from Sunday Herald, 21 May 2006
‘WE are a significant government body,” the Scottish Executive insisted last week. Although it was no more than a statement of the obvious, it sounded like a plea. The words were from an official spokesman, reacting to criticism of the Executive’s failure to make any response to Tony Blair’s energy review.
Six months after the Prime Minister requested the review – and more than a month after the deadline for responses passed – the Executive has submitted nothing.
“We have been given a bit longer to respond,” the spokesman said. The Executive’s text was still being “finalised” and would be submitted before the end of May, then published.
If this were a run-of-the-mill topic, such tardiness would be unimportant. But because it’s the energy review, with the talismanic issue of nuclear power at its heart, it has provoked problems.
Last Tuesday evening, Blair told a business dinner in London that he had received the “first cut” of the review. It had, he declared, put nuclear power “back on the agenda with a vengeance”.
It emerged that Blair had been given a private briefing the previous day by energy minister Malcolm Wicks and officials. This makes it look to critics like crunch decisions are being taken without formal input from Scotland.
Blair clearly regarded Scotland's views as "entirely irrelevant," alleged the Green MSP Chris Ballance. "It's a disgrace that Scotland's interests will be ignored in the energy review, due to incompetence, shilly-shallying and the inability of ministers to state clearly their position."
Friends of the Earth Scotland accused the Prime Minister of lacking "the courtesy to wait for the views of others". Said the group's Stuart Hay: "The sooner Blair is made to realise that Scotland doesn't share his misguided attraction for nuclear power, the better."
In its defence, the Executive stated that it was not aware of any “first draft”. A spokesman said: “The Executive has been fully engaged with the Department of Trade and Industry throughout the energy review process, and continues to be so.”
When first asked about Scotland’s failure to respond, a DTI spokesman said: “Oh, have they not? The public consultation closed on April 14.” But he later added: “They are a major stakeholder and when their response comes in it will be looked at.”
Though Blair may have made up his mind on nuclear power, Jack McConnell hasn’t. On Thursday in the Scottish parliament the First Minister’s position was caricatured as “mebbe’s aye, mebbe’s naw” by the Scottish National Party.
One problem is that he must stick to the line agreed with the Liberal Democrats in the coalition deal hammered out three years ago. It stated: “We will not support the further development of nuclear power stations while waste management issues remain unresolved.”
This could allow the pro-nuclear lobby within the Labour Party to argue that the issue could be resolved by the publication of a final report from a government-appointed advisory committee in July.
The party’s equally strong anti-nuclear lobby, however, point out that the report cannot resolve the issue as it won’t say where or how the waste should be buried. The committee’s chairman, Gordon MacKerron, has stressed its report should not be seen as a “green light” for new nuclear power stations.
Despite suggestions in the press last week that Labour’s manifesto for next year’s Holyrood elections will end up pro-nuclear, the battle within the party is far from over.
Claudia Beamish, a member of Labour’s joint policy committee overseeing the manifesto, pointed out that the text wouldn’t be finally agreed until Labour’s party conference in November.
“There is certainly a fight ahead to win the arguments for a sustainable energy policy without nuclear,” she said. “I believe the fight can be won in the party, though it will be very tough.”
There is growing concern amid Labour’s senior ranks that Blair and others are trying to bounce the party into backing nuclear without fully considering the alternatives. Hence the decision by the party’s former environment minister, Sarah Boyack, to put down a toughly worded anti-nuclear motion in the Scottish parliament this week.
There are other uncertainties in the run-up to next year’s elections. Although the LibDems are avowedly anti-nuclear, the Greens claim they would sell out on the issue if it comes to negotiations for power. LibDem officials point out that they can’t make any issue non-negotiable in advance if they are serious about government.
There is also increasing speculation about the possibility of a Green-SNP deal to govern, which would certainly rule out any nuclear development.
There is one certainty: nuclear power is one of the hottest issues in Scottish politics, and it’s going to get hotter.
See also 'The Battle for Power' by the Sunday Herald's Westminister Editor, James Cusick
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