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HAVE YOUR SAY

IS LABOUR INCOMPETENCE TO BLAME FOR CRISIS?

Should the Government be concentrating on other energy sources?

Sunday September 7,2008

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(58)

BRITAIN is running out of power and will suffer from inevitable blackouts in the coming years.

This is the stark warning from the head of an energy think-tank who believes power cuts could be serious enough to spark civil disorder.

Campbell Dunford of the respected Renewable Energy Foundation said: “It’s almost too late to do anything about it. Nothing will stop us having to pay very high prices for power in future.

“If we pull our finger out now we can limit blackouts but it’s going to be pretty grim whatever happens.”

Blackouts could force the Government to impose electricity rationing, last seen in the Seventies. The REF report says the Government “should prepare itself to intervene with social policy to prevent hardship and maintain order”.

It criticises ministers for focusing too heavily on such untried renewable energy sources as wind and tide power, rather than making sure that secure new power generation was put in place.

The report concludes: “A near fatal preoccupation with politically attractive but marginal forms of renewables seems to have caused a blindness towards the weakening of the UK’s power stations and a dangerous and helpless vulnerability to natural gas.”

Read more.

Do YOU think the Government is to blame for this energy crisis?

Have YOUR say....

IS LABOUR INCOMPETENCE TO BLAME FOR CRISIS / CRISES..?

19.09.08, 2:31pm

Partly, ...this,... 'what I don't know' goes back a long, long time, it is a long, long story. There are many ways to alleviate suffering / crises. One major point I feel is to keep warm, also to be well fed etc. Get married, buy a ski suit, bully beef out the tin. Go down the local, have a bonfire, they do for Guy Fawkes !

• Posted by: juan01 • Report Comment

THEY HAVE TO ACCEPT PART OF THE BLAME.

16.09.08, 9:26pm

When Nulabour won the election in 1997 they should have had a viable energy policy ready to run.

If they were going to use more nuclear then they should have had plans in place then. You can't build a nuclear power station over night.

Then there is proper house insulation, that should have been in hand, so that every house built after Jan 1 2000 was fully insulated cavity walls, full loft insulation, double glazing, and as they came on the market, no vat on energy saving light bulbs , and vat on standard light bulbs. The same with energy efficent white good, high tax on the less efficant and low or no tax on the high efficent appliences.

Also they should have put up care tax in the gas guzzlers, inc RR and Bentley's, with no tax on the under 1ltr engines.

All simple and easy to do.

of course they were after headlines and spin, not good sensible government. That policy has simply been carried on by Brown when he succeeded Blair.

So as far as the above goes then the government is responsible.

There were of course other things they could have done.

• Posted by: RosieInLondon • Report Comment

IS LABOUR INCOMPETENCE TO BLAME FOR CRISES ?

16.09.08, 12:51pm

Very basic stuff this, ask the Generals.

• Posted by: juan01 • Report Comment

HARVEYMIFF

15.09.08, 12:25am

I agree about the miners striking , but it is , or was a dangerous job.

We have plenty of coal reserves, which can be used ozone friendley and better quality than imported coal.

Maggie closed the mines, and they are all puppets on a string.

• Posted by: goldielocks • Report Comment

WE COULD MINE COAL AGAIN

14.09.08, 12:27pm

This time however, we must set strict rules on miners with no-strike agreements. In the old days, we just threw coal onto a fire and it partially burned leaving gasses and toxic smoke to go into the atmosphere. The modern way to burn coal is to compress it to a fine dust and inject it into the flames to give off pure super heat with no waste.

We do have enough coal (and I might add, of far superior quality than the rest of the world) but we cannot allow the workers who mine the stuff to hold our country to ransom again. There are devices cheaply available to prevent breathing in dust that caused so many respiratory problems in the past. I doubt that modern Health and Safety regulations would ever allow miners to be exposed to the hazards of many years ago. In the future, no miner should ever suffer again from pneumoconiosis.

• Posted by: Harveymiff • Report Comment

JOHN ROHAN IS RIGHT

11.09.08, 12:57am

Extra people in this country, illegal or legal, is obviously adding to the energy problem.

The Government are wanting to build more houses, to accommodate these extra people.

More electiricity will be used

More gas will be used

More WATER will be used

How can such a tiny country sustain all of these extra people?

And JohnRohan is also right about Germany - they are also heading for a recession, along with Spain, and the people there will also have problems paying for their utilities.

Not to the tune of our bills though. I expect Germany will be like France and have a cap on price hikes.

It is our Government who will do b*gger all about the big businesses creaming in the cash. The Government will be relishing the extra tax gleaned from the higher bills.

Yet another thing LFDM appears to think the Government are blameless for.

Wake up and smell the coffee LFDM! Slagging John Rohan off because he says what most people are thinking won't change anything.