Great Britain is in the middle of the largest boom in chimney sweeps since Victorian times, the Cato Institute reports.
The boom is a result of high gas and electricity prices.
According to the Cato Institute:
Why are the energy prices so high? The British government’s pathological obsession with renewable sources of energy. Converting renewable energy (e.g., wind and solar) is much more expensive than conventional sources of energy (e.g., coal and gas). Since the government mandates that a certain percentage of energy consumption has to consist of renewable sources, energy prices are rising – fast.
That leads to this amazing paradox: Progressivism started in Victorian England – a time and place of tremendous and unprecedented material and social progress that, nonetheless, also had a darker side. The stories of workers living in freezing and damp dwellings, children chimney sweeps suffocating while on the job, and environmental degradation, were both horrific and true.The evolution of progressivism has come full circle and progressives have turned reactionary: To combat the (highly uncertain) effects of climate change, modern-day progressives have embraced policies that lead to more burning of wood, freezing homes for the poor and vulnerable, and chimney sweeps back at work.