Is Rishi on 'the wrong side of history'?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 31 July 2023
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rishi Sunak is handing out around one hundred new oil and gas licences for North Sea drilling and says it is entirely consistent with his plans for net-zero. But his former energy minister has said the government is 'on the wrong side of history'.
Can you get to clean energy by going back for more fossil fuels? Will voters thank him at the ballot box if he can make the transition less painful?
And what do the Independence-intent SNP make of this? We ask their leader for Westminster, Stephen Flynn.
Later, we ask what's happening in Niger? As a military coup in one of the world's poorest countries leaves it wide open to Russian mercenary influence. We talk to journalist and geopolitical expert Tim Marshall.
Editor: Tom Hughes
Senior Producer: Gabriel Radus
Producer: Laura FitzPatrick
Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell
Video Producer: Will Gibson Smith
The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.6 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:12.8 | Let me just ask you finally before you go. |
| 0:14.2 | How are you getting up here to make this green announcement today? Private jet? |
| 0:18.3 | I'll be flying as I normally would, and that is the most efficient use of my time. |
| 0:22.8 | But again, I think actually that question brings to life a great debate here. If you or others |
| 0:27.8 | think that the answer to climate change is getting people to ban everything that they're doing, |
| 0:31.8 | to stop people flying, to stop people going on holiday. I mean, I think that's absolutely the wrong approach. |
| 0:38.8 | That was Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, unveiling his new Norseye oil drilling and carbon |
| 0:44.1 | capture scheme. And he was speaking on BBC Radio Scotland in a very brief five-minute interview this morning. |
| 0:50.2 | And that answer that he gave there is quite revealing, the way he turned it around on the |
| 0:55.1 | interviewer, because that is the message that Sunak and the Conservatives are going to take |
| 1:01.0 | all the way up to the next general election, and we've seen plenty of clues for it now. |
| 1:06.2 | Putting net zero front and centre and saying that the Conservatives will implement it and manage it |
| 1:12.3 | in a way which fundamentally doesn't change your life and the other side will. |
| 1:17.7 | So today we're going to hear about those hundred or so new oil and gas sea licenses. |
| 1:23.8 | What does this tell us about the drilling and digging of and for fossil fuels in an age of net zero? |
| 1:31.9 | And what does it tell us about the Conservatives approach more generally to climate |
| 1:37.3 | and how much they've been swayed by one by-election result two weeks ago in Uxbridge? |
| 1:43.9 | Welcome to the Newsagents. |
| 1:48.5 | The Newsagents. |
| 1:50.1 | It's Emily. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Global, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Global and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.