Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
Energy and equity
Can a pandemic and a climate precipice drive home the message that our addiction to ever-growing energy use must be curbed, asks ALAN SIMPSON

THE images of motorway tailbacks, even before Britain’s lockdown period officially loosened, brought two things home to me. 

The first was that, without clear leadership, crises always take you perilously close to collective insanity.

I’m sure none of the families who decided it was a good moment to nip off to the coast or the countryside ever expected to spend the day walking between stationary vehicles on the motorway. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Workers pack orders on the warehouse floor at the Amazon UK Fulfilment Centre in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
Features / 22 July 2025
22 July 2025

From Amazon’s monitored warehouse hell to delivery workers being paid per package, exploitative work destroys collaborative relationships young people need — more screen time and 12 new AI ‘friends’ will only make things worse, writes ALAN SIMPSON

Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves the end of a press conference on the Immigration White Paper in the Downing Street Briefing Room in London, May 12, 2025
Features / 19 May 2025
19 May 2025

ALAN SIMPSON warns that Starmer’s triangulation strategy will fail just as New Labour’s did, with each rightward move by Labour pushing Tories further right

Franklyn Roosevelt, November 1932
The Futurue / 2 May 2025
2 May 2025

ALAN SIMPSON warns of a dystopian crossroads where Trump’s wrecking ball meets AI-driven alienation, and argues only a Green New Deal can repair our fractured society before techno-feudalism consumes us all

US President Donald Trump stands in the presidential box as
Features / 20 March 2025
20 March 2025
As the ‘NRx movement’ plots to replace democracy with corporate-feudal dictatorship, Britain must pursue a radical alternative of local food security and genuine wealth redistribution to withstand the coming upheaval, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Similar stories
Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves the end of a press conference on the Immigration White Paper in the Downing Street Briefing Room in London, May 12, 2025
Features / 19 May 2025
19 May 2025

ALAN SIMPSON warns that Starmer’s triangulation strategy will fail just as New Labour’s did, with each rightward move by Labour pushing Tories further right

US President Donald Trump stands in the presidential box as
Features / 20 March 2025
20 March 2025
As the ‘NRx movement’ plots to replace democracy with corporate-feudal dictatorship, Britain must pursue a radical alternative of local food security and genuine wealth redistribution to withstand the coming upheaval, writes ALAN SIMPSON
RATIONAL FUTURE: Passenger and freight train on the West Coa
Books / 6 December 2024
6 December 2024
WILL PODMORE welcomes a demonstration of the incomparable virtues of rail travel, and the political obstacles to realising its potential 
STANDS TO REASON: Climate change protest in Whitehall, centr
Features / 2 December 2024
2 December 2024
Undaunted by Big Oil success, ALAN SIMPSON looks at alternatives to lack of courage and imagination stifling the Labour government and it policies