A piece in the Guardian Unlimited provides some interesting budget coverage of the Government’s plans to sell most of its assets in the state owned nuclear energy industry. This is part of a wider plan to raise £50bn. I am not sure if this is good news or not. Firstly to whom will the assets be sold ? Secondly have we really seen improvements in the UK’s infrastructure - gas, electricity and water since privatisation under Margaret Thatcher and the great sell off from that period ? Are Labour and Conservative policies converging ?

Are people who worry about our energy policy simply ‘doom and gloom’ merchants ? I think not. We have a real energy crisis looming in the UK which has built up specifically through poor decisions and missed opportunities. An article in the Yorkshire Post provides some interesting reading with comments from Dr Dieter Helm of Oxford University who is Britain’s foremost energy-policy expert. Surprising is that in 1997, Labour inherited a fairly stable energy outlook.