Governments are evil, reason 628
Today I learned two things: That the UK government was subsidising the building of a new nuclear power station as a way of externalising the cost of maintaining the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarines, and that they are guaranteeing a price per Megawatt hour to the owners of the new nuclear plant (the French government!) that is TWICE the guaranteed price offered to the off-shore wind turbine industry. This guaranteed price will be paid by the UK electricity consumers.
Put simply: They are building a dangerous & vulnerable nuclear power station (that will create deadly nuclear waste materials that will need to be buried for 1000s of years) on the south coast of England NOT for the ‘good of the people’, not because it’s logically the best thing to do to cut carbon emissions & pollution from coal-fired power stations, but because it suits the interests of the military-industrial complex. They are making sure both that nuclear power is cost-effective & that renewable technologies are not encouraged. This is, at best short-sighted madness & at worst, simply evil.
Our government doesn’t represent our wishes, the government isn’t benevolent. We are seen as expendable, a resource to be exploited & nothing more.
Conclusion: If we believe this to be true, how should we act?
By opting out of the system they have created - pay less tax, generate your own electricity, tune in, turn on, drop out.
We should boycott UK government and not support them with our taxes! Go crypto! Those people are mad.
yup
The only way that "ordinary" people will exercise the power commensurate with their true influence and importance is through solidarity. Ah, but the elites try to divide us, and they do it all the time, from many angles and in many forms.
Examples? Let's see, how about "flag burning", "school prayer", general term, "abortion", alleged "racial differences"; and by encouraging too much diversity, multiple languages, and general balkanization of American culture, etc.
The big problem is: They can't be honest, because it's too easy for interested parties to say that the defense billions could be spend for something "more useful". Usually education comes up.
My opinion is that a-bombs are a necessary and u-boats to deliver them a good system. Overall, the price is justified. It's just that they think it's too much of a risk to just be plain and honest and say, the 15bn will be put into stuff that is only there to be used in the worst of the worst cases. I think, the public does understand the implications and it is this tricky around the corner financing that makes it dubious.
Perhaps for a country with 'policeman-of-the-world' ambitions. But the UK is a wet n windy little group of islands off the coast of Europe. What the hell does it need the ability to destroy the world 200 times over for? Current official estimates of lifetime cost of this system now exceeds 200 billion. This is insanity...all at the same time as infrastructure crumbles, health provision dwindles, wages stagnate, industrial investment dwindles away, the middle classes shrink further & further etc etc. Somebody needs a slap.
Very simple: Because the French have the bomb and the French need the bomb because of Germany and Germany needs its (potentially existing) military power to keep away Russia. It's all a domino effect. France may seem as an ally today, but you never know what is in 30 years and when the skill is gone it will cost much more to regain it again if it is needed.
Here's a funny (but true) clip about the issue:
The UK government don't act in the best interests of the UK people. Nukes are to make politicians feel all big & powerful & strut around in a tumescent state. There is no military threat (except the ones invented out of thin air or created & armed by the UK government). There's no conceivable use for a ruinously expensive nuke program OR 2 new ruinously expensive aircraft carriers for ruinously expensive aeroplanes that don't work properly. I'm not arguing for abolishing the UK military by the way, I'm arguing for stopping the UK military being repurposed & designed as an expeditionary force that commits evil by destabilising the world....instead of what they pretend it's for, defending the UK & it's people. Simply extending that phrase to ....'& British interests anywhere in the world' allows them to destabilise & cripple countries such as Iraq, Syria, Libya.... causing the death of millions, for Europe to be flooded with refugees & for terrorist attacks against people in the UK to go up enormously. Love that clip BTW, Yes Prime Minister is still shockingly accurate today.
Wile I do see the question marks behind the aircraft carriers (which can be replaced by cheaper means), I strongly disagree on the part of politicians liking nukes. Atomic bombs are extremely unpopular and the politician who has to spend money on it always has a hard time explaining it. Nukes are poison for re-elections. The same goes for the defense purposes, which in the given situation need nuclear bombs (just think: Gaddaffi gone, Kim still there). If a British government decided to abolish them, I am sure the military would intervene on royal level and insist on a new government.
It's not that I like atomic bombs, but I do see their sense as strategic means. And it is reassuring that (outside the US..) everyone knows that they are there to be shown and not to be used.
Yes, I found the show over the EEC explanation. Hilarious and so true. The show has now plenty of German fans.. They'd never do such a show in Germany.
Bravo Alan! This issue needs to be expressed loudly!