Blog: Cameron is styling Britain as a fracker's paradise

Decorous as ever, David Cameron’s been at it this week, waving his Y-fronts in the general direction of big wads of shale gas cash. Oh, how things change in a […]

Decorous as ever, David Cameron’s been at it this week, waving his Y-fronts in the general direction of big wads of shale gas cash.

Oh, how things change in a few brief months.

Last summer at the height of the Balcombe village tea party, our esteemed Prime Minister wouldn’t have been seen dead near a fracking site.

But on Monday, the UK’s leader toured a potential shale gas well, a day after news broke French oil major Total is ready to plunge millions into the East Midlands in the hope of a good frack.

And yesterday afternoon in front of MPs, just before he said it was “realistic” for his Government to claim it’s the greenest ever, he made a decent stab at aligning himself with the frackers, suggesting a minority of people are “religiously opposed” to shale gas, declaring this “irrational”.

Even a tacky “Welcome to Las Vegas”-style sign plonked in the English Channel would have been a subtler come on to the biggest frackers in the planet.

But it won’t be an easy chat up. Britain a fracker’s paradise? Environmental activists have been a thorn in the side of the country’s first shale gas prospectors Cuadrilla. They’ll be a pain in the butt for any future drillers.

Meanwhile we have the run up to the general election and though as diplomatic as ever when probed on the Coalition tensions yesterday, true blue (or is it green?) Tory Cameron said his Lib Dem government colleagues are “a bit more gung ho” about a decarbonisation target.

All of which adds to the impression that for energy politicking, it’s going to be a fascinating, frack-tious year.

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