Russians cornering market in rope.

So who wants Russia's oil and gas, anyway? Econobrowser asks rhetorically.

"The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them," Lenin is said to have boasted then go on to demonstrate how it is happening.
Simply, the driver has been asleep at the wheel. Especially in the UK.

Natural oil and gas reserves have peaked and declined at an "unexpected" rate, the coal industry smashed in Mrs "T"'s fight with the NUM and subsequent "Dash for gas".

Now we have the British Energy fleet of 30 odd year old power stations falling apart and no engineers to run or build new ones - which will face years of obtusive planning and downright opposition by the zealous nationalists in Scotland.

Now the sleeping mandarinate has belatedly discovered that the much vaunted and subsidised (even by Lottery money - ostensibly for "good" causes) wind farms have to be attached by a wire to the rest of the National Electricity Grid and nobody wants to pay for it.

So we go and buy some more rope - Baltic gas pipelines, Gazprom / ENI hookups, Belgian connectors part owned by Gazprom , already owners of Pennine Energy Ltd., - who want to sink their teeth into Centrica, .... LUKoil on the prowl for ex BP refineries, retail outlets.

..and it is not as if the intentions of the St Petersburg Mafia were clouded in deceit or there was an element of stealth , Ukraine / Georgia / Italy ... Byelorussia coming nicely to the boil for this winter.

... and the stupid lawmaking architects of the EU ETS carbon trading scheme like the dim - witted and gormless Margaret Beckett, inoccent of the swindling schemes of the city money jugglers in their vast and hugely profitable casinos, funded by everyone's pensions, sleep soundly at night, confident in the belief that they are saving the planet.

God help us.