THE FASTER a car goes, the greater the chance of it being involved in an
accident. Cars kill 45 000 people a year in the European Union alone. Is a
driver鈥檚 freedom to put his or her foot down worth such a high price?
快猫短视频 thinks politicians should consider insisting that
cars carry devices to stop them breaking speed limits
(25 March, p 3). I asked roads
minister Lord Whitty if he thought MPs would be bold enough to do such an
unpopular thing.
Whitty replied that to insist that a speed limiter be fitted to all vehicles
could produce its own problems. We would need agreement with all our EU partners
and strong legislation. Many accidents occur at low speed, making the argument
for fitting them less clear-cut, especially in small cars where the outlay would
be a higher proportion of the value of the vehicle.
The government is looking at a range of ways to manage speed said Whitty.
Some positive technological developments are emerging. Research has already been
commissioned into a system of external control which would automatically
restrict the speed of a vehicle to the speed limit of the road on which it is
travelling.
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Following such research, decisions clearly cannot be reached too
soon.
SO British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) says that between 2002 and 2010 it will close
its nuclear stations at Bradwell in Essex, Dungeness A in Kent and Sizewell A in
Suffolk, and stop generating power at Calder Hall in Cumbria, and at Chapelcross
in Scotland. Shocked by the finality of all this, I asked environment minister
Michael Meacher what the overall effect would be on Britain reaching targets
agreed at the Kyoto climate conference to stem the production of greenhouse
gases.
Meacher replied that Britain鈥檚 draft programme is based around new
projections for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and particularly a
working paper, Energy Projections for the UK, produced by the
Department of Trade and Industry. BNFL鈥檚 announcement on closures is consistent
with that working paper, which assumes the closure of most of the Magnox
stations by 2010. Therefore the closure timetable for the three Magnox stations
would not change our energy projections for 2010.
Our climate change targets will be more difficult to achieve, though, if
there are any significant changes to the assumed percentage of nuclear power in
the energy mix, he admitted. In our review of the climate change programme we
must watch the position carefully, he said.
Beyond 2010 we can expect closure of the remaining nuclear power stations and
also tougher emissions reduction targets. The draft programme aims to prepare
Britain for tackling climate change in the longer term. 鈥淚t gives clear signals
to business that more action will be needed after the Kyoto commitment period,
and puts in place mechanisms, such as carbon trading, which will encourage
innovation and incentivise a move to lower carbon technology,鈥� said Meacher.
The bald truth, I fear, is that with the rundown of our nuclear power
programme, Kyoto targets will become impossible to meet. Politicians in Berlin
and London are pandering to ill-considered alleged public opinion. People may
well prove much more concerned about global warming than nuclear waste.
