Judges setting power coverage is extra terrifying than local weather disaster

Stonehenge de-faced with custard powder is bad enough, but attempting to vandalise the sacred international monument that is Taylor Swift’s private jet? Just Stop Oil has gone too far this time.

By now you will have heard that the activists everyone loves to hate are back in business. And have you noticed that they always wait for nice weather to do their worst?

Discomfort, inconvenience and suffering are what they wreak on other people, never themselves, never their own.

Disrupting the Duke of Westminster’s wedding, issuing an ‘­international ultimatum’ to party leaders, shutting down motorways and roads, throwing jigsaw pieces at Roger Federer? How I loathe these pious ninnies with their ­preposterous demands and ­narcissistic, enraging stunts.

‘What? It’s a bit of dust on a rock,’ sniffed the Stonehenge ­protesters at the national uproar which followed their latest caper. If that was really the case, why bother?

Of course, the irony is that Just Stop Oil have stopped very little oil. If any. They didn’t even ­manage to target the correct plane. Taylor Swift’s jet wasn’t at Stansted ­airport, where the two protesters cut through a perimeter fence to gain access to the apron where the aircraft were parked; a terrifying breach of security that might result in jail sentences.

One can only hope.

Yet while these eco-clowns ­blunder about like naughty ­children high on a sugar rush, there are other climate activists who have been far more successful at effecting change — without ­feeling the need to climb a gantry on the M25 or throw a tin of soup at a painting. They just hired some lawyers instead.

In a landmark decision issued yesterday, the Supreme Court has ruled that Surrey County Council should have considered the ­climate impacts of burning the oil drilled from new wells in Horley when it awarded planning ­permission in 2019.

Previously, those seeking ­planning consent had only to ­consider the impact of emissions produced when extracting fossil fuels — now they must consider the impact of burning those fuels, too.

A piece of pie-in-the-burning-sky case law that will have a major impact on all future fossil-fuel projects in the UK. Indeed, it may stop them in their tracks.

And this judgment from the ­highest court in the land — handed down by a three-to-two majority — was basically over a planning law detail. And I find that even more terrifying than the so-called climate crisis.

Eco-zealots see this as a great victory — but is it? Is it really? In the future the UK will still need oil and gas supplies, even with the predicted huge growth in renewables. With no energy ­security of our own, where will we go shopping for fuel in this increasingly perilous and unstable world?

If anyone thinks we can rely on that nice Mr Putin — or any other oil-rich dictator — not to ­nefariously press home the advantage of his country’s abundant natural energy reserves, they are very much mistaken.

The power that the courts wield to make such far-reaching ­decisions — which could affect national security in this instance — is ­horrifying. Unelected judges are now issuing rulings that affect the lives of millions of people who have no say in the matter.

It is a chokehold on proper ­democratic process — and a ­sobering snapshot of what life is going to be like under PM Keir Starmer, a former lawyer himself.

In the recent past, lawyers have stopped convicted criminals and illegal immigrants from being flown back to their countries of origin. And using the European Convention on Human Rights, they have repeatedly stopped the Rwanda Bill. By doing so, they are also ­stopping the will of the elected Houseof Commons and thereby the will of the people.

Now they appear to have shut down the future of an entire ­industry at the stroke of a pen, ushering in the beginning of the end of new fossil fuel extraction in this county. A coal mine in Cumbria, approved by the Government in 2022, must now be under threat.The ruling could also have a bearing on offshore oil and gas projects such as the giant ­Rosebank field in the North Sea. Whether you think this legal ­development is right or wrong, surely the public should have some say in the matter?

Future governments might argue that the economic situation or energy-security benefits of extracting fossil fuels outweigh the ­environmental impacts of burning them — but will these new, all-powerful lawyers ever allow them?

In the meantime, the factories in Guangdong thunder through the night while the oil refineries in Nizhnevartovsk still pump out hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil every day. We’re going to be an international laughing-stock, just like Just Stop Oil.

