Boondoggle

Hinkley Point C UK: France’s EDF Boondoggle Sets a Record

“Europe’s biggest nuclear power operator EDF, which manages France’s fleet of 57 reactors, is under pressure to show it can improve on its record of reactor construction. Recent projects have been severely delayed and hugely over budget, taking well over 10 years to complete.” – Financial Times, February 20, 2026).

There’s a new leader in the nuclear power plant cost overrun derby, and it isn’t even in the clubhouse yet. Britain’s Hinkley Point C — being built in Somerset by France’s government-owned Électricité de France (EDF) — is now going to cost at least £49 billion ($65 billion) if it goes into service in 2030 and another £1 billion ($1.3 billion) if the first unit is delayed to 2031. This equates to $10 million per megawatt–best case–with multiple years of waiting. Expect it to go up from here.


Here's an idea, how about a UK electricity generation scheme which isn't a boondoggle. It's worth knowing what Ed Miliband thinks about the idea...

...no it isn't.

An act of historic cowardice

Joseph Dinnage has an interesting CAPX piece on the wildlife on banknotes issue. Worth reading, although I'd call it another shift towards infantilisation as well as an act of historic cowardice. A two for one offer we might say.

Churchill vs hedgehogs

• Replacing Winston Churchill with hedgehogs on our banknotes is an act of historic cowardice
• The last thing we should be doing is subordinating our history to the politics of progressive interest groups
• If we do not champion our history, it gets forgotten

In Britain, we have grown up with not only the monarch on our currency, but also with the faces of some of our greatest countrymen and women. Jane Austen, Alan Turing, Winston Churchill, JMW Turner, Adam Smith, Charles Darwin and William Shakespeare: over the years, all these figures and more have appeared on our banknotes, serving as a regular reminder of the world-leading talent Britain is capable of producing.

Yet as the 21st century demonstrates to us with violent regularity, all beauty must die in the name of ‘progress’, and our banknotes will soon bear images of our native fauna, rather than the human beings who actually made this country great.

Figure 03 humanoid cleaning a living room autonomously

 

A Creature of the Establishment

The odd thing about Sir Keir Starmer, or rather one of the odd things about him as a politician, is his failure to create the impression that he has ever had any intention of making life better for voters.

On the contrary, he creates the impression that he would never do anything for anyone beyond the Establishment. For a Labour leader this is weird.

It may be that all political leaders are like this, but Starmer is unusual in that he appears to see not the slightest need to hide it, as if he is entirely unaware of the political need to hide what he is as the person behind the politician. He comes across as a creature of the Establishment but can't hide it.

Current polling suggests Labour would lose nearly 300 seats if a general election were to be held tomorrow. Yet Starmer carries on as if it is not his job to offer the party a better poll performance via changes which could benefit Labour voters. As if Labour voters are not his concern because voters are not his concern.

The problem seems to be Keir Starmer's personality, his awkward, managerialist outlook which is poorly adapted to encouraging other people. As far as we can tell, other people are not particularly significant for him, so encouraging them is equally insignificant.

Yes he's a creature of the Establishment, we've known that for ages, but he isn't supposed to make it so obvious. That he continues to do so is weird.

Showcase

UK wildlife to replace historical figures like Churchill and Shakespeare on banknotes

King Charles' portrait will continue to appear on the next series of notes - but they will "showcase the UK's rich and varied wildlife".

Oh well, may as well make some obvious showcase suggestions for the rich and varied UK wildlife, such as weasels, rats, snakes, toads and pondlife.

The uncertain promise of a graduate premium

Lawrence Newport has an interesting CAPX piece on official restrictions placed on research into the financial benefit university graduates may or may not gain from their degrees. 

Well worth reading as the government is unwilling to be open about the issue and it only takes a few seconds to see why that might be. 


When will the Government be honest about university?

• Successive governments have concealed the truth about the so-called 'graduate premium'
• It's time to be candid about the true value of an undergraduate degree
• Young people deserve to make an informed decision about their future

Students and parents deserve the truth about Britain’s education system. Successive governments have pushed generations along a single, well-worn track; through primary and secondary school, into college or sixth form and finally to university.

The underlying promise appeared straightforward: if students followed this route and graduated with a degree, higher pay would follow. Politicians of all colours repeatedly spoke of the so-called ‘graduate premium’, often referring to the familiar statistic that graduates earn, on average, £100,000 more over a lifetime than non-graduates. Labour and Conservative education ministers have argued this system is the ‘engine’ of social mobility: some organisations have even linked the role of universities in driving greater upwards mobility with ‘higher levels of employment and pay, better living standards and more‘.

Today, those assurances seem hollow. Millions of graduates are leaving university to find the toughest job market in decades. Today, more than 700,000 are out of work and on benefits. Even the graduates who managed to find a position are struggling: many are making repayments on their student loans, only to find their debt continues to rise every month. In fact, those on a Plan 2 loan must earn £66,000 annually to begin reducing their overall debt, rather than just servicing the interest. It is these circumstances that have made the promise of a ‘graduate premium’ look far from certain.

Welsh Labour is doomed

Adam James Pollock has an interesting Critic piece on the Senedd election on 7 May and a strong possibility that it will be disastrous for Welsh Labour. 


Welsh Labour is doomed

New scandals will speed up its decline into irrelevance

Last Thursday, Nigel Farage and the Leader of Reform UK Wales, Dan Thomas, took to the stage in Newport to launch the party’s Welsh manifesto ahead of the Senedd elections on 7 May.

The manifesto outlines policies tailored specifically to Welsh people, from a commitment to building specific motorway relief roads and fixing crumbling expressways, to ensuring that Welsh men and women are prioritised for social housing.

While Reform UK are campaigning in the hope to win the Senedd, Farage has been open about the fact that the Welsh campaign is about more than that. Speaking at the manifesto launch, he said the Senedd election “doubles up as a referendum on Keir Starmer’s premiership”, who has been “the worst Prime Minister any of us have seen in our lifetimes.”

The whole piece is well worth reading because -


The Labour Party does not exude stability anywhere, but perhaps least of all in Wales. It is difficult to say whether or not Reform will win at the Senedd; if polling is anything to go by, they will not. But if there is anything to be certain of, it is that Labour will lose. The extent of their losses, not just in Wales but across the other elections on the same day, could well spell the end of the Starmer premiership. It has been a long time coming.