It’s an offer we can refuse. The Labour government has identified a number of sites across Scotland on which it would like to build new nuclear power plants. A report was published this week by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the political ashtray Michael Shanks, the most disappointing MP in a party defined by disappointment, which asserted that Scotland has “high potential” for new nuclear energy development. The areas the report named as being prime real estate for radioactivity include the existing nuclear sites at Torness in East Lothian, Hunterston in North Ayrshire, Dounreay in Caithness plus fresh sites around the Firth of Forth and the East Coast. The report actually writes “the Firth of Forth estuary” which alone tells us that it was written by someone with little knowledge or understanding of Scotland. “Firth” literally means estuary. Saying “Firth of Forth estuary” is like saying “Loch Lomond lake”, Glen Coe valley”, or “Ben Nevis mountain.” It’s tautological and could only have been written by a person whose knowledge of Scotland is limited and Anglo-centric.
Scotland doesn’t need nuclear. Scotland already regularly produces more clean electricity than it needs for domestic consumption. In 2014 Scotland achieved a historic milestone when renewable generation already reached the equivalent of 113% of the country’s gross electricity consumption. New wind power generation is set to come online in the next few years. The Berwick Bank Wind Farm is located 38km off the East Lothian/Scottish Borders coast. Approved as one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms, it will feature up to 307 turbines and is capable of powering over six million homes. This project alone will be capable of providing twice as much electricity as Scotland needs for its own use. This project is targeted to come online in 2030 or 2031. The Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm is currently under construction 15km off the Angus coastline. This 1.1GW project features 72 turbines and will transport power to a new substation in East Lothian. The project is due to come online next year.
There are also additional projects aimed at boosting the output of Scotland’s existing onshore wind generation capacity. All these projects involve tried and tested technology.
Still in the developmental stages are projects aimed at harvesting Scotland’s immense potential for tidally generated electricity. This is likely to become an important contributor to Scottish electricity generation in the coming decades. Tidal energy is not dependent on the weather and will provide a regular and dependable source of energy even when the wind isn’t blowing or on cloudy days when solar generation is less efficient. There have recently been huge strides made in battery storage, which will help to ensure a constant and reliable supply of power to the grid. Also in development are three new hydroelectric projects in Scotland which will create new pumped storage which will assist in guaranteeing a regular and constant supply of electricity to the grid.
The Loch Kemp project, being developed by Statera Energy, plans to draw water from Loch Ness, and SSE’s Coire Glas project expects to draw water from Loch Lochy. Meanwhile Gilkes Energy’s Earba project will use Loch Leamhain and Loch Earba to create the UK’s largest pumped storage hydro facility. Scotland possesses over 85% of the UK’s hydroelectric potential.
Nuclear energy projects are ruinously expensive. Sizewell C nuclear power plant costs have risen to £38bn, almost double the original estimate of £20bn. The rising cost will add £1 a month to household energy bills for at least a decade. The Hinckley Point nuclear plant in Somerset was originally scheduled to go online in 2025, however it is now expected to begin operation in 2030. The costs of the project have ballooned. Originally forecast to cost £18bn, the project is now expected to come in at a final cost of £49bn.
Labour’s recent Holyrood manifesto hailed nuclear energy as “clean”. It’s only clean if you don’t count the radioactive waste which nuclear power plants produce, waste which will have to be safely disposed of and some of which will remain hazardous for thousands of years. It’s clear that the Labour government favours Scotland as a site for new nuclear power as Scotland offers more potential locations for the dumping of radioactive waste produced in order to generate electricity for England.
Scotland does not need nuclear energy. What the Labour government in Westminster is currently proposing are promises which the Scottish branch office included in its manifesto for the recent Holyrood election. This included a commitment to ending the Scottish Government’s current block on new nuclear and the development of small modular nuclear reactors. The Scottish people had a chance to give their verdict on this proposal just a few weeks ago and as we know, the election saw Labour go down to its worst defeat in the history of the Holyrood parliament.
Despite this electoral defeat, Labour wants to impose its rejected manifesto on the people of Scotland anyway, as though elections don’t actually mean anything. This same determination to override the democratic choices of the people of Scotland is seen in the proposals from Andy Burnham for elected city regional mayors in Scotland, another proposal which was prominent in Labour’s recent Holyrood manifesto which was resoundingly rejected by the people at the ballot box.
There has been no discussion in the Murrell obsessed British media in Scotland that with its mayoralty and nuclear plans, as well as its determination to keep blocking another independence referendum, the Labour party is making a mockery of the democratic process in Scotland and is effectively rendering the outcome of Scottish elections meaningless. All these issues are being presented by the media in Scotland as “challenges for the SNP” and not what they really are -outrageous attempts by a party which just lost an election badly to ensure that it can ignore the democratic will of the electorate and impose its rejected policies irrespective of the result at the ballot box.
That Labour is attempting to do this is an existential threat to democracy in Scotland, but the media in this country has no interest in upholding democracy or holding anti-independence parties to account. This is a political scandal orders of magnitude greater than anything Murrell did, it’s the theft of democracy itself, and it’s passing almost unnoticed by the British media in Scotland because it suits the media’s anti-independence agenda.
The fact is that Scotland’s ability to export power down south is already constrained, and there’s a lot more wind generated electricity coming online, so you’d think it made more sense for the nuclear to be further south. But voters in England count more. It’s as simple as that in this supposed Union. England gets the electricity, Scotland gets the radioactive waste. Labour’s nuclear offer is one Scotland can and must refuse.
After wrestling for hours with PayPal, I have finally compiled a list of the emails of almost everyone who makes a regular monthly donation to the blog and will soon launch the weekly bonus premium email article for those who make a monthly contribution to the blog. I had hoped to launch this this week but unfortunately it will be delayed for a while. There are a number of people whose emails I am unable to find. Some people donate monthly by Ko-Fi, one makes a monthly donation to last year’s GoFundMe fundraiser, a few people make monthly payments directly by bank transfer. I cannot access the email addresses of any of these people and so cannot add them to the new mailing list. If you are one of these folk, please email me at weegingerbook@yahoo.com and I’ll add you to the mailing list.
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