The wind of change

As news emerges that RWE Innology have pulled out of the proposed wind farm off the North Devon coast, we are told that they felt the market conditions weren't right. It is equally clear that the announcement last week by Cameron to shelve green energy funding has been a big factor. Notably, the residents of Lundy island have been vehement opponents of the scheme which hoped to generate enough electricity for 900,000 homes.

There is a wider problem here though. It was announced today that 27% more elderly people died last winter due to influenza or a lack of adequate heating. The latter, as I have written many times before, is because they are faced with a daily decision of whether to eat or heat. The current energy system in the UK is literally sending people to their graves yet still we do nothing to address this. Our continued reliance on fossil fuels is just unsustainable whether we like it or not. It's all very well being a NIMBY but it doesn't alter the fact that we need to find alternatives to fossil fuels. More people will die if we continue to oppose progress.

The greatest indictment here though is the numbers of those who died who had been living alone with little if any contact from the outside world. The decision by Esther Rantzen to launch a telephone service to reach out to the lonely elderly is definitely a step in the right direction. More than this though, we need to look again at day care centres for the elderly. Heating a room for a large group of people is always more cost effective than heating a room for one person. In addition, it brings people together and promotes human contact. If heating is important, the latter is vital. Sadly, it is another illustration of how badly we fund care of the elderly in the UK. We are talking here about people mainly on the old age pension - not retired civil servants on more money than they can hope to spend. Granted, the old age pension is costly but leaving the elderly to die is inhumane. I feel more comfortable with expense than inhumanity so would be prepared to pay more in taxes.

Cameron was quite wrong to be drawn in by Milliband's false promise. Let me be clear. Enforcing a freeze on energy prices does not address our dependency on fossil fuels. It is as simple as that. Furthermore, if the Scots decide to go it alone next year (and I strongly believe they will), they will take with them our previous reserves of North Sea gas and oil. Thus, our fossil fuel dependency is about to become even more expensive. A price freeze is all hot air without substance. The green subsidies are vital if we are to make any progress away from our current fossil fuel dependency. It is not optional. Given the choice of spending in excess of £50 billion on HS2 and making the divide between London and the rest even greater or investing in our ailing energy infrastructure, I know which way I'd vote!

The NIMBY can have his moan but progress has to be made. The potential from tidal power in the Bristol Channel and the Menai Straits is immense but we appear to be overly sensitive to the concerns of environmentalists. Given the pollution of fossil fuels on our lanscape, I would have thought tidal power would be welcomed with open arms.