Opinion - Gossip! Gossage!
A worthwhile career choice
From the moment the A level results are known, the UCAS clearing system operates by allowing those universities which still have spare places on specific courses to advertise their availability to prospective students.
When the results came out, there was much publicity about the dearth of university places available even for those whose grades were pretty good. Dire warnings were expressed about the difficulties of even qualified school leavers of finding any institute of higher learning prepared to accept them.
Certainly that was true for those wanting to study socially useful courses like media studies. Or even English literature. Scarcely any places had not been taken up, presumably by those with excellent exam scores.
But I checked to see how many different universities still had places available for those wanting to acquire a BSc in either electrical engineering or electronic engineering. The answer is that no less than 96 universities still had openings in one or more courses of straight electrical engineering. And six more - a staggering 102 in total - were still offering places to study electronic engineering. These included courses at many of the top ranking Russell Group of universities.
If you wanted evidence of our failure to persuade young people that qualifying as an engineer is the most worthwhile career choice, here it surely is.
Draconian restrictions
As with all planning applications, Electricite de France's proposed new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point has to be the subject of a local government impact assessment. The area in question straddles two district councils, West Somerset and Sedgemoor. As usual in such circumstances, the councils are being funded for their work by the prospective developers. This could cost around £1m.
It is normal practice for the conclusions of such assessment studies to be made publicly available. Not in this case. Before agreeing to fund such work, Electricite de France has insisted upon a series of legally binding agreements with the district councils. One allows the company to "clearly identify...information that it considers should not be disclosed by the councils under the Freedom of Information Act." Another compels the councils to "consult the company prior to the release of any requested information." Such draconian restrictions can only be intended to ensure nothing likely to be prejudicial to the case for the new power station will ever fall into the hands of any of the majority of people who are - according to opinion polls - still deeply suspicious of the Great God Atom.
There is history here. In the 1980s the Hinkley Point site was the proposed construction site for a new nuclear power station by the then-Central Electricity Generating Board. Opposition was co-ordinated by a body called COLA, the Consortium of Opposing Local Authorities. Prominent members were Sedgemoor and West Somerset councils. It was the subject of a lengthy, and bitter, public inquiry. And, lest we forget, that power station was never built.
Following suit
Heart disease, tinnitus, migraines, panic attacks: these are just some of the possible health consequences of living too near a windfarm, according to American paediatrician Dr Nina Pierpoint. In a book due out next month, she tells of spending five years studying ten families who suffer from what she has dubbed Wind Turbine Syndrome.
She concludes their strikingly similar symptoms stem from the damage done to the inner ear, by vibrations from the rotating blades of turbines near their homes. It used to be thought what you couldn't hear couldn't hurt you. Not so. Research at Manchester University has found that the "human vestibular system" -colloquially known as the inner ear - can be affected by a low-frequency vibration of the head.
At present, wind energy companies in Britain can place their turbines as close to housing as they can get away with. In France, a 1.5km exclusion zone is mandatory. Given the starkness of Dr Pierpoint's findings, we should surely be following this Gallic sagacity toute suite.
What a coincidence
By law, each of the ‘Big Six' energy companies has to deliver prescribed programmes, intended to help domestic consumers install measures in their homes which decrease energy usage. Such programmes - collectively called the Carbon Emission Reduction Target - are organised in-house by each of the companies. With one exception.
Uniquely amongst the Big Six, Scottish Power contracted out long-term delivery of this obligation from the start to an external company. The organisation in question is a Newcastle-based outfit called EAGA. As you might imagine, this is a potentially useful little earner for the company, which boasted of its value to shareholders in its latest annual report.
Although issued in September, the EAGA annual report was apparently published too early to include any reference to the appointment of its new chief operating officer. He is Willie MacDiarmid. And what occupation was Willie MacDiarmid undertaking immediately before joining EAGA? Why, he was Scottish Power's managing director of Energy Retail. With direct responsibility for ensuring compliance by Scottish Power with the government's Carbon Emission Reduction Target.
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