"Contrast it with Germany where engineers are revered and Angela...

"Contrast it with Germany where engineers are revered and Angela Merkel was a quantum chemist"

Yet the geniuses who run Germany are credited with perhaps the most disastrous energy policy in the history of the world. Energiewend has been a failure of epic proportions. All the wind turbines and solar panels have perversely led to greater co2 output while at the same time making German electricity prices grossly uncompetitive. Billions in investment and hundreds of thousands of jobs are being allocated elsewhere. The only thing that has saved Germany from outright catastrophe is the cover provided by a common currency shared with a bunch of sickly neighbors that has saved exports.

The US is, more or less, taking those jobs and that investment due, in large part, to the unconventional energy revolution in that country. Energy prices are very low in the US and the country is now on the verge of energy self-sufficiency.

Fossil fuels may not be a long term answer, but they will blunt the pain involved in the early stages of adopting renewable technologies. It can't be much clearer for the UK. Follow Germany down a dark hole, or find a path at least somewhat similar to the US where unconventionals play an important role for the next 30-40 yearss while renewable technologies are tested and refined.