Liz is a basket case

Darlings, what is Liz Hurley wearing on her head at Royal Ascot? I suppose it is a nice enough hat if you want that ‘whipped egg whites in a make-your-own basket starter kit’ look — and she obviously does.

Or maybe her director son Damian made it in his ­raffia class, between writing a script and assembling the cast list for his new film? As always, there was one name at the top of his actress wish list — MUMMY.

Anyway, I wonder if you can pick up alien frequencies on that thing? Liz’s slightly glazed expression does suggest that she might be hearing strange voices in her head. Still, doesn’t she look marvellous?

Two first class Post heroes deliver a damning verdict

Ian Henderson and Ron ­Warmington were so marvellously impressive at the Post Office Inquiry this week — quiet, determined and honest, the living embodiment of integrity. They also evinced a command of memory and grasp of detail that shames all those slippery Post Office executives who gave evidence before them — and could barely ­remember their own names.

Sometimes heroes wear suits, not capes. And sometimes they are even accountants, like these two. ‘I’ve waited 12 years for this,’ said Warmington, before going into court. He and Henderson both believe that Post Office officials should face criminal charges. So does Lord Arbuthnot, who was still an MP back in 2009 when he began helping the wrongly accused postmasters in his constituency.

‘Justice has to be visited on the people who caused this ghastly story,’ he said this week. And it can’t come a day too soon.

Prince Andrew wants to bequeath the lease of Royal Lodge to his daughters — is that even in his gift? King Charles is desperate to turf his black sheep younger brother and his grasping ex-wife out of the luxury property with its adorable peppercorn rent, but Andrew and Fergie won’t budge. They are nothing but a pair of barnacles, living it large on a royal barge. And they want their workshy daughters Freebiana and Freeby to continue on the family tradition. Civil wars have been started for less. I hope it never happens.

This Morning host Cat Deeley has found herself in trouble with The Epilepsy Society. They didn’t take kindly to her joking that she looked like she was ‘having a ­seizure’ when dancing on the show.

‘Please do better,’ they rather sanctimoniously tweeted, ­adding that having a seizure was ‘no ­laughing matter’ for people with epilepsy. Of course it’s not, we all know that — but the tyranny of the Oppression Olympics in matters like this is so souring and helps nobody. While her words might have been a touch insensitive, Deeley was poking fun at herself, not anyone else.

Meanwhile, ‘I’m having a fit’, ‘I’m having a heart attack’, ‘I’m having a breakdown’ — it’s all part of the rough and tumble of public discourse. Trying to pretend it is anything else reduces us all.

Meghan, the perfect third choice for Kev

Kevin Costner has repeated his claim that Princess Diana wanted to play the female lead in a putative ­follow-up to his hit chick flick The Bodyguard — and has told of a one-on-one chat he had with Prince William. ‘You know my mum kind of fancied you,’ William told him. ‘I know,’ nodded Kevin, modestly. What is he like?

To be fair, we all fancied Kev back in the day. But would Diana ever have gone through with appearing in his film? Can you imagine the outrage if she had? Charles nearly had a fit — whoops! — when she danced onstage with Wayne Sleep. His wife ­starring in a Hollywood ­film would have pushed him right over the edge. Sadly, neither Diana nor the original star Whitney Houston are still with us for Bodyguard 2. But if they do make a sequel, there is a certain out-of-work actress in­ Montecito who just might be available.

To the Today programme on Radio 4, where newbie Emma Barnett caused a stir by calling armed terrorists who kidnapped a 75-year-old Israeli grandmother ‘men working for Hamas’. This was the latest jarring example of the BBC refusing to call Hamas what they are — cold-blooded terrorists. On the day Ada Sagi was captured last October, Hamas killed over 1,100 people and kidnapped more than 250. What more do they have to do to prove their murderous credentials to the BBC?

Men who work for Hamas — who they? Gardeners? Roof tilers? Emma makes Hamas sound like just another caring, sharing Middle East employer, offering staff benefits that include flexi working hours, a free house slave (if ­available) and a 72-virgin package upon retirement or death, which usually happen simultaneously. It’s so insulting.