Paul Flynn is one Welshman who has been consistent in his opposition to nuclear power. As I've just discovered from this post on his blog, he has tabled an early day motion at Westminster which reads:
NUCLEAR SUBSIDIES AND THE COALITION AGREEMENT
That this House recalls the Coalition Agreement said that new nuclear power stations would be permitted 'provided that they receive no public subsidy'; believes that the present proposed deals guarantee a fixed subsidy for 40 years at double the current cost of electricity; further notes that any future cost escalation will be paid for from the public purse as a subsidy; further notes that the current nuclear waste clean-up costs being met by taxpayers add up to over £75 billion; further believes that any deal done with Chinese financiers to support the building of nuclear power plants will inevitably result in massive future liabilities to British taxpayers; and calls on the Coalition to honour its own agreement and cancel all subsidies.
This is a motion that Plaid Cymru MPs should be able to support with absolutely no difficulty. After all, our policy is one of total opposition to any new nuclear power stations; something that we overwhelmingly reaffirmed at our conference just over a week ago.
But look again at the list of supporters:
Campbell, Ronnie ... Labour Party, Blyth Valley
Caton, Martin ... Labour Party, Gower
Corbyn, Jeremy ... Labour Party, Islington North
Durkan, Mark ... Social Democratic and Labour Party, Foyle
Flynn, Paul ... Labour Party, Newport West
Hancock, Mike ... Liberal Democrats, Portsmouth South
Hopkins, Kelvin ... Labour Party, Luton North
Ritchie, Margaret ... Social Democratic and Labour Party, South Down
Sharma, Virendra ... Labour Party, Ealing Southall
Simpson, David ... Democratic Unionist Party, Upper Bann
Skinner, Dennis ... Labour Party, Bolsover
To our shame, all three Plaid Cymru MPs are conspicuous by their absence. How can we possibly expect voters to take us seriously if we don't stand up for what we say we believe in?
Joni, Hywel, Elfyn, the ball is in your court. If you have any respect for the membership who voted to adopt and then reaffirm our anti-nuclear policy, sign.
1 comments:
for plaid cymru's representatives in the british parliament to be seemingly outflanked by labour and lib dems mps on the matter of the obscene subsidies given to the british nuclear power industry is deeply embarrassing, and there is no good reason for them not to support paul flynn's motion - i very much hope and trust they will do so.
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