PLEASE send your letters (as short as you like) to info@conservativewoman.co.uk and mark them ‘Letter to the Editor’. We need your name and a county address, eg Yorkshire or London. Letters may be shortened. There is no guarantee of publication.
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Why is cancer on the increase?
Dear Editor
So many more people have cancer now than ever before. Every day a new celebrity says they are dying from it, another member of one’s own community is struck down with terrible odds.
When will this be addressed?
Barbara Kingsbury
Fulham, London
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Bravo Andrew Bridgen
Dear Editor
I did not know Andrew Bridgen was involved in the sub-postmaster/Post Office scandal. A welcome surprise – he really has been involved in some of the big stories. I hope he continues to fight for honesty for many years to come.
Evelyn Jarrod
Bristol
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Nothing works any more
Dear Editor
I am sick of nothing working. A car was stolen from our street in London yesterday morning – the third since November – and this is not a postcode where you’d imagine such a thing would happen often. Do the police care? Of course not (but they once did).
Equally, I had to book a GP appointment for my nine-year-old son. I was on hold for ages and when I finally was put through, my surgery casually told me they no longer take appointments over the phone and I was to go through the online triage system.
I am appalled. What have we become?
Peter Wenlock
London
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Pointless EV targets
Dear Editor
New rules came into force on January 3 where a minimum electric car (EV) sales target was set for manufacturers that sell cars in the UK. For 2024 the target is 22 per cent and will go up every year reaching 80 per cent by 2030. If a manufacturer goes over the yearly allowance for petrol or diesel cars they will be fined £15,000 for each car. Forecasts indicate that there will be 31.1million EVs on the world’s roads by 2030 and 73million by 2040. Since there are 33.2million cars in the UK and 1.474billion in the world this diktat seems pointless. Does any sane person think that a significant number of other countries will ban petrol/ diesel cars? Tens of millions of old high-polluting cars are already being shipped to the developing world. The UK with only 1 per cent and Scotland with only 0.1 per cent of manmade global emissions can never cool the planet while other countries are growing their economies using ever-increasing volumes of fossil fuels. Reality check. At COP 28 there were no targets, no definitive ‘phase down’ of fossil fuels or ‘phase out’ of fossil fuels but the text merely called on countries ‘to contribute to global efforts to transition away from fossil fuels’. No timescale, no compulsion and no penalties. The world is now in the fossil fuel ‘phase up’ stage.
Clark Cross
Linlithgow
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Coal to the rescue
Dear Editor
Coal-fired power stations have been run at times of maximum demand, typically in winter. But last summer the Ratcliffe on Soar coal-fired power station had to help meet air conditioning demand, when temperatures reached 30 deg C. Clearly solar power output was not enough, perhaps because some air conditioners were running into late afternoon.
More recently the Ratcliffe power station had to fire up its remaining operational 0.5GW generator to keep the lights on, when wind power output totalled around 3GW. That generator is due to be de-commissioned this year. Clearly doubling wind power (to around 6GW) is worth little, when grid maximum demand is over 40GW.
A Google search tells us that Ratcliffe is the only active coal-fired power station operating in the United Kingdom 0f the few that were meant to be on standby to provide extra power for periods of maximum demand. Meanwhile EDF, owner of West Burton A coal-fired power station which was closed last year, have refused to make it operational again. They say that it is already too late to backtrack. No doubt many of their skilled operatives already have other jobs. So unless the government offers massive subsidies, the option to benefit from coal-fired power will not be available next winter.
Why did the government hobble (or blow up) the coal-fired business model before affordable alternatives were in place, while subsidising wind and solar farms, with their higher capital expenditure than SMRs (Small Modular Reactors) per unit of energy?
Clearly, dependence on solar and wind power will not be viable without massive energy storage or with (natural) gas turbines plus Carbon Capture and Storage, neither of which are energy efficient. For example, the release of so-called ‘green’ hydrogen via electrolysers requires two units of energy in for every one unit out in the form of hydrogen. So even more wind and solar capacity would be needed to release the hydrogen.
No wonder Chris Skidmore wanted out. He follows over 80 other MPs who say that they will be standing down at the next election. The pay and benefits are clearly no longer attractive enough when you have to try to justify such an abysmal record.
Roger J Arthur
West Sussex