Welsh public duped again

Are you fed up with being duped?  Do you lose sleep over it? No, well that's normal, for being duped is a way of life in Wales..

First of all by being told we are better off in the Union, despite the hardship, poverty, state of health, social services, education, in fact almost everything is a problem.

Then we are told that Wales cant afford to be Independent, when all the evidence is that Wales can't afford not to be,

It's not only the Westminster government. The Welsh government for example says they no longer have the money to support the poorest children during the summer break.

Of course the financial arrangements with Westminster are detrimental to Wales, but under the present system it's about priorities and if looking after the poorest children is not a priority for a Labour, socialist government. Well.

Incidentally, they should hang their heads at supporting a constitutional arrangement, that leads to such poverty in Wales

And  the latest dupe shows why..

Recently there was a news item on both major  Wales regional TV channels.

The Crown Estates were funding an exploration into where to site floating turbines off the Welsh coast to exploit Wales renewable energy resources.

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This was trumpeted as a major benefit to Wales.

The Crown Estates projected 4 Gigawatts of capacity from this source.

They also projected a further potential of 20 Gigawatts by 2045.

This 4 Gigawatts, together with the 8 Gigawatts of marine and tidal energy projected by Marine Energy Wales and a further 2 Gigawatts from Carbon Trusts offshore turbines, gives 14 Gigawatts of green energy capacity. 

That's one and a half times the energy used by Wales from all sources, oil, gas and electricity

The big problem, cutting through all the political b…..t, is that it doesn't belong to Wales. Wales does not own or control any of it..At least not under the present system.

The system works like this.

Exploration into these sources is carried out, often with public funding. In this case by the Crown Estates, which, for all its grand title is merely a Westminster government department,

The data is then passed to a private company for development, almost invariably a foreign owned energy company.

They generate the power and take the profits.

They require a license to operate from the UK government who take the receipts from the license { there is a cut for HM Charles ].

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The Westmnster government takes the tax revenues from energy production.

But what about the advantages from the supply chain? The supply chain that the Carbon Trust says is virtually non-existent for Welsh or Welsh based businesses.  

But any increase in renewable energy is to be welcomed. 

At least the people of Wales, Welsh business will be using renewable energy from Wales.

Not so.

Welsh energy supplies are put into the big UK pot and Wales is more likely to be using electricity generated by the use of fossil fuels.

Despite the impression given by the Westminster government of the advantages to Wales. And despite the Welsh government claim of how wonderfully well Wales is doing with regard to renewable energy. The Welsh nation does not gain any financial return, nor direct environmental benefit.

And what a big loss it is.

The Crown Estates projections alone of 4 Gigawatts capacity, is worth at present electricity wholesale prices £4.7 billion every year and the projected 2o Gigawatts by 2045 worth £23.5 billion, every year [ at today's wholesales prices ].

Now that's a very big dupe  

But it hasnt got to be like this!