Long ago, in 2014, the Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union Group (incorporating eight national trade unions) published a booklet called ‘One Million Climate Jobs’.

This described how, for a relatively small amount of money, one million well-paid, secure jobs could be created in the renewable energy sector, and also in insulating Britain’s leaky homes, the worst in Europe, apart from Ireland. (According to National Energy Action (NEA) and the environmental group E3G, 9,700 deaths a year are caused by living in a cold house. The rate of excess deaths in London is higher than in Helsinki, yet the average temperature in London is 10 per cent higher).

This would have mitigated the horrendous energy prices threatening us, which will be savagely eating into our incomes, as it is quite obvious that if UK houses were better insulated we would be spending less on energy.

A government-run programme of insulating homes across the whole country would have been essential in “levelling up” across the entire UK, the country as a whole greatly benefitting.

This could have been carried out long ago, but, unfortunately, this never happened.

Instead, the Government chose to go down the route of the infamous Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill, criminalising protest, pushing the UK into a police state This was criticised by a large number of organisations, including Amnesty International Luckily common sense prevailed in the Lords and this danger has been averted, at least for now.

Was the Government simply turning down an excellent idea because it was coming from the wrong side of the fence as far as the Conservative Party is concerned?

One Million Climate Jobs is precisely what Insulate Britain has been calling for. IB’s strategy may have made have been better if they had carried out a longer-term publicity campaign proposing insulating Britain’s housing stock. but, at the end of the day, the short-term inconvenience of being held up in a traffic jam is minimal when compared to the long-term situation of having a warmer home and paying lower energy prices.

Incidentally, IB was not blocking cyclists. If the woman in the Range Rover, who when trying to take her son to school attempted to run over an IB protester, had been on a bicycle with her son instead, this incident would never have happened and her son would have had no problems getting to school.

Phil Fletcher

Sopwell Lane, St Albans