Barrage Bliss

Bore loss

If you live long enough all your dreams come true.

Yesterday, I voted to nationalise a bank. Last night Newport County beat Cardiff City. Today I attended a forum that is likely to realise the century old dream of the Severn Barrage.

It was a serious working meeting attended by MPs and AMs. There is boundless enthusiasm from Welsh MPs. Less from English MPs who are preoccupied with environmental fears.

Tory David Davies MP was the only Welsh MPs to express regret about the loss of the Severn bore and surfing opportunities at Porthcawl. He is a surfer. Alun Michael recalled the hell of the Cardiff Bay Barrage Bill. John Smith said the opposition to Cardiff Bay was irrational. None of their worse fears were realised. The only detrimental result is erosion from the unexpected tidal eddies.

Several of us stressed the need to look at all available options. Tidal lagoons, water mills and pump storage schemes should be part of the studies. It was recalled that the Bondi report in the early eighties was turned down on the grounds of cost.

At that time we were still building nuclear power plans. Many are closed and we face a nightmare bill of £75 bn to clear up the mess.

If the right decision had been taken to build the barrage in 1980, it would now be producing prodigious quantities of clean, carbon free energy from an eternal British fuel source. Let’s get on with it.

Perpetual crisis-mongering

The Shelter Cymru ‘sob-in’ was held last night. BBC Wales main story was based on the blog I did last month mocking the ‘Woes R Us’ invitation to the reception.

The Shelter spokesman has been listening and he did quote some of the figures that show the huge strides made to tackle homelessness – including a 48% drop in the numbers living in bed and breakfast.

I asked for three concrete points that Shelter would like us to pursue. The spokesman could not manage one. His speech and the handout were lamentable scraps of waffling non-speak. They promised that future policies will be ‘citizen-focused.’ Is this a republican tendency escape from ‘HM’s subjects’ focussed’ or what?

Shelter continues their 40 year Odyssey as a solution in search of problem. Their attempt last night to stir up an apprehension of ‘perpetual crisis’ fell flat.

Dunces

I have the answer to the education problems.

Give all children the top prizes. Let’s give everyone a degree without putting them through the stress of studying.

That's the implication of awarding GCSEs in languages without oral tests. The continuing calamity of the UK's hapless second language teaching is that it concentrates on teaching a child to read and write the new language rather than speak it. We all learnt our first language by hearing and speaking it.

Reading and writing comes later-or not.

Teaching a pupil the grammar of a language before speaking it is like teaching someone to drive a car by first dismantling and reassembling the engine.

Those who teach languages to fluency first throw the books away and encourage verbal communication. To drop the oral skills is crass and will intensify our humiliating role as the language dunces of Europe.

Comments

[dotcommentator]

Your comments about language teaching are very true. Perhaps we can teach pupils to say "Sorry, I don't speak German...but I can write it."

[paulflynn]

Thanks dorcommentator.

This change will make second language teaching in the UK even worse.

Thanks goodness we have a better system in Wales for teaching Welsh to fluency as a second language.

[Ian]

We need to get on with making the most of the huge potential of tidal energy. However, as a Civil Engineer I am not convinced that the large barrage option is the best choice. I would have backed it 100% 10 years ago, but the real alternatives involved around tidal lagoons may offer greater production flexibility.

What we need is an objective website giving the pros and cons of all options; allowing people to question experts on all their concerns and encouraging greater debate.

Over to you Paul!

[paulflynn]

Thanks, Ian.

Agree that we need a full debate. The point I made at the Barrage Forum meeting this week was that we must exploit tidal energy is a variety of ways. There will be environmental objections that may be irrational (as they were with Cardiff Bay) but they could delay a barrage. The objections to other forms will be less. We will have the electricity quicker from non-barrage marine power generators.

[rwendland]

Paul, a bit off-topic but as I know you have a nuclear power interest. I was amazed to discover the NDA is locating the £20 million 'UK National Nuclear Archive' (NNA) in Caithness in response to its statutory obligation to manage public records and "making them more accessible to the public"!

Call me a cynic, but between sticking the records at the northern tip of the UK and having a "90-day email deletion policy", this seems like a policy to put off independent FOIA researchers! Worth a question in the house? A done deal now, but the NDA does not explain why Caithness was chosen in the press release or a website search. [I'm interested in Magnox/AGR history so I have a personal interest (not your constituent though).]

Sources:

http://www.nda.gov.uk/news/boost-for-nuclear-archive.cfm
http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?sectionCode=132&storyCode=2048716

http://www.tessella.com/News/Nuclear%20workshop/Simon%20Tucker%20-%20NDA.pdf
which mentions the 90-day email deletion policy (in a presentation by the Information Manager at NDA)