3 February

In Australia heat pumps (air conditioning we use in homes and many businesses) are not really a debate. Because they don’t really threaten status hierarchies here. In the UK it’s a furious fight, with the sorts of hysterical drivel we see about EVs and wind farms here also dished out to heat pumps. Why? Because heat pumps there threaten status, of those aligned with the gas industry mostly. Britons do a lot of home heating with gas. That’s what high status people and groups do, when they want to oppose change, they start a fight about it. Like Dutton and nuclear and Joyce and wind farms. That fight - the team sports - mobilises voters behind them, and creates an impression the facts are open to question. The same old trick, for every issue, you can’t miss it. Heat pumps a total non-issue here and a bare-knuckle fight there shows what’s really in play. It’s not facts.