Tuesday 21 August 2012

Peter Hain Was Never To Be Trusted

The two-faced orange-faced one is at it again.  This time it's his new project, the putative Severn Barrage:
The prime minister promised to look into it," Hain told the BBC. "Government support is an absolute pre-requisite for getting the whole project underway. Not a penny of taxpayers' money would be needed for this £30bn investment, which would be transformative for Wales ... Several sovereign wealth funds have already expressed interest in financing the £30bn project, as long as government signals its support in principle, provides authorisation in the form of a Hybrid bill, and stabilises the electricity price for 25-30 years through a feed in tariff, 'Contract for Difference', or similar mechanism. It is worth noting that after 25-30 years, when the price support drops away, the barrage will produce electricity virtually for free for at least another 90 years
How public discourse has been debased by the weasel-phrases coined by Huhne (another lying LibDem): not a penny of taxpayers' money ... as long as government 'stabilises' the electricity price.  

By 'stabilises', he means of course 'triples', just like EDF wants for its wretched "no-public-subsidy" nuke (yes, a third LibDem dissembler).  Well, the last time I looked, most UK tax-payers are UK electricity users. Additionally - and who knows how Hain squares this one away to himself - quite a few electricity users are non tax-paying grannies.  

And electricity virtually for free for at least another 90 years !  How's that, Peter - you propose it be given away ?  Your sovereign wealth chums may have a different scheme in mind.

Oh - and an entertaining tussle ahead between the highly-paid orange lobbyist and the wildlife/natural habitats camp, I should imagine. 

ND

6 comments:

Demetrius said...

Perhaps Peter is thinking in terms of a Super PFI deal. This might mean £30 bill to do with £300 bill eventually being paid out. With maintenance contracts additional, of course. Tell me what else was cited to cost £30 bill? Of course the HST 2, perhaps instead of London to Brum this could go from Weston Super Mare to Carew in Pembrokeshire.

Mark Wadsworth said...

But at least his tan is 100% natural, there's more sunshine in Wales than most people realise, even in the depths of winter.

gsd said...

"electricity virtually for free for at least another 90 years" - Ha! I remember seeing a Tomorrow's World program as a boy that said the same thing about nuclear power! No-one is really going to fall for that one are they?

Blue Eyes said...

Sighs.

The economy is going to grind to a halt very very soon if the electorate doesn't wake up and realise that "someone else" cannot always pay for everything.

What is this collective madness? I can only assume it is, in fact, collective madness.

ivan said...

Have they included the cost of dredging and the extra flood defences that will be needed if that goes ahead?

Oh, and how do they generate power during the two plus hours of slack water at each tide change?

A nice idea on paper - where it should stay - but in practice about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Nick Drew said...

safety in numbers, Demetrius - if £30bn is the number, then it's the number (now, remind me about the Olympics again...)

MW - you'll need to branch out into technicolour

gsd - yes, & not just TW: "too cheap to meter", that was another ... and "a cheaper form of electricity generation than any known to man" (© D.Howell 1979)

"we're all mad, I tell you" (©BE 2012)

ivan - yes, this one has the Law of Unintended Consequences written all over it, in very large font, bold, italics