http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article3333864.ece
Secret nuclear talks held at No 10.
Ministers kept no record and tried to hide details of Brown adviser'smeetings with energy chiefs. Brown's special adviser met energy chiefs off the record, before new power plants were announced.
Published: 13 January 2008 By Andy Rowell and Richard Cookson
The Government held at least nine secret meetings at Downing Street with the bosses of nuclear energy companies while it formulated controversial plansfor a new generation of the power plants, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. No official records were kept of the discussions with the companies, which stand to profit from Gordon Brown's announcement last Thursday that he was approving a new generation of nuclear power plants.
The Government initially tried to block details of the meetings requested under the Freedom of Information Act. However, last week it revealed that Geoffrey Norris, Gordon Brown's energy adviser, met bosses from EDF, BritishNuclear Fuels (BNFL), E.ON and British Energy at a crucial phase in the Government's deliberations.
Confirmation that there are no official records of the meetings adds to concern that certain advisers can operate outside the rules of government accountability. Between September 2005 and June 2006 Mr Norris secretly met with Bill Coley,the chief executive of British Energy, and its chairman, Adrian Montague,who was knighted during that period. Last week Mr Coley announced: "BritishEnergy is already taking steps to ensure the company is well positioned to be at the heart of the new build programme."
Between February and October 2006, Mr Norris met on three occasions with the EDF UK chief executive, Vincent de Rivaz, and Pierre Gadonneix, the chairman. Mr Brown's brother, Andrew, is EDF's head of media relations. Mrde Rivaz said last week: "After a thorough consultation, we welcome the Government's positive decision on new nuclear."Mr Norris also met John Ritch from the World Nuclear Association, the industry's lobby group. The meetings took place during the Government's first public consultation on a new nuclear programme. However, that consultation was criticised by the High Court last year as "flawed" and "inadequate" after a challenge by Greenpeace. Ben Ayliffe, a Greenpeace spokesman, said: "This just shows the extraordinary level of collusion between the Government and the nuclear industry."
A BNFL spokesman said: "BNFL has no commercial interest in new nuclear build."
An E.ON spokesman said: "E.ON meets with the Government all the timeand no one would remember what was said at any such meeting."
None of theother companies involved had commented by the time we went to press.
Additional reporting by George Arbuthnott
Monday, 21 January 2008
Oh so neccessary
I know we can never turn the clock back, but we can prevent our political leaders from making the same mistakes again. There is no need for a new generation of nuclear power stations. In a time of global climate change, when we have world leaders all passing the buck by stating, quite correctly, that we all need to work together to solve the problem, why is it that individual nations are then making decisions that will affect generations to come and have the opposite effect on their own nation's energy use?
When has price ever stopped consumers from wanting more? When has price ever stopped monopoly industries from attractting new customers?
There are more resources available on this planet to generate sustainable and renewable energy than mankind could ever use. It would of course mean a level of international co-operation that has never been seen before. It would mean the sharing of technologies in exchange for access to resource. It would mean an end to a number of things that currently make a lot of people and a lot of nations very, very rich.
Wake up world - it is in these decisions that we put at risk the chance of ever combatting climate change. What's sauce for the goose....
When has price ever stopped consumers from wanting more? When has price ever stopped monopoly industries from attractting new customers?
There are more resources available on this planet to generate sustainable and renewable energy than mankind could ever use. It would of course mean a level of international co-operation that has never been seen before. It would mean the sharing of technologies in exchange for access to resource. It would mean an end to a number of things that currently make a lot of people and a lot of nations very, very rich.
Wake up world - it is in these decisions that we put at risk the chance of ever combatting climate change. What's sauce for the goose....
Friday, 22 June 2007
£76 Billion - How to spend it?
http://www.no-bomb.com/index2.html
Wow! So the Government want to spend £76 Billion, yes, Billion pounds on a new generation of nuclear missiles to replace the aging (and never needed to be used) Trident weapons system.
And what would the return to the UK tax payer be? What would be the return to the UK economy? How would it help with our global responsibility to reduce carbon emmission and find alternative energy sources for an ever growing and demanding global population?
Here is a thought.
£26bn would build the Severn Barrage from Minhead to Aberthaw and it would generate approx 10% of the entire UK electricity need. Yes there would be changes in the habitats behind the barrage, but lets face it, with Global Warming and Climate Change now recognised as a reality, we are going to see those habitats destroyed anyway unless the Government suddenly has a change of heart in it's flood defence policy (ie puts the money back into the EA and re-employes the 15% of staff being made redundent across the board).
That would still leave £50bn to invest in habitats, rail and road infrastructure, R&D in other environmental/sustainable energy technologies, new schools, hospitals, public services(!) and a host of other much, much more worthy causes.
