Friday 7 May 2010

Has Anglesey just lost this...?

  
     
Now that we have a hung parliament and the Lib Dems do appear to hold the balance of power - can we now kiss Wylfa B goodbye?
      

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

NO.

Anonymous said...

Given that the Tories nationally are opposed to subsidising nuclear power, and the Lib Dems are flat out against, I'd say yes.

Anonymous said...

Well if it a "YES" it's Anglesey constituents own fault ! they voted for hung parliament by voting in mass for the socialist parties.

Un o Fôn

wylfa B said...

the Lib Dems will just have to be told that this policy area is of such strategic national importance, that is ensuring our energy security, that it is non negotiable, whether we have a Labour or Conservative-led government.

Anon 7 said...

"Given that the Tories nationally are opposed to subsidising nuclear power..."

Are they? If so, their manifesto certainly supports nuclear power - one reason I'd never vote for them.

What's the figure? For each job created by nuclear, for the same investment, you get 10 times more jobs in the renewables sector.

One day, all these bloody cold war mentality people will die off and sense will shine through.

Sospan said...

No, I hope not. Anglesey needs this investment in jobs. Albert Owen now knows what is required of him. He must not fail in his duty to bring jobs to the Island. Equally Ieuan W Jones must stand firm against his party's policy and support Wylfa B. Both should also exert maximum influence to sort out the mess that is IOACC. Otherwise we will never see the economic recovery reach our shores.?

Anonymous said...

Sospan said; "Ieuan W Jones must stand firm against his party's policy and support Wylfa B."

best thing he could do for Anglesey is announce he's retiring, quite frankly. Haven't we had enough evidence of how weak he is in leadership, persuasion etc.

If he can't carry his own party on such an impotant issue as this...what hope for Mon with him?

And he hides conveniently behind the fact that he can't interfere in economic issues on the island because it's his constituency. How very convenient!

So he can't take any credit if there's a new 3 year contract for the north-south air link from Valley to Cardiff, can he?

wylfa b ok said...

Whatever party is in power, we will still need nuclear power, if we are to meet the country's commitment to reducing emissions as stipulated in international agreements. Otherwise we will need to drastically reduce the United Kingdom's power consumption, which effectively means no heavy industry and an over reliance on power imported from Europe.

The Conservatives are for nuclear power but against the Infrastructure Planning Commission which was to decide the planning application for Wylfa B. Their candidate was for the new power station.

Wylfa B is still viable, has many positives, what has changed is not the question will it be built, but when will it built, which if you where a betting man you would say start date in around 10 years time.

Gareth said...

This has always been a worry for me. I don't think Nuclear Power is the demon some would have you believe, but must be acknowledged that many people are dead against it. By putting all the eggs in one basket (Wylfa B) there is no back-up plan when it doesn't work out.

I'll put my head on the block now, if (and they have to be really) the Lib Dems are part of any coalition government, they will not sanction a new Nuclear Power station. But we have no viable Plan B. If we had fully developed the idea of using tidal power for instance, I could see a Liberal Government pouring money into it, as they are big proponents of new viable energy sources, not being Nuclear.

But as things stand, I think we're pretty much shafted at the moment.

As I said, I have no real problem with Nuclear Power, but many have been so headstrong in trying to promote it, that any alternatives have simply been ignored.

stats man said...

Currently other than coal or gas there is no other viable, dependable or secure means of supplying the likely amount of electricity the UK is likely to need. We need a minimum of 4 new nuclear power stations. This is not as an alternative to other forms such as wind or tidal power but in addition to.

Anon 7 said...

Nice to see some very constructive comments on the nuclear issue, whatever each person's view.

I think there are many truths said here - the lack of vision over many years to invest in perfectly good alternative tenchology (remember how the wave power 'duck' was deliberately made to look useless with doctored data by the Thatcher government, and wondered why they would do that?) The failure to implement energy-saving technology. Yes, the over-promotion of nuclear by big business interests. The 12% hike on your electricity bill to subsidise nuclear. And, in the end, what we have is a pot of jobs in one place. Those are probably to be welcomed, but those jobs don't last forever. What we need is diversity of jobs on Anglesey, and for that, we need to promote small and medium sized businesses. Sadly, that kind of activity is in the hands of useless, expensive quangos and local government affiliated organisations.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Anon7's opener.

I'd like to see a non-fission based nuclear future, but agree with Mr Lovelock that Nuclear power is currently the lesser evil. Still, enough investment and ingenuity expended over the next 40 or so years could sort the energy problem out - so Wylfa B would just be a stopgap - maybe we could charge a fee for housing the potential risk of supplying the energy needs of Liverpool and Manchester (just who do you think is going to use all that electricity that Wylfa B will produce - certainly not the people who live here)

prometheuswrites