Editorial: New North Sea oil and gas licence plan is essential for the UK

This government has, very belatedly, begun to pursue some of the policies that it should have pursued years ago.

Rishi Sunak in his Conservative conference speech last month made a number of welcome pledges, including sticking by a much tougher approach to immigration, which has been out of control in the UK for years.

Now the King’s Speech later this week will confirm that the government plans to mandate oil and gas licensing in the North Sea in order to reduce dependency on "hostile foreign regimes".

The plans are said to provide job security for 200,000 workers in the £16 billion industry, and to help with the transition to net zero in 2050.

But setting aside the specific benefits of this move, which are huge, it is also vital in terms of its symbolism.

Spectacular naivete around energy security has been shown even by one of the most rigorous and science-based and rational countries in modern history, Germany. It foolishly scrapped nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster of 2011. In doing so it abolished an almost carbon-free form of energy, making it far harder for the Germans to slash emissions than a nation such as France, which has wisely kept its high usage of nuclear.

Thus Germany lurched towards the sort of science-free, superstitious approach to nuclear that has meant that Ireland, for example, has no nuclear power and will not countenance such, preferring to play the victim and worry about non-existent threats from nuclear plants in England. It also meant that Germany has been disastrously reliant on Russian gas.

Sadly the UK has flirted with superstition too, and fracking – which has revolutionised America’s energy supply – is off the table.

War in the Middle East has shown the importance of energy security, and so this North Sea move is essential.