Record petrol prices have no doubt contributed to Labour's Crewe-miliation.
It does, of course, suit the Government to blame its unpopularity entirely on economic factors beyond its control.But the weakness of that excuse (apart from it being only partially true) is that even when factors are beyond its control, the job of a competent administration to anticipate and prepare. That's why I was shouting at the radio earlier this week when I heard Malcolm Wicks, the energy minister, claim that no one had predicted the extraordinary spike in oil prices we've seen in recent days.
This is entirely untrue. A series of ever-more extreme price spikes is exactly what those who subscribe to the Peak Oil hypothesis have been predicting. The Peak Oil 'community' is a broad church encompassing everything from informed analysis to manic apocalypticism, but its basic proposition, that conventional oil production will soon peak (or has already) despite a sustained rise in demand, needs to be taken seriously.
Unfortunately, this is not a serious government.
