UK talks big on nuclear industry but 'lacks capacity'
Policy decisions of successive Conservative governments have been “promoting deindustrialization” of Britain, with “a Gadarene rush to globalization,” Nick Griffin, British political analyst and former MEP, told Sputnik. No wonder the UK “lacks the economic capacity to fight its way out of a paper bag, let alone confront foreign powers whose governments have worked to maintain and strengthen their industrial bases,” said the pundit. Griffin was commenting on the £200-mln ($252m) package of investment into the future of the UK’s defense and civil nuclear industry announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on March 25. Skeptical of the program’s prospects Griffin stated that “they should have thought of all this before flogging off Britain's once cutting edge nuclear industry to France.” “What we see now is just another example of the Conservatives talking the talk, when they have neither the intention nor the ability to walk the walk,” he said. According to the analyst, it was only “belatedly” dawning on Westminster that “selling off key technologies and shopping strategic industries abroad has left the UK extraordinarily vulnerable at times of international crisis.” As Sunak unveiled the new public and private investment, he also stated that “nuclear delivers cheaper, cleaner home-grown energy for consumers.” Promotion of nuclear energy as ‘clean’ by politicians like Sunak “only makes sense if you see that the reliance on nuclear energy is a gateway for development of nuclear arms,” argued a group of experts from the Global Humanitarian Crisis Prevention and Response Unit. Noting that Britain has not invested enough in the defense industry, the group added that if Downing Street wants to change that, it “will need to significantly raise the agenda as to why the UK needs to increase military spending.” “A crucial part of it would be convincing people. As matters stand, the British people do not want to be involved in war," said the group.
Link to the Article at sputnik
