Blair’s head stuck in the clouds on climate change (ouch)

http://www.sundayherald.com/54883

Blair’s head stuck in the clouds on climate change

Ian Fraser on New Labour spin

RADIOHEAD singer Thom Yorke recently said that he finds dealing with the New Labour spin-machine on the subject of climate change somewhat nausea-inducing.

The rock star – whose Kid A album predicts a coming ice age – recently rejected an invitation to visit Downing Street to discuss climate change in his capacity as ambassador for the green charity Friends of the Earth. He dismissed Tony Blair as a man with “no environmental credentials”.

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Instead, it seemed that Blair is keen to emulate his close friend George Bush’s faith in a “technological revolution” to stabilise climate. Many suspect this will include a big new push into nuclear power in coming years. This will come even though the cost of the 25-year programme to clean up the final lot of nuclear sites was last week revealed to have surged to £70bn.

If only a tiny portion of the billions of pounds of public money that have been ploughed into nuclear energy since the 1950s were to have been redirected to alternative energy, such as wind, wave and solar power, the UK would have become a world leader in renewable energy by now.

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compared to Bush.