Even if we no longer expect the BBC to have any role in – or indeed concept of – supporting the British national interest, you’d think they might take a more … er, neutral tone in reporting the sale of a major UK strategic asset to a foreign government.
Gosh. Decent of them, taking it off our hands like that.
Of course the BBC could have used a headline like “Control of Britain’s nuclear industry passes to French government”, but that, while true, would have overtones of xenophobia, wouldn’t it ? Isn’t the French state just as valid as the British one ? And besides, as current BE boss Adrian Montague said in a Today interview (Ed Stourton, I think it was, well out of his depth – Montague often ignored his questions and answered ones he hadn’t asked), “historically the UK has been extremely open to foreign investment“.
“Historically” as in “crime is historically low” – i.e the last twenty-odd years. Prior to that, UK energy generation was UK-controlled and for 50-odd years it was a state utility. No matter.
Economics editor Robert Peston, whose BBC blog has some of the best and most insightful credit-crunch coverage, toed the party line as well.
“EDF’s acquisition of our nuclear power industry can be seen as a powerful message of hope … it’s a spectacular vote of confidence from La Republique no less that the United Kingdom is anything but bust.”
Bust ? I thought tractor production was going up every year !
UPDATE – commenter NotASheep points out that the UK director of communications at EDF, one Andrew Brown, is by strange chance a former BBC reporter and Newsnight editor. He’s also, by an even stranger chance, the brother of the Prime Minister.
B-BBC in protectionist shock? I look forward to the pro-Obama post.
Laban,
Precisely right. I was blogging on this just yesterday and remarked on the delight that has accompanied the takeover of British Nuclear interest by the French government. I guess it’s just one more strategic British asset down the tubes so those on the left delight at the prospect. And what happens if the French government in decades to come chooses to disproportionately increase costs to British consumers? Nothing, that’s what – there is no conditionality in the commercials on this – just a lust from Labour to flog off our interests.
Laban
Robert Peston is the BBC’s Business Editor.
The BBC is, of course, schizophrenic about the EDF takeover. On one hand a state-owned EU company is taking over a British private one – that’s good: it’s quasi-socialist and so communitaire! OTOH it’s going to revitalise our nuclear electricity generating capability and, meanwhile, make the contribution of greenie supported alternative energy generation look as useless, expensive and inefficient as Harrabin etc would deny that it is – that’s bad although it will undeniably reduce the UK’s carbon footprint.
What the BBC forbears to mention is that the technical skills necessary to build new nuclear power stations have been lost to the UK through the retirement of a generation of nuclear technologists and the failure of what is laughably described as our “education” system to replace them. We need French technical skills to make up for the UK’s deficiencies although I’m sure the French-owned British Energy will be able to recruit any number of British diversity coordinators and PR consultants to “drive” the really important aspects of energy generation.
The issues of British national sovereignty, nationality, nationally owned industries, a national labour force not dependent on mass immigrant labour, are secondary to much of the liberal/left, which prefers to adopt an attitude of subservience to, e.g., European Union supremacy.
It is one of the apparent contradictions of the (in general) BBC political position of ‘impartiality’, that while it embraces ‘globalisation’, which is capitalist globalisation, it criticises ‘American capitalism’, but supports ‘EU capitalism’.
The ‘Daily Mail’ at least raises the issue of national control of UK nuclear industry here:
“The great nuclear sell-out: Our only atomic power giant falls into foreign hands – and you’ll pay the price.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1060811/The-great-nuclear-sell-Our-atomic-power-giant-falls-foreign-hands–youll-pay-price.html
In general and philosophical terms, Prof. Roger Scruton, in his excellent small book, ‘England and the Need for Nations’, (published by Civitas, 2006):
“My case is not that the nation state is the
only answer to the problems of modern government, but
that it is the only answer that has proved itself. We may feel
tempted to experiment with other forms of political order.
But experiments on this scale are dangerous, since nobody
knows how to predict or to reverse the results of them.” -page 2. (Roger Scruton).
Click to access cs49-1.pdf
Well, that’s the thing init? If Britain is just this place, apurely geographical designation, why even have a BBC?
If there’s nothing unique or special about British culture, why not save money by outsourcing program making to France?
This is actually very good news for UK and here is why:
-a Labour Government that has been historically hostile to Nuclear Power and in favor of highly subsidized coal & the highly Unionized workers required to produce it, has in 20 short years completely reversed those positions,
– it is not unprecedented as the French already own other utilities.
-foreign owners of UK based plant cannot remove the plant to France (in extreme circumstances of war etc they can be Nationalized).
-Either we are for Globalization or not, if not then the army of British businessmen and our foreign investments must be repatriated.
