Yup, financial illiteracy of the UK public strikes again!

Shit idea from the electoral equivalent of toxic waste.

The real issue is going to be that there won’t be a middle class. Everything about our tax and benefits system is designed to bring about the destruction of the middle class.

Triple lock for state pension; inflationary pay cuts for NHS.

A factor, but clearly not the primary one.

Ah yes, the nebulous “energy storage methods” makes it’s appearance. Pumped hydro is great, but we aren’t exactly flush with vast areas of waste land we can flood.

It’s all possible in theory but in reality it’s not if we opt for a nuclear-based grid it’s when. You cite the cost of nuclear, but ignore the cost of storage when evaluating renewables and also I suspect fail to appreciate that more than half the cost of UK nuclear is in the financing costs and interest payments. Hinkley C would have been literally half the price if it’d been funded by government borrowing, and wind is more than double it’s stated cost once you account for the need for dispatchable backup or storage.

Ultimately renewables like wind and solar have nothing to add to a nuclear-based grid because they’re non-dispatchable. The only ones which may have some value are hydro and tidal, both of which I fully support. Nuclear is also not limited in any practical sense for a country like the UK. Is it a solution for the whole world? No. Is it the solution for a small geologically stable nuclear-armed island nation in the 48-49th parallel? Absolutely.

My issue with wind has nothing to do with what they look like and everything to do with the fact that wind energy is just gas with extra steps. If you build a wind farm you still need a way to generate electricity when the wind isn’t blowing because wind is non-dispatchable and has shit capacity factor. The only realistic option for dispatchable backup supply for wind is gas, which is why the oil and gas companies are so keen to push wind over things like nuclear.

It’s because solar, and domestic solar in particular is poor value for money in terms of reducing emissions.