Or, £76bn to help shore up the American defense industry (Lockheed Martin)? Hum.......
See, there are alternatives.
There are different choices that can be made.
Gordon.....wake up....make different choices.
Wow! So the Government want to spend £76 Billion, yes, Billion pounds on a new generation of nuclear missiles to replace the aging (and never needed to be used) Trident weapons system.
And what would the return to the UK tax payer be? What would be the return to the UK economy? How would it help with our global responsibility to reduce carbon emmission and find alternative energy sources for an ever growing and demanding global population?
Here is a thought.
£26bn would build the Severn Barrage from Minhead to Aberthaw and it would generate approx 10% of the entire UK electricity need. Yes there would be changes in the habitats behind the barrage, but lets face it, with Global Warming and Climate Change now recognised as a reality, we are going to see those habitats destroyed anyway unless the Government suddenly has a change of heart in it's flood defence policy (ie puts the money back into the EA and re-employes the 15% of staff being made redundent across the board).
That would still leave £50bn to invest in habitats, rail and road infrastructure, R&D in other environmental/sustainable energy technologies, new schools, hospitals, public services(!) and a host of other much, much more worthy causes.
Or, £76bn to help shore up the American defense industry (Lockheed Martin)? Hum.......
See, there are alternatives.
There are different choices that can be made.
Gordon.....wake up....make different choices.
Thursday, 21 June 2007
Declaration calling for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
By Josei Toda, second president of the Soka GakkaiSeptember 8, 1957
I would now like to share with you what I hope you will regard as the foremost of my instructions for the future. As I have long said, the responsibility for the coming era must be shouldered by the youth.
Today I would like to state clearly my feelings and attitude regarding the testing of nuclear weapons, a topic that is currently being debated heatedly throughout society. I hope that, as my disciples, you will inherit the declaration I am about to make today and, to the best of your ability, spread its intent throughout the world.
Although a movement calling for a ban on the testing of atomic or nuclear weapons has arisen around the world, it is my wish to go further, to attack the problem at its root. I want to expose and rip out the claws that lie hidden in the very depths of such weapons. I wish to declare that anyone who ventures to use nuclear weapons, irrespective of their nationality or whether their country is victorious or defeated, should be sentenced to death without exception.
Why do I say this? Because we, the citizens of the world, have an inviolable right to live. Anyone who jeopardizes that right is a devil incarnate, a fiend, a monster. I propose that humankind applies, in every case, the death penalty to anyone responsible for using nuclear weapons, even if that person is on the winning side.
Even if a country should conquer the world through the use of nuclear weapons, the conquerors must be viewed as devils, as evil incarnate. I believe that it is the mission of every member of the youth division in Japan to disseminate this idea throughout the globe.
I would now like to share with you what I hope you will regard as the foremost of my instructions for the future. As I have long said, the responsibility for the coming era must be shouldered by the youth.
Today I would like to state clearly my feelings and attitude regarding the testing of nuclear weapons, a topic that is currently being debated heatedly throughout society. I hope that, as my disciples, you will inherit the declaration I am about to make today and, to the best of your ability, spread its intent throughout the world.
Although a movement calling for a ban on the testing of atomic or nuclear weapons has arisen around the world, it is my wish to go further, to attack the problem at its root. I want to expose and rip out the claws that lie hidden in the very depths of such weapons. I wish to declare that anyone who ventures to use nuclear weapons, irrespective of their nationality or whether their country is victorious or defeated, should be sentenced to death without exception.
Why do I say this? Because we, the citizens of the world, have an inviolable right to live. Anyone who jeopardizes that right is a devil incarnate, a fiend, a monster. I propose that humankind applies, in every case, the death penalty to anyone responsible for using nuclear weapons, even if that person is on the winning side.
Even if a country should conquer the world through the use of nuclear weapons, the conquerors must be viewed as devils, as evil incarnate. I believe that it is the mission of every member of the youth division in Japan to disseminate this idea throughout the globe.
September 8th 2007 - 50 years on.
http://www.sgi.org/about/history/toda_antinuclear.html
Josei Toda and Antinuclear Declaration
Josei Toda (1900-58), second president of the Soka Gakkai lay Buddhist association, made an impassioned speech calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons on September 8, 1957, at a meeting of 50,000 members of the association's youth division at Mitsuzawa Stadium in Yokohama. His own health already failing, he called on the young people present to take up the challenge of making nuclear abolition a reality.
