It seems the bureaucrats in Brussels have become unnerved by the sight of thousands of tractors of all shapes and sizes advancing on capitals and clogging up motorways. They have decided to cut targets to scrap specific agricultural emissions which formed part of the bloc’s net zero drive.
The demand to reduce nitrogen, methane and other emissions linked to farming by almost a third has been removed from a wider Brussels plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 90 per cent by 2040.
Will this news filter into UK policy? England has already put some delays into place but only last week Welsh farmers were out and about on their tractors warning Cardiff how deeply unhappy, and understandably emotional they are as their livelihoods are being systematically cancelled by politicians clearly being driven by environmental zealots, not science.
It is good news that Britain’s first ‘private’ nuclear power station is to be built on Teesside using mini reactors previously championed by Boris Johnson.
Four small modular reactors (SMRs) will be installed on the north bank of the river Tees, producing 1.5 gigawatts of power – enough for up to 2m homes. For the first time in British history, the taxpayer is not involved.
The shame is that Community Nuclear Power, the company behind this project which they hope to have up and running by the early 2030s, has reached an agreement with the US manufacturer Westinghouse to supply the reactors.
Mini reactors being built by UK companies including Rolls-Royce, requiring the area of two tennis courts to operate and are factory built, were championed by Boris, as a way of generating cheap, clean power at scale. It is disheartening that the British nuclear industry currently does not have a ‘champion’ or the government promoting these vital home-grown manufacturing champions.
Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C are financed and constructed by EDF (French) and CGN (Chinese), the latter having pulled out of Hinkley Point late last year. Surely the government should be encouraging the building of British SNRs and operated by British companies and consortiums.
Now Rolls-Royce and other manufacturers of SNRs are unsure of their future which is perhaps why their development and construction has slowed down.
It often takes visitors from abroad to pinpoint just why our country is failing to prevent diseases - all sorts, and migration - boat loads, coming through our leaky borders. Our Australian friends who have been traveling around the UK for the past
three weeks, are astounded by how lax our borders are. Phil a well-known racehorse vet from Brisbane, was astounded that dogs can travel to the UK from across Europe without being quarantined. And as for not returning migrants who arrive
uninvited on our beaches, immediately to where they came from or elsewhere as the Australians do so well, left him speechless.