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Superpowers???

  • Lord Copper
  • Apr 1
  • 3 min read

Years ago, when I was a child, I was seduced by the concept of superheroes and superpowers; and it continued through the generations - my children, when they were little, my grandchildren, who are still little, all show interest in the idea. Spiderman, Batman, Superman and all the rest, and the game of ‘what would be your superpower’ all seem to be part of a normal childhood. Eventually, though, pretty much all of us grow out of the idea that superpowers actually exist.

But not, it seems, some members of the current UK government. For them, it seems superpowers are actually a real thing. Ed Miliband tells us we shall be a “green energy superpower”, and not to be outdone, Rachel Reeves announced last week that we should soon become a “defence industry superpower”. So that’s all right, then.

Mmm….until you actually look at the detail and think about it for longer than the attention span of a gnat. As I write this, through my study window I can see a beautiful, balmy spring day. The sun is shining and the wind is blowing a gentle force three or so. Although I can’t see them from here, I’m sure that the single wind turbine that powers the Glyndebourne opera house and the more numerous ones which form the wind farm off the coast at Worthing are all revolving majestically and producing electricity for where it needs to go. The solar farms that are slowly occupying more and more farmland are no doubt pulsing healthily - if pulsing is the right word - and also feeding their valuable currency into the grid. Now, I’ve written enough times about the naïvety - no, let’s go a bit further: the outright stupidity - of suggesting that removing nuclear/gas/oil/coal from the game will result in anything other than cold, darkness and impoverishment of the populace, so I’m not going to repeat that again. But there is another little issue that rears its head, when we look at the superpower league.

Those photo-voltaic cells that form the solar panels - where do they come from, and who makes them? Well, a huge majority of them come from China, mostly produced up in the north-west, under labour conditions which are, let’s say, questionable.  And the wind turbines? Mmm....., as far as I am aware, they’re not manufactured here, either. The blades are largely non-recyclable carbon fibre, which has to be buried in landfill after their typical twenty-year life, and the frameworks, moorings and so on are mostly steel. Ah, steel, yes - used to be produced in blast furnaces in South Wales and North-East England. Not any more, though; Llanwern has died and Scunthorpe has just been switched off, with a promise to replace them with so-called “green steel”, produced from scrap in electric arc furnaces, which have nor yet been built, and which would rely on an international steel scrap trade to feed them. I don’t think I am the only one who suspects that the steel big boys of China, for example, might have a bit more clout in scrap purchase that a couple of British minnows. On the other hand, though, of course Ed and Rachel know more about the international metals trade than I do…….

Doesn’t really sound too much like “superpower” status, does it? The main reason British greenhouse gas emissions have declined so rapidly is very simple - we have exported our manufacturing base, and if you don’t produce anything, then clearly you will also produce less atmospheric pollution. What you will do is suffer a continuing decline in living standards. Will Ed Miliband, with his cult-like worship of the great goddess of green ever grasp these really rather simple basic facts? Answers on a postcard to the Department of Energy (or what ever they call it these days).

And steel brings us neatly to the other “superpower” category - defence industry. I probably don’t have to say too much about that - ships, tanks, guns, missiles - it’s a long list of things that need steel in the defence industry. There are undoubtedly extremely smart, clever companies and individuals involved in the UK defence business - and they have a proud history. But without the basic raw materials, it’s difficult to continue to manufacture competitively.

We have suffered a succession of less-than-perfect governments in recent times, sadly, but the current one is no more than a bunch of clowns, from whose lips flow a stream of complete drivel; there is no beckoning “superpower” status while our industry is battered, belittled and eventually driven offshore. What current policies do offer is a continued decline in the manufacturing base and the living standards of the people. Idiots and ideologues do not a good government make.

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