Matthew Robins

That’s why the MoD has warned the British govt that @Ed_Miliband’s windmills means the UK is like a sitting duck. It’s also why: 1/ 🇸🇪 The Swedish government banned 13 offshore wind projects in the Baltic Sea in late 2024. Military tests proved turbines compress the early-warning window for a Russian missile strike from several minutes to just 60 seconds - meaning they could likely not intercept. 2/ 🇺🇸 As of early 2026, the Trump administration has paused construction on all major U.S. offshore wind projects. A Pentagon report concluded that "Doppler clutter" from the blades makes it impossible for coastal radar to distinguish between turbines and incoming drone swarms or sea-skimming missiles. 3/ 🇬🇧 In Britain, the MoD is spending £1.5 billion (Project Njord) just to mitigate current radar interference. Miliband has shifted these costs from private developers to the taxpayer to maintain the "cheap wind" narrative, while the RAF warns that turbine-induced blind spots remain the primary obstacle to a future £10 billion missile defense shield. 4/ 🇩🇪 Germany’s 2026 Procurement Act now enforces a 50km "assessment zone" around all military radar, covering one-third of the country. This gives the Bundeswehr a de facto veto over wind construction to ensure air-defense integrity is not impaired by energy policy. 5/ 🇵🇱 Last December, Russian-linked actors used "wiper" malware to attack 30 Polish wind farms during a winter storm. By bricking the hardware, they caused a total "loss of view and control" for grid operators. This proved that decentralized energy replaces a few high-security targets with thousands of "digital back doors" for adversaries. The reality: Wind energy requires billions in hidden defense and cybersecurity retrofits to offset radar degradation. This vulnerability is compounded by the supply chain: Chinese firms now account for over 70% of global turbine manufacturing and refine nearly 100% of the critical minerals required to build them. In the new mode of war, this is an integrated strategic catastrophe. (And we thought the problem was the migratory pattern of birds .)

I was working on shale gas in the mid 2010s. I started in late 2013. By March 2014 Putin had annexed Crimea with his “little green men”. That should have been the strategic jolt. Around the same time NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned that Russia was actively backing efforts to undermine European shale development in order to preserve its leverage over gas markets. He was ignored. Instead of recognising what Crimea signalled about power, vulnerability and the weaponisation of energy, our complacent governing class dragged its heels and doubled down on Milibandism. Every bogus argument advanced by green activists and outright malevolents about shale was indulged. The sector’s liberating potential was waved away. We were told it would take too long to matter. We were told we imported very little gas directly from Russia. Its reputation was systematically trashed. Claims were made that it would cause cancer and wipe out local house prices. For many of its opponents, their delusional and idealistic ends entirely justified whatever underhand means were required. Then came 2022. A full scale invasion of Ukraine. An energy price shock. Britain left exposed to European gas markets and reliant on LNG. In 2025 the OBR was clear. Covid, the global financial crisis and the Ukraine shock have left the country with minimal fiscal headroom for the next crisis. When @trussliz argued in 2022 that we needed to lift the shale ban and address the root causes of our vulnerability, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and a tranche of cowardly backbench Conservatives lined up to block it. As with opponents of new nuclear in the 2000s, some said it was not worth doing because it would take two to four years to scale. As if long term resilience were a reason for paralysis. Her critics owe her an apology. Four years on we are staring at another perilous moment. The structural exposure has not diminished. It has deepened. On an industrial level we are weaker than before Ukraine. We no longer produce ammonia - which is needed for fertiliser and explosives. Steelmaking is on the brink. The petrochemical sector is on the cliff edge. These industries sit at the base of the economic and defence pyramid. Once they go, they are extraordinarily difficult to rebuild. Yet ideological MPs still insist that increasing domestic gas supply, onshore and offshore, would not enhance national security. It is perverse reasoning. Ideology is being placed above the national interest. The irony is stark. The same drilling and subsurface technologies are quietly deployed in Cornwall for geothermal projects with little objection! But these same MPs will be the first to feign surprise when our domestic politics grows more extreme and more caustic as living standards are hit again. Social division will widen. Public morale will erode at precisely the moment when cohesion is most needed. We urgently need to reindustrialise and rearm. That demands abundant, reliable domestic energy. To run down the fossil fuel sector in a hardening world - when we have not decarbonised warfare - is the modern equivalent of advocating disarmament after Manchuria in 1931, Abyssinia in 1935, the remilitarisation of the Rhineland in 1936 and the Sudeten crisis in 1938. Our heavy industries cannot withstand another supply side shock. By narrowing our own energy base, we create the conditions in which adversaries can exploit our weakness. My message to all patriotic and decent Labour MPs, trade unionists and activists, and there are many of them, is simple. Moments like this test seriousness. They test whether party loyalty comes before country. If you believe in the national interest, then say so. Stand up for energy realism. Stand up for domestic industrial strength. Stand up for credible deterrence. History is unforgiving of those who see the danger but shrink from its implications.

🚨 The death toll at the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ primary school in Minab has risen to 148 dead and 95 wounded, Iranian state media reported. Most of those killed were between the ages of 7 and 12. Video via @MehrnewsCom

The Iranian people in huge numbers are asking us to "Be Our Voice." We must do far more to support fundamental rights in Iran. And the Iranian Regime must stop the arrests, detentions and executions. #WomanLifeFreedom