Sizewell opposition loses the Tories a typically safe seat

Breathlessly, the Financial Times began its article, "A remote area on England’s east coast, halfway between the seaside towns of Felixstowe and Lowestoft, is set to become the centre of debate about Britain’s future energy security. UK ministers are aiming to bring forward legislation in the autumn to support the financing of a 3.2 GW nuclear power station in Sizewell, East Suffolk.”

That ‘support’ will essentially concede that Electricité de France will need even more ‘bungs before building’ than they are receiving for its seriously delayed Hinkley Point C power station, originally due for completion in 2017.

This ‘support’ means that, between now and the power station’s earliest possible opening date of 2034, every electricity user in the country will be forced to provide billions of pounds, surcharged via their fuel bills, for the Sizewell construction costs. All that before receiving a single kilowatt's benefit. This is not a privilege offered to any other generator of electricity, all of whom will now be discriminated against financially in such an obvious way that it should make lots and lots of legal work for m’learned friends.

Electricité de France has been making much of the number of new jobs that construction will bring to this ‘remote area’ of East Suffolk. At least, local people should be supporters. If so, they and the Government might like to reflect upon a by-election held this summer for East Suffolk council, in the ward covering Sizewell. Since time immemorial, it has returned Conservative councillors as regularly as clockwork. But not on this occasion. Topping the council poll was the Green candidate, Tom Daly, who puts his success down largely to, “our opposition to new nuclear power at Sizewell.”