Letters: The Government needs to go further to secure Britain’s energy supply
SIR – The belated recognition by the Government of the need to both retain and increase gas-fired electricity generation is a welcome step towards a more rational energy policy (report, March 12). So too is the recognition of the costs involved, and of energy loss from long-distance electricity transmission – even though this will undoubtedly result in higher electricity charges for consumers in the South and South East.
Dare we hope that the next step will be an announcement that, rather than promoting an expansion of unreliable and energy-inefficient renewables for local power generation, the Government will finally recognise the huge potential benefits of small modular nuclear reactors as a dependable and energy-dense alternative which will not require the extensive use of arable land currently protected from residential development?
Meanwhile, a reversal of the fracking ban would provide a home-grown power source for the additional gas facilities and a welcome stream of tax revenue.
Philip Nierop
Exeter, Devon
SIR – Rishi Sunak is right to highlight the need for gas as part of the mix for electricity generation in Britain for years to come. For every gigawatt of installed wind- or solar-powered generation there has to be a similar alternative capacity as standby.
What he fails to mention, however, is that this comes at a huge cost and explains to a large extent why electricity is so expensive.
P J Clifton
Colchester, Essex
SIR – This is a retrograde way of ensuring continuity of supply. Gas plants emit carbon dioxide and need to be operated for decades to recoup the investment.
Far better for the environment and cheaper for us all would be investing in predictable renewable sources such as geothermal and tidal, coupled with energy storage.
As well as batteries, there are many other methods for energy storage being developed and installed, such as pumped hydro, gravity weights in redundant mineshafts, flywheels, compressed air, green hydrogen, superheated salts and more.
Michael Miller
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
SIR – We are pressured to switch from domestic gas boilers to electric heat pumps.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives and Labour agree that new gas-fired power stations are needed to avoid blackouts. Those power stations will have switchgear containing sulphur hexafluoride, the most potent of the global warming gases.
Is this the script for a new series of Yes, Prime Minister?
John Knight
Bristol
Voting for change
SIR – Lee Anderson’s defection to Reform UK (Letters, March 12) is great news for the people of this country. Based on lifelong political beliefs, his move will encourage MPs of other parties, who only wish to serve the electorate, to jump ship.
If voters want reform they have to vote for it. Voting for the same party over and over and hoping for change is a road to escalating disappointment.
Cutting tax, cutting government spending and cutting red tape will allow the entrepreneurs to restore growth and fill the coffers once more.
Rob Williams
Church Stretton, Shropshire
SIR – While I am aware that my vote for Reform UK will not keep the Labour Party out of office, it may do one of two things. A shattering loss for the Conservatives might finally bring them to their senses in time for a return to power after what will inevitably be a disastrous Labour term.
Alternatively, if the Tories still fail to see sense, this will result in the party’s demise, leaving the way clear for Reform UK or another party, which will listen to, and act upon, the wishes of the silent voting majority.
David Vincent
Cranbrook, Kent
SIR – Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger (Commentary, March 12) can talk all they like about why Lee Anderson’s defection to Reform UK is guaranteed to ensure a Labour victory, but until we have a proportional representation voting system, at least disillusioned Tory voters who vote for Reform UK will have a clear conscience.
Women suffered and even died to give others like me the vote, and I don’t intend to waste it.
Sue Heeley
Storrington, West Sussex
Jobs for asylum seekers
SIR – We receive relatively small numbers of asylum seekers (report, March 11) in the UK compared to other European countries. Many are highly skilled and all can make much-needed contributions to our economy and society. We should be much more efficient at enabling them to do so.
Asylum seekers and refugees typically only receive one English lesson a week and very little help to find work when they are eligible. This means we all miss out on tax revenues and other potential economic and social benefits.
This is a sensible and compassionate nation. Surely we can do better and make the most of our opportunities.
Simon Milward
Stroud, Gloucestershire
Smart policing
SIR – I am staying on a small Caribbean island that was once a British colony. I recently saw an immaculately dressed police officer directing traffic at roadworks. As I drove past I thanked him. He came smartly up and gave a Dixon of Dock Green salute.
What has happened to the British bobby?
