Stop destroying UK Renewable Energy & Solar jobs
OR
Seize the Opportunity for Jobs and Growth, Support renewable power

Dear Mr Osborne,

I write to declare astonishment that your policies appear continually ignorant of the magnitude of the business opportunity presented to UK PLC by the global necessity of delivering lower carbon industrialised economies. It is cited by many as being the ‘third industrial revolution’ but, having personally worked in power generation in several EU countries, the UK continues to be a reluctant bit part player, big on talk, lacking in delivery.

In your recent speech you stated that the UK emitted only 2% of global CO2 emissions, concluding that the UK should not lead nor act fast on this issue. YOU HAVE MISSED THE POINT. The UK’s businesses and entrepreneurs could be making billions leading the way on this huge change opportunity, yet your political outlook is to reduce and remove support, particularly for renewable energy generation, at every turn. YOU are driving the UK toward being a laggard in this respect, where is the positive leadership of your party supporting growth and a leading role for the UK in the global renewable power sector?

Particularly upsetting has been the continuing fiasco over the UK’s feed in tariff, a mechanism used by Governments world over to drive the growth of renewable power generation. It does not cost the UK Govt. a bean, FiTs being added to household bills currently at a level of less than £1 per bill payer per year. That trivial increase has since April 2010 generated a UK Solar industry now employing 25,000 people, all paying income taxes to HM Revenue far in excess of the Govt cost of operating the scheme. No denying that the FiT rates are now high compared to the cost of Solar PV as it continues on it’s downward trajectory, and should now be reduced. But not to the extent that happened when Greg Barker reviewed mid scale Solar projects earlier this year. During that review i personally made 40 British engineers & planners redundant and cancelled construction contracts that would have employed 500 UK construction workers. The £860M FiT budget to end March 2015 was only ever an estimate of the growth of the sector. YOU changed it into a capped (and reduced) budget and I say again, the FiT produces a NET INCOME for your government, it is NOT an expenditure.

I’d also implore you and your Government to lessen its unhealthy fixation on Nuclear power being the largest part of the UK’s strategy to a low carbon future. DECC appears to be a Nuclear institutionalised organisation suspiciously protective of its Nuclear stance and the Committee for Climate Change appears blind (or lobbied into a corner) to what is happening now in Germany, the US, Sweden, Italy etc. In those countries post Fukashima costs of Nuclear (amongst other concerns) combined with continually falling costs of Solar PV & CSP have led to rational cost based decisions to reduce Nuclear’s role and increase Solar’s as part of the low carbon mix. In the US, grid parity is now achievable for utility scale Solar power generation, in lower Germany it is thought to be just 2 to 3 years away. Why it is apparently OK for DECC continue to pump billions into UK Nuclear each year (as has been the case now for 50yrs), both overtly and through supportive policy, whilst renewable power is trivialised and lessened, can only be explained by entrenched positions and vested interest. You’ll shout, “5ROC support for tidal power, aren’t we green”, but really how much will that cost the Govt for the hundred Megawatts that may be built (before you reduce it) compared with the tens of thousands of Nuclear Megawatts DECC are fully behind.

I am proud to say that I am a British Engineer who has, despite Alan Sugar’s view on engineers, founded, grown and run several successful (and some not so successful) technical businesses creating UK exports, pools of technical expertise and jobs. 8 years ago I steered my career towards the huge business opportunity presented by the global shift to a lower carbon economy. Over those 8 years i’ve focused on Energy, having developed sustainable biomass CHP power stations in Sweden, built sustainable agricultural energy crop supply chains in the UK and Eastern EU, managed 1% of the UK’s grid power on a daily basis (reducing it by 15% or 250k tonnes CO2) as Head of Energy of Tesco Plc and latterly having developed and constructed the UK’s largest fleet of Solar PV power stations (28MW operating now generating zero carbon electricity).

For the sake of British Entrepreneurs, Engineers and citizens, please please grab hold of the opportunity staring you in the face and drive the UK to become a leading player in the business opportunity of delivering a global lower carbon economy. Take an easy, immediate, no cost action by raising your ambition for Solar Power in the UK by lifting the unnecessary FiT cap- a clear cap on growth and jobs.

Yours Sincerely

Nick Pascoe
British Mechanical Engineer and Managing Director of Orta Solar Ltd (http://www.ortasolar.co.uk )

Bangor City Council have decided to impose a curfew on all under 16'a in the city centre between 9on and 6am unless accompanied by a parent. This is happening from this Monday and those caught will be fined £2500.

Theories Rene and draconian measures that will alienate the young People of the area, stop youth activities and impeed the basic right to freedom of.ag whole group of our society. There has been little or no consultation and the incidents which have prompted it are alleged.

Please help us to stop this from going ahead and casting a shadow over the lives of young people in our area.

Please help! Nepali Asylum-seeking couple violently abused by the UK Border Agency and face imminent enforced removal from the UK, despite un-refuted evidence their lives will be in danger if returned to Nepal.

See http://manchestermule.com/article/nepali-asylum-seekers-allege-%E2%80%9Cphysical-abuse%E2%80%9D-during-removal-attempt

Need urgent help to lobby for their deportation to be called-off, grant them leave to remain, and see that the abusive treatment by UK Border Agency is investigated and stopped. Home Office has stonewalled letters, emails and phonecalls from their friends and supporters, need to ramp up the pressure.

Govinda and Jamuna are currently being detained at Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre, Bedfordshire. They fled Nepal after receiving death-threats from the Madheshi Virus Killer Party (MVKP), an underground political party known for their blackmail rackets and violence. When Govinda and Jamuna fled, the MVKP displaced Govinda’s family from their home and later followed them to Kathmandu, where they abducted his younger brother. After two weeks of silence, his body was recently found in their home region. Yet the UK Border Agency continues to insist that Govinda and Jamuna will be safe in Kathmandu.

Terrified for their lives, Govinda and his wife Jamuna, who is currently 4 months pregnant, refused to board the plane scheduled to deport them at Heathrow on 20th July. Govinda was punched on the neck and abdomen, scratched and pinched, hit with a pair of handcuffs and had his hands twisted so tightly that his fingers turned blue, at which point even the medical officer told them to stop, but was ignored. Eventually the pilot on the plane refused to fly unless the couple were taken off the plane. On the bus back to the detention centre, they were subjected to verbal abuse from the guards, including religious persecution and insults.

If you can help please get in touch:
07905185711
mike@speak.org.uk

In the UK. there are many unscrupulous Caravan Park Owners (UPO's) who consistently charge 15% commission + VAT. when a caravan on their park is sold privately (the Park owner has no input to the sale) They also charge the caravan owner £600 to move the caravan from the pitch to the main gate - maybe 100 metres. They also put a 10 year "Cap" on the age of a caravan if it is sold, so the owner needs to either move off the site or buy another caravan. This is when the caravan's usable life can be more than 25 years. One UPO. in North Yorkshire has declared on their licence that "Any caravan owner living within a 15 miles radius of their site - cannot own a caravan". For the UPO. this will guarantee at least a 50% disappearance of caravan owners - so the UPO. can develop the land for their very lucrative Park Home developments.

The Government's recent proposals on Family Law reform do not go far enough. What is needed is a Shared Parenting Act.

Shared parenting makes sense because when you are in a relationship and have children you share the parenting of them, so why should it be any different if your relationship breaks down?

Shared parenting works in Belgium. It also works in various states of the USA.

There has been an inbuilt discrimination against fathers in the Family Courts for the past two decades. A Shared Parenting Act would level the playing field and it would give a generation of children embroiled in Family Law disputes the right to know their mothers and fathers.