-the French are world leaders in this technology.
-all this leaves the issue of cost and in mitigation of this arguement I would ask this, “Which British based, UK owned utility has shown YOU the British consumer ANY mercy whatsoever in its pricing?”
Cant think of one, Nor can I.
The BBC piece was fair.
Has anyone seen Johnny English?
bliss: The problem is EDF if facing tough financial problems in the future and needs to raise prices, it can’t do that in France where prices are regulated (they have red white and blue days for pricing) guess who is going to get shafted to pay for EDF?
I tend to agree with Bliss on this. What is really surprising (and pleasing) about the article is that for once the BBC managed to write 800 words on nuclear power without a single quote from Greenpeace.
Just remind me; is Gordon Brown’s brother, Andrew, still Head of Corporate Communications at EDF Energy? Just a question albeit one that never seems to be raised by the BBC. Can you imagine the fuss if a Conservative PM’s brother was in such a position with such a Company?
NotaSheep
Good point.
Perhaps one reason that the BBC is quiet about this is that Gordon Brown’s brother, Andrew, used to be employed by…..the BBC:-
“Business big shot: Andrew Brown”
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/movers_and_shakers/executive_movers/article4446279.ece
As Dizzy pointed out some time ago, EDF are donors to the Conservative Party and so the Conservatives are unlikely to make a fuss about EDF and Andrew Brown. Also, Brown is only a humble PR man (like Cameron was at Carlton) and has very little influence.
I see the BBC is spouting the Government line on ID cards again.
Can someone please remind me who blew up the trains and bus on 7/7? How would ID cards have prevented that?
And anyone illegal here won’t have an ID card and being as the Police don’t give a toss at the moment, why will they give a toss if these people don’t have an ID card?
We all know that the only people that will get harassed about not having an ID card will be white English born people without criminal records (soft targets). No doubt that fat one eyed Scottish cunt will have a nice little £60 fine and thousands of jobs for “ID Co-ordinators” harassing people in the streets.
Why do I now need to prove who I am? The Government doesn’t ask me to prove who I am when they take money off me do they?
If this bunch of criminal twats from north of the border hadn’t allowed our Country to be swamped by every loser from the world to come here, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
And how do these people get into the UK now? Don’t we have points of entry? Don’t they have to show valid ID now?
Bliar, Brown, Smith, Harman, the BBC. Wankers, wankers, wankers, the lot of them.
Why don’t we sell the BBC to the French government – or give it away more like. The Fench government provides loads of quite trashy TV to its population at a lower price than ours does. The BBC itself would proabably love such co-operation between two EU governments.
Pete
Yes, if/when the BBC is split up and put up for auction as a privatised body, and foreign firms successfully bid, the BBC can have no objection because it enthuses about the wonders of ‘globalisation’, and it simply rejects arguments relating to patriotism and protectionism.
And all ex-BBC licence-payers should be given a financial bonus – as when building societies were taken over by banks.
It’s kind of hard to ignore the extra effort made to show that British customers would benefit from this, or that this is somehow a good thing for anyone other than the French . As Martin has already pointed out above, British customers will get the short end of any stick. Except for some Centrica customers, that is. An honest appraisal would have pointed out that the French company benefits most. Why else would this deal help them keep prices down, as the BBC report dutifully notes, but doesn’t explain?
Further, the throwaway line near the bottom about Centrica misrepresents the situation. Centrica has been trying to get a minority stake in British Energy for a while, but EDF made enough progress over the summer in their own deal to take the lion’s share. There is also no mention of how much the UK Government had a stake (possibly £3 billion), or how much Mr. Brown expected to make from the deal. One suspects that it wasn’t value for money, or there would be some mention of actual benefit besides his usual “good for this, good for that” boilerplate.
And then there’s Malcolm Grimston saying it’s a “mistake” to see this as a French takeover, because they have offices in London or something. No, it’s a mistake to admit that this is a French takeover. So the BBC makes sure to toe the Party line.
Plus, how many people here believe that there won’t be a massive Watermelon protest (cheered on by the BBC, possibly with maps on how to get there) when it’s time to build those new plants in Somerset, or replace the ones that are due to shut down in 15 years?
And right on cue, enter stage right (house left, of course), Robert Peston:
It’s a spectacular vote of confidence from La Republique no less that the United Kingdom is anything but bust.
That statement is not connected to reality. It’s a business deal that has been in the work for months. If anything the current economic situation allows EDF to get a slightly better deal for themselves.
Still no mention from Mr. Brown’s biographer of how much money the Government gets for its minority stake. And all that investment is going where, exactly, Robert? Into something that will benefit the French customers, no? Other than Centrica’s customers (who would have benefited if their own deal had gone through, remember), it’s hard to see who else will come out ahead here. And didn’t both Centrica and EDF raise their rates recently? Who’s kidding who?
