That there should be such debate among the readership regarding our editor's point of view on future energy supply is to be celebrated. One can imagine similar debates elsewhere, especially between No. 10 and No. 11 Downing Street.
One of the arguments central to debate is the Royal Academy of Engineering's claim that nuclear electricity is again a cheap form of energy, comparable now to electricity produced from gas - previously it was to be 'too cheap to meter'.
Here lies the kernel of the debate between Blair and Brown: one will argue we need it and the other, justifiably, that he does not need to pay for it. The result will be, if the claims by the RAE have any substance (which many Academicians who have read the report doubt) that banks will be asked to back the venture.
If they were to be persuaded, it won't just be the greens who desert those banks - as they boycotted Shell over the Brent Spar fi asco and cost the company 'millions of dollars' - but also many of their more prudent investors. You see, in a free economy, democracy works Mark Whitby, FREng, director, Whitbybird, 60 Newman Street London W1T 3DA
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