popping up now are exposed to accusations of being wise after the event.

Yet, in the "green-con boom", the wiz-kids are preparing the ground for another financial bubble – a "climate change crunch" if you like - the consequences of which will be just as damaging as the present crisis. As The Sunday Times so rightly observes, "It's the ordinary folk who carry the can." Christopher Booker, (Booker's column today) as he is so often, is being wise before the event.

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