I do not share your enthusiasm for the “good news” that Sizewell C is believed to be safe from Jeremy Hunt’s budgetary cuts (“Britain can’t afford to waver over nuclear power – soon it will be too late”, Editorial). “On a freezing cold, windless, winter’s evening”, Britain’s grid will indeed need an alternative power source to wind or solar, but why is it assumed that only nuclear can provide an alternative base load? And at the cost of how many billions? And how many decades of lead time?
Geothermal could do the job faster, more safely and cheaply – for about a quarter of the cost. Geothermal power plants operate already in the United States, Italy and Iceland. And nothing is more certain and regular than the tide twice a day; sea turbines already operate in tidal flows off Orkney and Shetland and are another safe source of energy baseload. Let us not be blinkered by nuclear.
Wendy Fowler
Carnac-Rouffiac, France
Your leader on Sizewell C ignores a couple of factors that are key to our local objections. First, the coastline on which Sizewell A and B are built and Sizewell C is proposed is disintegrating at an increasingly alarming rate – just two weeks’ ago a building at nearby Thorpeness had to be demolished due to collapse of the cliffs. Second, there is insufficient water in Suffolk to build and operate Sizewell C, which was one of the main reasons the government’s own planning inspectorate advised against it recently. Water is planned to be found through the construction of desalination plants – these require huge amounts of energy, but more importantly the waste salt and other minerals from the extraction process will be put back into the sea, poisoning the waters around for miles.
There are other reasons why this is a disastrous location: it is a site of special scientific interest and an area of outstanding natural beauty and the prototype for this type of reactor has yet to be proved at Flamanville – still not operational, years over schedule and way over budget. Nuclear has moved on since the design of these reactors. The government should think again.
Rosie Hoare
Saxmundham, Suffolk
No wonder we Irish are off
“There’s not many left,” noted Peggy O’Donoghue, a long-time Irish resident in your highly revealing article (“Britain’s dwindling Irish community mourn the fading of a great migration”, Focus).
But what your article didn’t ask is what is the attraction of the UK to young Irish people in 2022? England is no longer the land of opportunity it once was. Brexit and the negative media attitudes that painted a picture of a country that didn’t welcome foreigners only encouraged young people to emigrate to America, Australia, South Africa and Europe.
Ireland has emerged from the shadow of a colonial power and the grip of the Catholic church and developed into a well-educated, diverse and globalised society. Like many others, I left Ireland in 1990 because of a lack of opportunities at home. Today, the opportunities on offer to school leavers in Ireland are much improved.
Ireland is not without its problems, such as a lack of affordable housing and unequal income distribution, but at least we have a generation who have hope for their country. I don’t see that in England today.
Stuart Finegan
Lewes
Get Brexit undone
I do not agree with your correspondent Tanya Firth when she says that the Labour party did not support remain in the EU referendum (Letters). As an ordinary Labour party member, I canvassed, telephoned and door-knocked to stay in the EU following a six-point question list from national Labour.
It was a deeply unpleasant experience and many of my colleagues stopped because of the nightly racist comments. One night it was against Poles, the next Romanians. When Boris Johnson announced the Turks were coming, they were the target. We can see the same today with the hatred being generated against asylum seekers.
Steven Bowditch
Stanwix, Carlisle
I wholeheartedly agree with David Mitchell’s critical analysis of politics as the art of the possible when concluding that “reversing Brexit would be the most significant geopolitical choice that Britain could make in its own interests” and a goal that Labour should embrace (“Labour should reverse on not reversing Brexit”, New Review).
Reversing the Brexiters’ winning election slogan and campaigning vigorously to “Get Brexit Undone” would be a powerful means.
Mick Beeby
Westbury on Trym, Bristol
The way to net zero
Keir Sarmer rightly points out the gap between rhetoric and reality that has characterised the UK’s response to the climate emergency over the last 12 years (“Rishi Sunak is a fossil fuel prime minister in a renewable age”, Comment).
It should not be the case that the biggest backers of our potentially “world-leading” renewable energy technologies have been ordinary investors putting their money where their mouth is via regulated crowdfunding platforms such as Abundance Investment.
Labour should also be celebrating those local councils that have engaged their citizens directly, by issuing or pledging to issue Local Climate Bonds, including Labour’s newly won council of Westminster.
These raise funds directly from residents, paying a fair return to fund council efforts to decarbonise their economy, ranging from solar energy to EV charging, biodiversity to waste recycling. They are democratic finance in action and can transform the political narrative of the transition to net zero.
The chaos of the last few months has offered Labour a unique opportunity to bring a consistent and clear message to consumers, businesses and markets that the transition to net zero is not a cost to be borne, but an opportunity to seize. Investment in green infrastructure and support for green businesses (and the solutions they are creating) is the route to sound money and sustainable growth.
Bruce Davis, co-founder and joint managing director, Abundance Investment
Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Books for all
Iranian refugee Ali in Reading is quoted as saying: “All I want is an actual book to read but there are none here and there is no way I can afford them” (“English people try to help. Their government does not”, News).
He will find a free public library in Abbey Square in that town and many others throughout Berkshire and, despite terrible cuts since the Conservatives came to power, all over the UK.
Everyone is welcome in their local public library and in the one where I work, and in many others, we have made particular provision for refugees (eg recently buying books in Ukrainian).
Ralph Lloyd-Jones
Nottingham
