Four Reasons Why Nuclear Power Is Stupid

As a dedicated flaneur, I try to avoid reacting to bad news, but the UK's misguided, shortsighted and potentially lethal decision to build more nuclear power stations is taking me dangerously near meltdown.

Four Reasons Why Nuclear Power Is Stupid

  1. Nuclear waste is a dreadful poison, inimical to all forms of life and impossible to control.

  2. There is no guaranteed, failsafe way of disposing of nuclear waste. None. Just doesn't exist. Even in Britain, we have earthquakes, and we certainly have lots of underground water. It doesn't matter how deep you bury it, or in what container, it's inevitably, predictably impossible to prevent leakage and the consequent immense, lasting damage to biology.

  3. The nuclear power process is fraught with pollution potential. Just making the stuff creates a million hazards. Where there are humans, there are errors.

  4. The nuclear power process is fraught with security issues. I don't need to explain this one, do I, with eastern Europe awash with people selling enriched uranium. Nuclear power = bombs.

Building new nuclear power stations is going to seriously affect our environment, not just of Britain, but in all probability the entire north western region of Europe, and possibly even wider geographically. Beyond that, we are looking at pollution issues which will outlast current society by multiple thousands of years. Cracks in society, wholesale movement of populations due to climate change, the ending of entire nations, and the draining away of funding - all of these things are going to happen, it's just a question of when.

With our future so completely unknowable, for politicians to be convinced of their rectitude in making this blind and idiotic choice shows me how barren our leadership has become. While this is something I have long suspected in the UK, with misguided plans for ID cards, and the national travesties of corruption in all its forms playing out before us, I now know that I cannot remain here. Or else, I cannot remain silent, save for creating entertainment for the temporary distraction of the privileged few.

Did I ever tell the story of how my middle name became Radioactive? To paraphrase Blair, this is no time for soundbites. I feel the heavy, glowing hand of Homer Simpson upon my shoulder...

Citizenship Manners

I went to Islington Town Hall on Monday, where GGF was enrolled into The Remains Of The Glorious British Empire, ot TROTGBE as it shall henceforth be known. The UK citizenship ceremony is a strange affair incorporating oaths of allegiance to the Queen, which most of the attendees took fairly seriously, in the officially encouraged manner.

The New Brits were from Africa, south, central and north, Australia - yes, they also come the other way, lured no doubt by Coronation Street and East Enders - and some indefinable east European and Asian nations. The Mayor showed up and photographs of her with new citizen and certificate were sold at a tenner a time, though she was gracious and allowed people to flash and snap armed with their own brands of photo technology for no pounds.

Couple of GGF's friends showed up - an American and an Australian - and they giggled so much at the back that several people gave them dark looks. I too had a faint sense of the ridiculous, but steadily grew offended by their lack of sensitivity. Who were they to mock the conservative, aspirational people who pledged to uphold British values and sang the national anthem? I found their attitude condescending, and like a frowning schoolteacher, did my best to shut them up without adding to the noise. They didn't thank me for it, so I made a quick exit to avoid the typical British argument-leading-to-fisticuffs after the event, which was a shame, as I had dressed in my best jacket, a Palestinian football shirt and Union Jack socks, to celebrate.



I was unable to shake off the feeling that the girls had patronised these people with just another form of prejudice. I'm no patriot, but if people want the day they become heirs to the madness of Britannia to be honoured, then let it be so. I simmered in the sun all day, feeling bad for the display of faithlessness and lack of consideration I had witnessed.