It takes a ‘special’ kind of person to still believe that a country can run itself on sunshine and breezes.

Idolatry, zealotry, and good old-fashioned pig ignorance are worn like badges of honour amongst the wind and sun cult.

Claims range from the ‘wind is always blowing somewhere’, ‘wind power is cheaper than coal’, and ‘competitive’ with everything under the sun blah, blah, blah.

Another mantra is that, either wind power receives no subsidies at all or, if that’s grudgingly conceded, then the subsidies to wondrous wind dwarf those shoveled out to evil fossil fuels. (On the latter they struggle to come up with a shred of evidence to support their case, and ignore the fact that coal miners and gas extractors and pay very substantial sums in royalties to governments.)

True it is that the manner in which subsidies are filched from unwitting power consumers and siphoned off to…