Tuesday 11 July 2006

still on holiday
Apparently the Westminster government has decided to build some more nuclear power stations. I wonder if the Scottish Executive will use its powers to refuse to have any of them here. Very depressing news, considering the tiny resources put into energy conservation and renewables in the UK.

I've only brushed with the nuclear industry once and it wasn't a nice experience. The theatre company I'd worked for in the late 80s had turned down offers of major investment and sponsorship from BNFL, as becoming the 'social conscience' of Sellafield wouldn't feel too good. In 1992 I was due to be guest directing a programme of Byrd that I'd put together, for another early music group. All was going fine until the season brochure was about to go to press, and someone casually mentioned that my concerts were to be sponsored by Scottish Nuclear, the company which at the time was the vehicle for government subsidy of the nuclear industry. We still had a Conservative government (largely unelected in Scotland), and the huge cost to the public purse of its embracing of nuclear power was becoming apparent. I withdrew from the concerts immediately, not wanting my name to be publicly associated with the promotion of an increasingly unsupportable policy. And I hadn't spent years of my life studying the music of Byrd and his colleagues only to have it used as PR for the nuclear industry. 

The following Sunday lunchtime I was relaxing at home, when I got a phone call from one John S Moreland, OBE, who was the group's chairman, and a director of Scottish Nuclear. He seemed determined to have an argument with me, and ended his attempted bullying with a desperate 'You are WRONG'. I don't think I was.