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Nov 4 2022
Government backs Sizewell C after reports nuclear power plant could be scrapped | Politics News

The government says it still supports the Sizewell C nuclear power plant and is hoping to get a deal over the line to fully fund the project as soon as possible.

Funding towards the Suffolk plant totalling £700m was signed off by Boris Johnson at the start of September in one of his last acts as prime minister.

But the site’s future was cast into doubt overnight after reports claimed it was being reviewed ahead of the chancellor’s autumn statement in just under two weeks – with Treasury sources telling Sky News “all options are on the table” to fill the fiscal black hole in government finances.

Now, Rishi Sunak’s official spokesperson says the reports are “not accurate” and “our position remains the same”, adding negotiations are “ongoing and constructive”.

The £20bn Sizewell C project aims to generate enough low-carbon electricity to supply six million homes and help protect the UK from energy market volatility.

The plant is a joint endeavour with French energy giant EDF and is expected to take a decade to build.

While it has the backing of the Labour Party and unions, critics say the plans are too expensive and the new power source will take too long to come online.

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Oct 17 2022
Truss has just removed one of her biggest remaining arguments for staying in power | Politics News

After allowing her chancellor to rewrite the government’s energy price plan, Liz Truss has just removed one of her biggest remaining arguments for staying in power.

Yes, reversing the Kwarteng income tax cut, abolishing the dividend tax changes and the VAT-free shopping scheme are very politically painful.

But abandoning the existing energy price cap scheme from April is on a different level of significance and leaves this government holed below the waterline.

Hunt announcement – live: Chancellor goes further than expected – as MPs say it’s ‘when not if’ Truss goes

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Hunt warns of ‘more difficult decisions’

Now people’s energy bills will be going up from April, just as millions face bigger mortgage payments too, but this is only one of several problems this decision causes.

Boris Johnson always attempted to make the argument that he got big calls right. This is now all but impossible for Liz Truss.

The prime minister has clung on relentlessly to the wisdom of her energy price plan: praising it again on Friday in the awkward mini-press conference, over the weekend in an article in The Sun, and allowing government ministers – like Treasury minister Andrew Griffith on Sky 24 hours ago – to point to it as the one government success.

It wasn’t even part of the mini-budget – announced 48 hours after she entered office – and over a fortnight before Kwasi Kwarteng’s calamitous statement.

Yet politically the Truss team allowed it to morph into the mini-budget’s biggest triumph, even as other parts were thrown in the dumpster.

Truss’s MPs like Robert Halfon could see the folly, but she could not until the very last moment. She clung on to it when everyone else could see the warning lights.

It is hard to overstate what a big deal this is because of the wider signal it sends.

This will be seen as the day when bailout Britain ended. Starting in the pandemic, getting a nation used to bailouts with the furlough scheme and business support schemes, there has been an assumption government will step in when external shocks take place.

This is no more.

Liz Truss had exposed the public finances to near unlimited liability for two years, because she cannot have known the cost of gas rises resulting from Putin’s war.

One of the most dangerous fiscal policies of modern times has been consigned to the bin.

It is for her MPs now to judge whether she still has enough credibility to remain in office after this particular U-turn.

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Oct 9 2022
Winter power blackouts ‘extremely unlikely’ but UK must ‘plan for every scenario’, says minister | Politics News

Power blackouts this winter are “extremely unlikely” this winter, Cabinet Office Minister Nadhim Zahawi has told Sky News.

The Tory frontbencher also insisted there was no need for the government to spend £14m on an energy-saving public information campaign, given the advice already available.

Mr Zahawi’s comments come amid concerns of power cuts with the squeeze on energy supplies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In a wide-ranging interview with Trevor Phillips on the Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, Mr Zahawai also:

  • Urged party unity in the face of infighting following the planned tax cuts chaos
  • Insisted no decision had been made on increasing benefits in line with wages rather than inflation
  • Stressed the need to tackle “bad migration” as some foreign students bring more than six dependents with them

Pressed on the possibility of planned blackouts, Mr Zahawi said: “It’s extremely unlikely.”

While stressing the UK’s energy resilience, he added: “But it’s only right that we plan for every scenario.

“All I would say is we have a buffer, the same buffer as last year, and so I’m confident that come Christmas, come the cold weather, we will continue to be in that resilient place, but it’s only right we have looked at every scenario.”

The government has also resisted calls for it to encourage people to reduce their overall energy use, despite warnings of a heightened risk of power cuts, with ministers arguing it was “not a nanny-state”.

It follows reports Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg had signed-off a public information campaign only for the plan to be ruled out by Prime Minister Liz Truss.

Read more:
Torches not candles and write down emergency numbers: How to prepare for a blackout
How worried should we be about lights going out?

She has instead highlighted the importance of increasing energy production in the UK to prevent further crises and sought to reassure the country that “we will get through this winter”.

Mr Zahawi said: “What the National Grid is doing with Ofgem is also having a communication programme to tell people how they can do better.