I guess all those quiet little admonishments he’s made about Mr. Brown in the last month have come back to haunt him, because he is definitely on the defensive lately.
Comment #6 on Peston’s blog is good.
This is anything but good news for the UK .
We are passing control of a vital industry, responsible for 18% of our power generation capacity, to a company owned by the French state . That state has shown no compunction in acting according to its own national interests in the past and will do so in the future. The British consumer can and no doubt will be used as a cash cow to subsidize his French counterpart. and bolster the success of a nation that practices subsidy and protects its unionized workforces. That may be good news for the French , its not good news for us. The French and our other European allies do not appear to share our Labour Government’s commitment to the theory of globalization. They act decisively to thwart attempts to buy up their significant industrial and commercial assets. Why is this I wonder ? The Americans pay lip service to the theory but act according to perceived national interest. They too protect their home markets and act decisively to stop foreign control of key industries. (Witness the effective way they blocked the attempted take over of key ports by the Arabs.) Alone amongst our allies we appear to allow significant assets to be swallowed up by foreign interests without any serious consideration of the longer term consequences. Utility companies, now mostly foreign owned, have been rapacious in bleeding British consumers. Major elements of our vital transport facilities and capacity are in the hands of foreign owners who can and will manipulate those assets to line their own pockets and serve their own national interests. Much of our financial infrastructure including the stock exchange itself is owned and controlled by foreign interests. Whilst foreign ownership may offer benefits in the short term, in the longer term loss of control can have negative impact. With control, foreign companies can repatriate assets both financial and intellectual and manipulate accounts to reduce income tax paid in the UK. This can lead to a greater tax burden falling upon British industry and the British public. Whilst the advocates of a ‘free for all’ might argue that the reverse also applies, the British public sees precious little benefit coming its way. Such profits generally being held in private hands. If we were to reverse the circumstance and project our current national power generation dilemma upon say our French neighbours, I suspect we would find a very different scenario being enacted. The French would not sell their assets to us. They would ensure a partnership arrangement which would see the French partner holding control and they would ensure that technology transfer subsequently benefitted the French partner. Oh and they would protect the French consumer for fear of electoral retribution. Our American cousins wouldn’t even bother with the partnership fig leaf. They would require us to use or set up an American company under american shareholder control which guaranteed their national interest. Technology and all US management would then transfer to that company.
The BBC piece was grossly biased as it regurgitated government PR whole and failed to offer any airing or analysis of the legitimate and very real concerns surrounding this fire sale.
If EDF had been an American company, you just know the BBC would have been foaming at the mouth. Loony Benn and mad Livingstone would have been wheeled out along with fatso Toynbee.
Peston continues to demonstrate he is useless and clueless.
I will always see you as a fraud Peston, no matter how many industry awards you win
Did anyone notice who the BBC had on The Daily Politics to fight the corner against ID cards?
Richard Fairbrass of Right Said Fred. A true heavy weight in the politics of the momemt … 🙁
The Cattle Prod of Destiny | 25.09.08 – 5:31 pm |
‘I’m to sexy for this card,
Too sexy for this card…
Well ‘ard..’
Sorry. Agree with you totally.
Probably the first person whose PR picked up ‘the call’ and the producer thought ‘Why not?’
Isn’t he gay? That qualifies anyone to be on the BBC.
It’s not ‘protectionist’ to be concerned that a strategic asset is in the hands of a foreign government. I don’t expect you to understand that.
it’s a spectacular vote of confidence from La Republique no less
You mean, those snotty so-called ‘intellectuals’?
Under the gangsters ‘governing’ this country, just about anything can be sold off to foreigners.
And has been.
foreign owners of UK based plant cannot remove the plant to France
But they can move the profits. If the profits are earned by a British company, they stay in this country and contribute to our economy. I’d rather that happened than have the profits benefit the French economy. Sorry, I’m silly like that: I am proud to be British and want this country to do well. That is why I regard the government, and the BBC, as traitors in the most literal sense.
blair is a catholic traitor and sociopathic liar.
EDF can also sell their electricity to europe, then make other UK companies buy it back at a higher price to UK customers.
Meanwhile, there is the prospect of power cuts this winter:
“Back to the Dark Ages:National Grid raises spectre of blackouts this winter”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1062089/Back-Dark-Ages-National-Grid-raises-spectre-blackouts-winter.html
No doubt the ‘greenies’ will carry on regardless with their undemocratic actions to help society, by their direct actions to close down coal-fired power stations, so that some people can freeze to death.