What stands out here is not just the scale of the win but the near-total absence of contest on the No side. With 104 of 145 votes for opening up the North Sea against 41 opposed, this was as one-sided as referenda on this platform get, and the losing side left only two opinions to the winners' six, neither of which drew a single mark of respect from the floor.
The Yes case, so far as it argued at all, rested on one clear proposition, expressed most crisply by the chamber's most-respected voice: "We have to import oil and gas from other areas of the world so it makes sense to use our own supply, cut out the middle man, bring the revenues into our tax system and cut the 'carbon emissions' by stopping moving it half way around the world." Others piled in behind the same instinct rather than adding new ground — several simply cheering "drill baby drill" or, in one case, extending the logic to coal and fracking as well, framing energy self-sufficiency as plain common sense against what one voter called being "ruled by madmen." A couple treated new drilling as a bridge to nuclear rather than an end in itself, wanting oil only "as a stopgap" until reactors and grid upgrades arrive.
The No side, thinly represented, made the ecological case rather than the economic one, warning that drilling "damages oceans and reduces the areas we can fish" and pointing to the incongruity of debating fossil fuel expansion while "three quarters of the country is currently in a drought." Neither side really engaged the background context's own complication — that new fields take five to ten years and feed a global market that will not directly cut UK bills — leaving the debate a clash of instincts about energy independence versus climate risk rather than a reckoning with the economics actually in play.
The result sits squarely on the fault line running through Labour's own restriction of new licences and the pressure since from industry and Washington alike to reopen the taps, and this chamber, at least, has answered that pressure with a shrug toward renewables and a loud vote for the drill.
The most telling number here may not be 72% but zero — the respect the platform gave to the side that still won two in five of the room's votes.
8 Opinions
Yes obviously. And we should frack and reopen the coal fields. The UK has an estimated 823 million tonnes of economically recoverable surface-mineable (opencast) coal resources). It’s crazy to import our energy from other countries when we are sitting on so much.
We need to invest in the national grid so we can manage renewable energy. We don't need more fossil fuel use and the accompanying ecological problems. Three quarters of the country is currently in a drought yet we are still discussing burning carbon fuels and destroying ecosystems. At some point soon we have to just stop.
Oil drilling is an ecological nightmare that damages oceans and reduces the areas we can fish. We need to be investing in renewables.
As Angel says drill baby drill and watch the money pour in
Until we build our nuclear, there will not be a better energy source. Only crazy people will insist to import the same from Norway or similar from elsewhere. We are ruled by madmen (madwomen).
We have to import oil and gas from other areas of the world so it makes sense to use our own supply, cut out the middle man, bring the revenues into our tax system and cut the "carbon emissions" by stopping moving it half way around the world.
Just as a stopgap to help pay for the National Grid upgrade and small nuclear reactors we actually need. No more windmills.
Obvio!!! Drill baby drill stop the climate change scam and strat drilling and Fracking !