Whilst all those other scandals have been going on, few people have really made a comment on the nuclear energy question. Part of Gordon's "fightback" speech at the CBI was about it. The Government has a view already on this, which is build more of them. Almost all their press releases have spoken about consultation and there have been allegations that said consulting was rigged.
As noted previously here, Brown's Government has some rather strong links into the nuclear power industry. His brother Andrew, is the Head of Media Relations at EDF, whilst Yvette Cooper's father (Ed Balls' father-in-law) is a non-executive director of the Government quango called the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority which has an interest in there being things to decommission.
What is also interesting though is that Brownite MP, and former Labour Party Chairman, Iain McCartney is a senior adviser to the management team of the Fluor Corporation on a salary of £110,000 to £115,000. Fluor is a company from Texas, who specialise in, amongst other things, nuclear and environmental remediation and public-private partnerships outside of the US.
It's worth noting as well, that in April this year, the Labour Party registered a £5,100 from Fluor, and as some might remember back in January the Government announced plans to use PFI for "nuclear new build decommissioning and waste management". Fluor have used a company called Sovereign Strategy for most of their PR. Sovereign Strategy is owned by Alan Donnelly, former leader of the Labour group in the European Parliament. Since 2002 the company has given £118,448 to the Labour Party.
Not that I'm suggesting for one moment that any of these things are connected of course.
5 comments:
Good digging. Must keep an eye out for that name.
Iain McCartney would be unable to hold down a position at £25K pa in a proper job let alone £60K as an MP (plus imperial sized expenses they all award themselves). To be paid a six figure sum as a consultant tells you all you need to know about the 'corparation' and Mr McCartney.
Glyn H
I'm impressed that it only costs £5,000 to wield influence. Even the little people could begin to muster that kind of cash if they needed to.
Who said they were wielding influence?
Nobody. Just saying that's all.
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