Robert Ashton
Shrewsbury
Mustard dot
SIR – My great uncle Willie, who fought in the First World War, had a special plate with a large yellow dot painted on it. On to this, a small amount of Colman’s mustard was always added (Letters, March 12). This was to avoid him smothering his food with it, as he had lost all his taste and some of his vision when gassed.
Marie-Louise Neill
Battle, East Sussex
A pretty picture
SIR – Why on earth are people so petty as to question the Princess of Wales’s family photo (report, March 12)?
Anyone keen on photography loves playing around with their pictures to try and perfect them, if they have the time to do it, which, with her busy schedule, she normally does not.
I’m sure she amused herself while recuperating by making a pretty picture to celebrate Mother’s Day – for our benefit.
Phyllis Jones
Bedford
Too much traffic
SIR – From the age of eight I was allowed and able to visit my best friend. She lived a mile and a half (a 30-40 minute walk or 10-15 minute cycle ride) away. This gave me a sense of independence, connected me with my surroundings and doubtless freed up precious time for my busy parents.
The physical road infrastructure has not changed; what has changed is the sheer number of vehicles. In recent years, when I needed to push my father in his wheelchair, I couldn’t even cross the roads I used to ride on. Drivers were coming so frequently there were no gaps for me to cross, and they were going so fast that they were oblivious to our need.
Drivers who oppose moves towards low-traffic neighbourhoods clearly feel that something has been taken from them. What they may fail to see is what has been taken from us all: the right to residential spaces not totally dominated by motor traffic, and the right of children to independence and safety.
Maybe now is a good time for us all to reflect on how our choices to drive for any and every journey have affected others – and start to correct the balance of how we travel.
Mary Walton
Exeter, Devon
Parakeet lottery
SIR – We live just eight miles from West Malling and can assure Philip Pretty (Letters, March 11) that the Underriver parakeet population is flourishing.
Nick Jordan
Underriver, Kent
SIR – There certainly used to be parakeets in north Kent. In 1970 we lived in Southfleet and had a flock that regularly sat on my whirligig washing line. They seemed to enjoy going round and round. I’m not sure that my washing was pleased.
Diane Holland
Gravesend, Kent
Museums can help new technologies take off
SIR – I’m not surprised that museums are using their collections to great effect. Science, transportation and military museums have a particular relevance to today’s problems. They hold historic information, often backed up by original objects available for examination.
During my time at the Royal Air Force Museum, I assisted the RAF and industry on a number of occasions. We worked on in-flight refuelling and celestial navigation for the long-range flights to attack Port Stanley airfield during the Falklands conflict, special fuel valves for land-speed record-breaking, and multi-fuel engine technologies for future aircraft designs.
Museums are not just visitor attractions; they are repositories of information, experience, successes and failures. Their often derided “reserve collections”, characterised as gathering dust in basements, are actually treasure troves of stored knowledge. Centres of excellence, such as the Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset (Features, March 6), are all around us, but it often takes an emergency to recognise their full potential.
Dr Michael A Fopp
Soulbury, Buckinghamshire
Theresa May’s mistake in Brexit negotiations
SIR – Charles Moore (Comment, March 9) is right about Theresa May, and Philip Duly (Letters, March 11) cuts her too much slack.
Having ordained an overlong six-week campaign before the 2017 general election, Mrs May threw away a 24-point lead in the polls – mainly by staying almost completely absent from the campaign after humiliating herself early on with a U-turn on social care. Having chickened out, she lost an overall majority – against a Labour Party that was led by the unelectable Jeremy Corbyn.
Worse than that, Mrs May seemed not to understand how negotiation works. Her trump card with the EU was the timing of the submission of notice under Article 50, which set a two-year clock ticking for Britain’s departure from the EU. The European Commission was desperate to clarify the British position so the EU could arrange its coming budget. We were in no hurry, and she should have made clear that we would not submit notice until broad parameters for negotiation had been agreed.
That would, for example, have prevented the disastrous Northern Ireland Protocol and enabled negotiation to be restricted to economic matters only. Instead, Mrs May submitted Article 50 rapidly, giving away her ace in the hole and setting the two-year clock ticking against herself. Somehow she seems not to have anticipated that this would happen.
Gregory Shenkman
London SW7
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