“We, ourselves, if you go on gov.uk you will be able to see how you can actually help your home or your business conserve energy.”

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Tackled about reports Mr Rees-Mogg had agreed an information drive, Mr Zahawi replied: “The question you ask is about spending £14m on a campaign. That I think is the wrong thing.

“The National Grid and Ofgem and actually a number of the energy providers are using the direct communication with households to be able to say ‘here are some measures you can take’.”

He added: “What we’re not doing is spending £14m on a government campaign.”

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Sep 3 2022
Music’s power to ‘unlock memories and emotions’ helps in dementia treatment, survey suggests | UK News

The power of music to treat dementia has been further reinforced by a new survey.

In a collaboration between the charity Music for Dementia and the keyboard manufacturer Casio, more than 100 dementia patients were enrolled in six months of musical therapy.

Care homes were sent specialised keyboards that allowed residents to play along to their favourite songs in the presence of a musical therapist.

At the end of the six-month period, 79% of musical therapists reported their patients showed improved memory and recall, and more than 70% saw reductions in anxiety and depression.

The survey builds on a number of recent scientific studies, such as one published in the Lancet earlier this year.

It found that music had a clinically significant impact on reducing depression and other symptoms in care home residents suffering from dementia.

There are several reasons music may be an effective method of treatment.

Clare Barone, musical therapy lead at Methodist Homes, said: “From a therapeutic perspective, music can touch emotions, unlock memories, and the two go hand-in-hand really.

“So positive memories can just bring somebody alive, reminiscence, positive wellbeing, the engagement in something, a meaningful activity – like we saw with Jill – playing the keyboard actually brought back memories of her children and playing in the past and the importance of that song for her.”

Jill is an 82-year-old resident living with moderate-stage mixed dementia.

Over the course of her treatment, she saw a marked cognitive improvement, going from being able to recognise and whistle along to a familiar melody, to playing parts of it with the keyboard’s assistive technology.

During a demonstration for Sky News, Jill played much of the piece before admitting with a wry smile: “I don’t know how the hell I did that.”

Grace Meadows, campaign director at Music for Dementia, said: It’s innovative, creative initiatives like this which demonstrate how easy it can be for carers to make music a part of good dementia care.

“We would like to see this programme rolled out nationwide as a way of supporting carers to provide the best possible personalised care for those living with dementia.”

In April, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries backed a plan to create a “power of music commissioner” to promote the benefits of music in a variety of healthcare settings.

The political will, it appears, is there, if it can survive the imminent arrival of another new Conservative administration.

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Sep 1 2022
Sizewell C nuclear power plant given green light with £700m of government funding | Politics News

Boris Johnson has given the green light to the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk, promising £700m of government funding for the project.

He confirmed the move during a speech from the site in one of his final acts as prime minister – and amid the rising cost of living crisis – saying he was “absolutely confident it will get over the line” in the next few weeks.

The government has previously said the £20bn power plant would take just under a decade to build and could power six million homes.

Mr Johnson is due to be replaced as prime minister next week when either Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss is announced as his successor.

Politics live: Boris Johnson makes £700m promise as time in office draws to a close

In his speech, the PM praised the history of nuclear discoveries in the UK, but asked “what happened to us?” – claiming British nuclear energy was in “paralysis”.

He decried the “short termism” that he said led to no new nuclear power plants being built in the UK in nearly 30 years, while the likes of France had built four in the same timeframe.

And he criticised past leaders of both Labour and the Liberal Democrats – though not mentioning his own party’s time in office – saying it had been “a chronic case of politicians not being able to see beyond the political cycle” and choosing to invest.

Mr Johnson said his government’s British energy security strategy was “rectifying the chronic mistakes of the past and taking the long term decisions that it needs”, adding: “We need to pull our national finger out and get on with Sizewell C.

“This project will create tens of thousands of jobs, it will also power six million homes – that is roughly a fifth of all the homes in the UK – so it’ll help to fix the energy needs, not just of this generation but of the next.”

Earlier this week, the Financial Times reported that by taking a stake in Sizewell C, the government would give confidence to investors about the country’s commitment to new nuclear power stations.

The newspaper also said French state-owned EDF, the project developer, is set to take stake too as part of efforts to remove a Chinese state-backed nuclear energy company from the project.

But campaign group Stop Sizewell said the power station was a “vanity project” for the PM that his successor should “consign to the bin”.

They added: “When every penny matters, it’s totally wrong to shackle the next prime minister and billions in taxpayers’ money to this damaging project, whose ballooning cost, lengthy construction, failure-prone technology and long term water supply are so uncertain.”

Mr Johnson said there was “no cultural aversion to nuclear power” in the UK, and the campaign group – who protested outside the site ahead of his speech – we an example of “pure nimbyism”.

He added: “A baby born this year will be getting energy from Sizewell C long after she retires and this new reactor is just a part of our Great British nuclear campaign.”

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