The sorry effects of governments seeking popularity
Over forty years ago I left University and entered the job market. I was actually rather surprised to land a job at the Central Electricity Generating Board, at its London HQ, working among a team of statisticians supporting the endeavours of others in the industry, which was, of course, very scientifically oriented. The teams we worked with were based in laboratories or design units, all involved in projects that related to our quite limited range of responsibilities - electricity generation and high-voltage network management. This was before the age of ‘mission statements’, but it was post-1970s energy crises, and ‘security of supply’ was considered the top priority. The problem is, power stations have a limited life - maybe thirty or forty years. It takes a long time to build them - particularly the large ones, far longer than a parliamentary session, and in more recent years our politicians have preferred to put off big decisions like building new power generating capacity r...