English Labour's Trojan Horse legislation will force nuclear power onto Scotland
To object, write to your MSP and Viceroy Murray
Published in the October 31st edition of The Herald.
Energy policy is reserved to the UK parliament with the exception of planning, which is a devolved matter, giving Scottish ministers the power to approve or reject new projects. So why would the Scottish SNP administration welcome the weaselly Michael Shanks’ proposal to loosen the planning rules for energy projects, since it’s the one lever Scotland has to prevent any new nuclear power plants on its soil?
Gillian Martin, Scotland’s Acting Energy Secretary, has endorsed Labour’s announcement to modernise “outdated bureaucratic processes” to make it easier to develop new green energy projects. Is she aware that Labour considers nuclear power to be “green” and has made it clear it wants to impose it onto Scotland? Viceroy Murray has said that he won’t hesitate to overrule Scottish planning decisions and vows that the GB Energy shell company will have nuclear power in its energy mix.
The proposed changes to the planning rules include reducing the time the public can raise objections to new developments to just six weeks from the current three months.
At the moment, any application to build a nuclear power plant in Scotland must be made under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989.
But the application is made to and determined by the Scottish Ministers as set out in the Scotland Act 1998 (Transfer of Functions to the Scottish Ministers) Order 1999.
Furthermore, with any Section 36 application, the relevant local authority can trigger a public inquiry if it formally objects. This has served as an effective brake on any new nuclear power plants because the inquiry can take years and dramatically increase costs, killing the project. Under devolution, the final arbiter of whether projects go ahead is the Scottish Ministers, meaning Scotland can say “No Thanks” to nuclear power indefinitely.
Unless….. that power is removed by the colonial overlord. And that’s exactly what Shanks’ proposed reforms are doing - removing the brake, allowing new nuclear power stations to be built over the objections of the Scottish People.
Remember Alister Jack’s promise to build a nuclear power plant in Scotland? He didn’t think this would be possible while the SNP controlled Holyrood and would have to wait until a unionist regime was back in power.
English Labour probably can’t believe their luck that the SNP administration is falling over itself to welcome its proposal to kneecap the planning process. John Robertson characterised this as ‘Trojan Horse’ legislation to fool Scotland into accepting unwanted nuclear power.
As recently as 2022, the Scottish administration vowed no new nuclear plants would be built and the then UK business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng agreed:
"We have no plans to impose nuclear reactors in Scotland. It's a devolved affair, it's up to people in Edinburgh to decide what their nuclear policy is."
The former SNP energy minister Michael Matheson said the focus should instead be on speeding up the development of renewables and ramping up investment in energy efficiency. In other words, Scotland doesn’t need expensive dangerous nuclear power when it produced 113% of Scotland’s total electricity consumption in 2022. He hit the nail squarely on the head when he said:
"I think the UK government might have allowed themselves to be wrapped up in the nuclear lobby here."
And the GMB Scotland union is dead wrong to back nuclear power which is not, as it claims, “clean, stable and secure.” It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the Nuclear Industry Association is a GMB funder - it certainly has lobbied English Labour effectively.
What can we do? In the short term, we should flood our MSPs with letters/emails objecting to the planning rule changes and pester Viceroy Murray, too, especially those of us who live in his Edinburgh South constituency since he’s obligated to respond.
But in the longer term, the only way we can stop the UK from doing things to us without our consent is to end the union.
Absolutely Leah. What does Gillian Martin think she's doing agreeing with and praising English Labour's jobsworths in Scotland? Especially on such a crucial matter as energy. She's 'acting energy secretary' I presume standing in until the position is filled in the proper manner? So can she make this massive decision as a stand in? I hope not. Didn't the Brit state bring Matheson down recently? Correct me if I am wrong. Labour are liars, they lied about almost everything before the GE, why on earth would anyone trust them on anything at all, not least in Scotland when it comes to environmental and energy matters, jeezo. I smell something very stinky here.
How should we deal with traitors?