Josei Toda
Toda issued this declaration at the height of the Cold War between East and West. Both Eastern and Western blocs were frantically engaged in developing nuclear weapons and conducting test blasts. Just one month before, the U.S.S.R. had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile, and the United States had developed what it claimed were "clean" hydrogen bombs which maximized destructive capacity with less radioactive fallout. Nuclear weapons, capable of destroying all human life, cast a dark and terrifying shadow over the destiny of all humankind. The myth of nuclear deterrence was based on the view that since mutual destruction would be assured in the event of an attack, nuclear weapons could be seen as a deterrent to war.
Toda saw such thinking as a product of the darkest aspects of human nature. Nuclear deterrence was founded on an equilibrium of terror and created a vicious cycle which fueled the endless escalation of the arms race. He felt that people who placed their hopes on the idea of nuclear deterrence were entering a devilish labyrinth.
Although anti-nuclear movements were emerging in Japan, the vast majority of people based their opinions about nuclear weapons on the ideology of one side or the other. Toda's declaration, however, was a radical departure from this way of thinking. His stance was that nuclear weapons and their use must be absolutely condemned, not from the standpoint of ideology, nationality or ethnic identity but from the universal dimension of humanity.
In condemning nuclear weapons as an "absolute evil," Toda was seeking to stress that behind the existence of nuclear weapons lurks the devilish aspect of human life that seeks to subjugate, control and ultimately destroy others. For Toda, nuclear weapons, which threaten the collective right of humankind to exist, were the very manifestation of this dark nature. And even if the physical destruction of the weapons were to be achieved, knowledge of how to produce them would still remain. He saw that there is no other possible solution to the issue of nuclear arms than an incessant struggle against the "evil," destructive side of human life.
Toda wished to inspire in his audience the belief that since human beings created the atomic bomb, human beings must also ensure its abolition. He wished to arouse them from their state of fear and helplessness in the face of this monstrous threat.
As a Buddhist, Toda was a staunch opponent of the death penalty. He had made this clear on other occasions. His call for the death penalty to be applied for those using nuclear bombs was calculated to shock and awaken his audience to the utterly unequivocal nature of his opposition to nuclear weapons. His proposal of the death penalty was thus not a simple or literal proposition. His point was that the way of thinking of those who would use such a weapon of ultimate barbarism could never be excused or forgiven. Absolutely the most severe punishment would be called for.
Had Toda simply been satisfied to brand those who would use nuclear bombs as devils, fiends and monsters, his declaration would have remained abstract. Most certainly, he could not have adequately conveyed his conviction that the use of nuclear weapons constituted an absolute evil. Toda's striking call for the death penalty was aimed at countering the tendency within people's minds to find justifications for the use of nuclear bombs. He wished to pass a sentence of death on the destructive tendencies within human life. He hoped that by allowing this idea to penetrate deeply into the hearts and minds of people throughout the world, it might serve as an internal restraint against the use of nuclear weapons and for the abolition of war.
Through this declaration, Toda entrusted young people with the task of inspiring this conviction in others, urging them to conduct dialogue based on a belief in the preciousness of human life and the human capacity for wisdom, courage and compassion. He wanted his audience to arouse and call forth those qualities in others and communicate to them the imperative to take action toward nuclear abolition.
Declaration calling for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons By Josei Toda, second president of the Soka Gakkai
September 8, 1957 I would now like to share with you what I hope you will regard as the foremost of my instructions for the future.
As I have long said, the responsibility for the coming era must be shouldered by the youth. Today I would like to state clearly my feelings and attitude regarding the testing of nuclear weapons, a topic that is currently being debated heatedly throughout society. I hope that, as my disciples, you will inherit the declaration I am about to make today and, to the best of your ability, spread its intent throughout the world.
Although a movement calling for a ban on the testing of atomic or nuclear weapons has arisen around the world, it is my wish to go further, to attack the problem at its root. I want to expose and rip out the claws that lie hidden in the very depths of such weapons. I wish to declare that anyone who ventures to use nuclear weapons, irrespective of their nationality or whether their country is victorious or defeated, should be sentenced to death without exception.
Why do I say this? Because we, the citizens of the world, have an inviolable right to live. Anyone who jeopardizes that right is a devil incarnate, a fiend, a monster. I propose that humankind applies, in every case, the death penalty to anyone responsible for using nuclear weapons, even if that person is on the winning side.
Even if a country should conquer the world through the use of nuclear weapons, the conquerors must be viewed as devils, as evil incarnate. I believe that it is the mission of every member of the youth division in Japan to disseminate this idea throughout the globe.
Josei Toda and Antinuclear Declaration
Josei Toda (1900-58), second president of the Soka Gakkai lay Buddhist association, made an impassioned speech calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons on September 8, 1957, at a meeting of 50,000 members of the association's youth division at Mitsuzawa Stadium in Yokohama. His own health already failing, he called on the young people present to take up the challenge of making nuclear abolition a reality.
