Come off it, Porritt, Burke, Secrett and Juniper

It seems a fabulous cheek for Mssrs Porritt, Burke, Secrett and Juniper (ex-directors of Friends of the Earth) to complain that the UK’s nuclear industry will be run by France, for France.

Surely these four men – and the Greenpeace bosses – can claim credit for having driven the UK nuclear industry on to the back foot if not actually into the ground? Friends of the Earth not only dispirited the British public and politicians about the nulcear industry, they were for years foremost in condemning almost any sort of industry and engineering as being unspiritual, unnatural and generally not holistic.

It is of course quite possible that nuclear cannot be made usefully commercial, and quite possibly that’s because its waste disposal options are rendered uneconomic by green shibboleth. It is also quite possible that the French have mastered the art of making utilities – incuding buying UK utilities – profitable and that the UK has lost it. Those are quite separate thoughts, both depressing.