BEATING THE BNP

The BNP has been talking up its hopes of winning a North West seat in the European elections. Victory in council by-elections could provide momentum and credibility, and the resignation of a Liberal Democrat councillor in Carlisle gave them an opportunity. According to The Independent (Feb 28), the BNP candidate in Castle ward was given a friendly reception on many doorsteps, and they would deliver 10 leaflets to every home by the March 5 poll.

Everything the BNP stands for is anathma to Liberal Democrats. We champion the right of every individual to reach their full potential. We oppose all forms of discrimination. We believe in the concept of community, and we have little time for national borders getting in the way of the need to develop shared solutions to common problems. To borrow the old anti-apartheid slogan, Liberal Democrats believe that there is only one race - the human race.

But a time when people are worried about their future is the perfect opportunity for racists to exploit fears, and with low turnouts in council by-elections there was the danger of complacency and the risk that we might have been caught napping in Carlisle. So in the last few days of the campaign we got on the telephone, summoned some help, and raised our game.

The BNP were out in force on Thursday, with party leader Nick Griffin amongst them. Their hopes were high - only for the people of Carlisle to dash them by a significant margin.

The Castle ward result:

Lib Dem 465
Labour 304
BNP 255
Con 143
Green 125

Turnout: 30%


This contest may have been the last chance before the European elections for the BNP to snatch a seat off the Liberal Democrats. They failed to do so, and I for one will use this result to point out that even in times of trouble a very large majority of people prefer Liberal values to fascist ones!

SMOKE IN YOUR EYES

A visit to the coal-fired power station at Fiddler´s Ferry near Widnes, the largest source in the North West both of electricity and of CO2 emissions.

The environmental problems caused by acid rain are now much reduced in Western Europe thanks to EU measures to curb sulphur dioxide emissions from plants like this. A major new flue gas desulphurisation plant has been completed, allowing the limits on operating hours to be lifted. Under the terms of the Large Combustions Plants Directive (LCPD) the plant will now be able to stay open till the end of 2015.

I was interested to learn that up to 200MW of electricity can now be attributed to burning of biomass, much of it imported wood waste – that makes this huge coal giant also the largest source of electricity from renewable sources in the country!

My discussion with the plant manager and his team touched on the future possibilities of equipping a plant on this site with CCS technology. It is likely to be applied first where there is a cluster of high emitting installations in an area so that transport and injection costs can be shared.

I tend to think of Fiddler´s Ferry as standing in grand isolation but I am reminded that Ineos Chlor has a private power station in Runcorn to generate electricity for chlorine manufacture, there is one also at the Shotton Paper Mill no great distance away, and the Stanlow oil refinery is another high source of emissions. Potential exists to capture the CO2 released for storage in depleted Irish Sea gas reserves.

The LCPD Directive will require the closure of power stations that don´t by then meet SO2 and NOx reduction targets, and with old nuclear stations also closing there is a threat that by 2016 we could be facing a serious shortage of generating capacity. CCS on a commercial scale will only just be getting underway by then. Maybe we should consider putting back the closure deadlines rather than considering building new coal-fired power stations before they can be equipped with CCS. Think I shall try and get an impact assessment commissioned.