Josei Toda
Toda issued this declaration at the height of the Cold War between East and West. Both Eastern and Western blocs were frantically engaged in developing nuclear weapons and conducting test blasts. Just one month before, the U.S.S.R. had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile, and the United States had developed what it claimed were "clean" hydrogen bombs which maximized destructive capacity with less radioactive fallout. Nuclear weapons, capable of destroying all human life, cast a dark and terrifying shadow over the destiny of all humankind. The myth of nuclear deterrence was based on the view that since mutual destruction would be assured in the event of an attack, nuclear weapons could be seen as a deterrent to war.
Toda saw such thinking as a product of the darkest aspects of human nature. Nuclear deterrence was founded on an equilibrium of terror and created a vicious cycle which fueled the endless escalation of the arms race. He felt that people who placed their hopes on the idea of nuclear deterrence were entering a devilish labyrinth.
Although anti-nuclear movements were emerging in Japan, the vast majority of people based their opinions about nuclear weapons on the ideology of one side or the other. Toda's declaration, however, was a radical departure from this way of thinking. His stance was that nuclear weapons and their use must be absolutely condemned, not from the standpoint of ideology, nationality or ethnic identity but from the universal dimension of humanity.
In condemning nuclear weapons as an "absolute evil," Toda was seeking to stress that behind the existence of nuclear weapons lurks the devilish aspect of human life that seeks to subjugate, control and ultimately destroy others. For Toda, nuclear weapons, which threaten the collective right of humankind to exist, were the very manifestation of this dark nature. And even if the physical destruction of the weapons were to be achieved, knowledge of how to produce them would still remain. He saw that there is no other possible solution to the issue of nuclear arms than an incessant struggle against the "evil," destructive side of human life.
Toda wished to inspire in his audience the belief that since human beings created the atomic bomb, human beings must also ensure its abolition. He wished to arouse them from their state of fear and helplessness in the face of this monstrous threat.
As a Buddhist, Toda was a staunch opponent of the death penalty. He had made this clear on other occasions. His call for the death penalty to be applied for those using nuclear bombs was calculated to shock and awaken his audience to the utterly unequivocal nature of his opposition to nuclear weapons. His proposal of the death penalty was thus not a simple or literal proposition. His point was that the way of thinking of those who would use such a weapon of ultimate barbarism could never be excused or forgiven. Absolutely the most severe punishment would be called for.
Had Toda simply been satisfied to brand those who would use nuclear bombs as devils, fiends and monsters, his declaration would have remained abstract. Most certainly, he could not have adequately conveyed his conviction that the use of nuclear weapons constituted an absolute evil. Toda's striking call for the death penalty was aimed at countering the tendency within people's minds to find justifications for the use of nuclear bombs. He wished to pass a sentence of death on the destructive tendencies within human life. He hoped that by allowing this idea to penetrate deeply into the hearts and minds of people throughout the world, it might serve as an internal restraint against the use of nuclear weapons and for the abolition of war.
Through this declaration, Toda entrusted young people with the task of inspiring this conviction in others, urging them to conduct dialogue based on a belief in the preciousness of human life and the human capacity for wisdom, courage and compassion. He wanted his audience to arouse and call forth those qualities in others and communicate to them the imperative to take action toward nuclear abolition.
Declaration calling for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons By Josei Toda, second president of the Soka Gakkai
September 8, 1957 I would now like to share with you what I hope you will regard as the foremost of my instructions for the future.
As I have long said, the responsibility for the coming era must be shouldered by the youth. Today I would like to state clearly my feelings and attitude regarding the testing of nuclear weapons, a topic that is currently being debated heatedly throughout society. I hope that, as my disciples, you will inherit the declaration I am about to make today and, to the best of your ability, spread its intent throughout the world.
Although a movement calling for a ban on the testing of atomic or nuclear weapons has arisen around the world, it is my wish to go further, to attack the problem at its root. I want to expose and rip out the claws that lie hidden in the very depths of such weapons. I wish to declare that anyone who ventures to use nuclear weapons, irrespective of their nationality or whether their country is victorious or defeated, should be sentenced to death without exception.
Why do I say this? Because we, the citizens of the world, have an inviolable right to live. Anyone who jeopardizes that right is a devil incarnate, a fiend, a monster. I propose that humankind applies, in every case, the death penalty to anyone responsible for using nuclear weapons, even if that person is on the winning side.
Even if a country should conquer the world through the use of nuclear weapons, the conquerors must be viewed as devils, as evil incarnate. I believe that it is the mission of every member of the youth division in Japan to disseminate this idea throughout the globe.
Tuesday, 19 June 2007
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