I deliberately quoted all those figures for fraud from the UK government's own official figures - and I'll tell you this - actually finding them on the Treasury and ONS websites is actually quite tricky. Gotta hide the dirty facts from the voters I guess. Figures from bodies I would trust more than our government put the fraud on benefits at almost double what the government admits to...
As to the nuclear thing Hector well, Wint has a point. Most of the Nuclear power stations in use in the UK today were designed at least 20 years ago, and Magnox stations are some 50 years old. They were also mainly designed to produce weapons grade Uranium/Plutonium for our then nascent nuclear weapons program. So, they might not be the safest/most efficient stations for civillian power generation.
If you gave me the choice of living beside a nuclear power station, or a coal fired one, lets see which I'd choose:
1. Nuclear - Minimal waste by-products. No air pollution. Might meltdown. Possibly. Maybe.
2. Fossil Fuels - air quality shot to shit for miles around, windows always coated in soot, lungs blacked, cancer and respiratory illnesses way above national average in the immediate surrounding area. Fact. Definitely. Proven.
I'm not saying fission is the best way to produce power, but lets be honest - even the eco-warriors are generally too attached to their cars and electrical devices to actually put their money where their mouths are.
"Eco-friendly" power generation is a chimera. Interesting to see that all those in favour of wind farms don't live anywhere near fields of bloody great propellors going "thwap thwap thwap" at all hours of the day and night. And why are those things often built in areas of great natural beauty. Noise pollution? Environmental damage? Hmmm?
Solar: Well, how many square miles of land would need to be covered with panels to generate the amount of electricity we currently consume in this country?
Wave/Hydro: Well, this at least has some merit, but again, you would need to cover a huge proportion of the coastline with the nodding donkeys to generate the amount of electricity we currently consume. Hazards to shipping?
Eco-friendly power generation will only work if people are prepared to do without central heating, and all the electrical toys and gadgets we've all grown used to. Which I don't see happening quite frankly.
Fusion is the ovbious answer - all the benefits of fission, with none of the down sides. Plus the reaction mass is pretty common - about 70% of the earth's surface is covered in the stuff...
Maybe if we gave £133 Billion to fusion development for a year, the remaining problems with it could be ironed out and we'd have a clean, viable energy source?
My view is, there is a crunch coming in the UK, and people will have to face one of two stark choices:
1. Continue the current chronic underinvestment in Science, Technology and Infrastructure, but keep benefits high, and see the country start to suffer brownouts and developmental regression within the next 10 or so years; or
2. Accept that if we spent the sums currently spent on benefits on more worthwhile things which would actually show a return on the money spent on them, things would be painful short-term, but our long-term future would be secured.
Agreeing with Wintermute? FS, must dash. Seppuku to commit...
As to the nuclear thing Hector well, Wint has a point. Most of the Nuclear power stations in use in the UK today were designed at least 20 years ago, and Magnox stations are some 50 years old. They were also mainly designed to produce weapons grade Uranium/Plutonium for our then nascent nuclear weapons program. So, they might not be the safest/most efficient stations for civillian power generation.
If you gave me the choice of living beside a nuclear power station, or a coal fired one, lets see which I'd choose:
1. Nuclear - Minimal waste by-products. No air pollution. Might meltdown. Possibly. Maybe.
2. Fossil Fuels - air quality shot to shit for miles around, windows always coated in soot, lungs blacked, cancer and respiratory illnesses way above national average in the immediate surrounding area. Fact. Definitely. Proven.
I'm not saying fission is the best way to produce power, but lets be honest - even the eco-warriors are generally too attached to their cars and electrical devices to actually put their money where their mouths are.
"Eco-friendly" power generation is a chimera. Interesting to see that all those in favour of wind farms don't live anywhere near fields of bloody great propellors going "thwap thwap thwap" at all hours of the day and night. And why are those things often built in areas of great natural beauty. Noise pollution? Environmental damage? Hmmm?
Solar: Well, how many square miles of land would need to be covered with panels to generate the amount of electricity we currently consume in this country?
Wave/Hydro: Well, this at least has some merit, but again, you would need to cover a huge proportion of the coastline with the nodding donkeys to generate the amount of electricity we currently consume. Hazards to shipping?
Eco-friendly power generation will only work if people are prepared to do without central heating, and all the electrical toys and gadgets we've all grown used to. Which I don't see happening quite frankly.
Fusion is the ovbious answer - all the benefits of fission, with none of the down sides. Plus the reaction mass is pretty common - about 70% of the earth's surface is covered in the stuff...
Maybe if we gave £133 Billion to fusion development for a year, the remaining problems with it could be ironed out and we'd have a clean, viable energy source?
My view is, there is a crunch coming in the UK, and people will have to face one of two stark choices:
1. Continue the current chronic underinvestment in Science, Technology and Infrastructure, but keep benefits high, and see the country start to suffer brownouts and developmental regression within the next 10 or so years; or
2. Accept that if we spent the sums currently spent on benefits on more worthwhile things which would actually show a return on the money spent on them, things would be painful short-term, but our long-term future would be secured.
Agreeing with Wintermute? FS, must dash. Seppuku to commit...
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