Mark Andrews: How to cope with an energy crisis, the collapse of NCP, and why it's a bit rich for Donald Trump to call us cowards

Well there's a surprise, isn't it? I'm pretty sure that if it rains on Bank Holiday Monday, the great and the good will be telling us that we need to work from home more, and drive our cars less. And drink lots of water, and sign up to a mobile phone app.

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It never ceases to amaze me, that whatever the problems we face in the world, the first reaction of the establishment is to punish motorists and people who actually work for a living.

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And given the deranged obsession with trying to stop people driving their cars, perhaps it is little surprise that car park operator NCP has now fallen into administration. While I feel some sadness for the people whose livelihoods will be affected, my sympathy is somewhat tempered by the fact that NCP was one of the biggest providers of those civil parking enforcement wardens employed by local councils. 

A few less traffic wardens on the street is surely a good thing.

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Meanwhile, Donald Trump brands his Nato allies 'cowards', and said that the failure of the alliance - and Britain in particular - to help him secure the Strait of Hormuz was 'a foolish mistake' that 'won't be forgotten.'

Call me a cynic, but I suspect these are the words he has been itching to say ever since he returned to office. Part of me thinks we may have played into his hands - after all, allowing the US access to our bases to protect the world's shipping lanes is hardly an act of aggression, and the engineering malfunctions which have delayed HMS Dragon's journey to the Mediterranean have made us a global laughing stock.

On the other hand, it is a bit rich somebody who dodged the draft to Vietnam calling Nato cowards. And of course, the United States was not exactly very supportive when the British and French wanted to stop a mad Middle Eastern dictator seizing control of the Suez Canal. That should not be forgotten, either.

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As fuel prices soar, the Government will doubtless come under renewed pressure to provide subsidies for domestic energy. The Chancellor would be wise to resist this, unless she can make a case for spending cuts elsewhere to cover the cost.

It seems to have been long forgotten that when Liz Truss and Kwarsi Karteng crashed the economy in 2022, her biggest spending commitment was not a relatively small cut to income tax, but a ridiculously generous attempt to peg energy prices at an affordable level following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Laudable though that may have been, it proved once and for all that every spending commitment comes at a price. It was reversed by Jeremy Hunt before it was even implemented, but by then millions of people - myself included - were lumbered with greatly increased mortgage payments.

The experience should also have proved that excessive borrowing is dangerous, and that while macho talk about defying the bond markets may play well at Glastonbury or on university campuses, only an imbecile would be mad enough to put that into practice. Take note, Andy Burnham.