Following on from that statement from the senior management, let us look at a hypothetical situation.   Global climate change is a big issue at the moment.   Using the Enron mentality, how are we going to maximize on this?   Well, we could get our fingers into countries where the politicians are not too bright and can be worked on to our benefit.   Where is there a place where there are politicians who are greedy, corrupt and incompetent?   Oh, yes . . .

Then we could hype up the global climate change, pointing out that lots of power stations are getting to the end of their lives.   We could get our tame politicians to talk themselves into a corner by having them extol the virtues of our industry.   As an inducement, and so as not to scare the public too much, we'll have the government believe that our companies will build power stations without any requirement for them to pay anything.   All we require is their help in getting established (ahem!).   So you can see where gullibility comes in.  Most of them will not have any idea of the scale of pollution we produce, nor that CO2 is not actually all that poisonous.   I am sure we can avoid the issue of sustainability and security of supply for long enough to get the idea off the ground.   If we can get them to fall for that kind of ploy we will be alright.   So far so good. 

Nuclear power is, as everyone knows, not all that healthy.   Worse still,  the public have been put off a bit due to recent reports of accidents, falsified data, corrupt practices, unethical research, incompetent management, and several prosecutions.   Chernobyl didn't help very much, either - although it did help us cover up for all our previous accidents.   We'll build a few wind farms and other "green" power stations - just to show we mean well and to encourage the belief that we are caring and responsible.

Next, we need to distribute some largesse to convince residents that "Nuclear is Good".   By producing animations to upload to Facebook and You Tube we can work on the younger elements.   A Jolly Giant with wind turbines like lollipop sticks will do for that, with a side reference to the nice green nuclear plants.   (Memo:  must keep Greenpeace away or they will do their own bit, spoiling our investment.)   We will get the local newspaper to carry lots of propaganda, sorry, positive articles about us.   Because times are hard and the newspapers need the money, the editors will happily go along with what we give them.   Then, gilding the lily, we could get them to publish a supplement on our behalf.   Happily, because the local paper will also be involved in distributing the supplement, a lot of people will think that it carries real, honest, news.   Of course, it will - but only what we want them to hear, omitting any adverse stuff.   Why should we worry about the reputation of a long-established newspaper?   Let's just use it to our advantage.

Having got everyone on-side and the government committed to supporting only us, we can now apply some pressure.   Despite having agreed to fund the new-build ourselves, strangely, we now feel the need to oblige the host government to chip in.   No reason why we should take all the risk, after all.   There is a minor problem in that much has been made by the propagandists of the "no-cost" aspect of the new-build, but we'll work on The Big Recession excuse and tell the government - which is now very heavily committed to going with nuclear power - that unless they contribute, we will take our bat and ball home.   Ensuring many threats about lights going out are voiced, as per Mr. Collum's Mission Statement, noted above.   Having hyped it up so much that the politicians have convinced themselves it is the "Right Thing", there will be little they can do, except do our bidding.   These people will not only start cars with no brakes, but they consistently paint themselves into corners.

The minister responsible for deciding such matters has already made up his mind.   Who needs to see all the evidence before seeing the right course?   Must ensure that all concerned get their investment portfolios sorted . . .

Help with insurance has been dealt with by a few of our friends in parliament using devious methods.   Commercial rates are just plain exorbitant.   So, there was a bit of an outcry about the methods and deceit used to get the bill through parliament, but it only lasted a few days before other scandals emerged.   Fortunately, as the place is so full of them, it isn't difficult to muddy the waters - to use a rather apt phrase.

Note that, as yet, there has not been much in the way of commitment to actually building anything in this country from us energy companies.   Only a lot of posturing and pretence.   Just a poker game with lots and lots of money at stake.   A fair number of people have made a few bob coming up with suggestions as to where the sites could be but, in reality, we want somewhere easy;  somewhere where the resources we need are already present and we won't have to shift vast volumes of rock and soil before we can lay our concrete.   That way we maximize our profits.

Problems arise in this, as the government has employed expensive estate agents to sell the best bits of land, and these agents know they can command high prices for the acreage, which comes with resources and licenses provided.   However, we don't want to pay very much for our site, so we pretend to be interested in other properties.   Unfortunately this incurs certain expenditure, but the profits will be very large when they come in. 

As part of the game to reduce the stranglehold of the nuclear estate agents, we get a quango or two (suitably stuffed with our pro-nuclear people, of course,) to stick pins in the map to determine where we are going to pretend we will build.   So long as the places are remote and under-populated it won't matter.   By threatening to destroy some greenfield sites we can ensure sufficient protests to justify our change of plan once, we’ve forced a reduction in the price of the real site.   There is an added bonus in that, with a bit of spin, we can claim that we didn't want to despoil the landscape any further than is absolutely necessary.   After all everyone is a NIMBY.   Our plan is merely to make money as quickly and conveniently as possible.   That does not include unnecessary earthworks!   Come to think of it, why not expand the game and threaten to use everything over a whole length of coastline?   40 miles of industrial complex.   That'll really get the natives quaking.
 
Great.   Now we can really play.

We know that a nuclear power station requires lots of resources which aren't available anywhere near our decoy site, but that is beside the point.   All we are trying to do is to scare the government's estate agents so they might think again about what they should expect to get for the land they are about to sell.   (Pity about the agents’ bonuses taking a dive, but I’m sure they’ll find an excuse to pay them anyway.   No matter, the taxpayer can afford it.)

We cannot possibly build one, let alone eleven, new nuclear power stations quickly.   (Hey, did you read about the Canadian government being quoted $14 billion for two reactors?   Wonder if these suppliers give bulk-buy discounts?)   Apart from anything else, the component parts won't be available - other countries have got in first, and there won't be competent, experienced staff around to build, commission, or run them.   Again, that is beside the point.   Anyway, we know that the Nuclear Inspectorate is so short-staffed it won't be able to check anything we do, so we can tell them what we like.   Hey, a nice touch here, we could get the Inspectorate to train staff and then we’ll poach them.   That will ensure the Inspectorate remains short-staffed.   Being especially helpful, we will kindly second some of our very own, freshly-trained staff to the Inspectorate.   However, because we will be paying their wages, we will expect first call on their loyalty . . .   (Well, it worked well in the United States, where the inside knowledge was really helpful in avoiding the inconvenient complications arising from our disregard of the regulations.)

So, we are closing down power stations, as they are too old to be efficient any more.   Whether they really are, or not, is immaterial - this is all about the application of pressure.   The nuclear power stations are still not completed.   They are way behind schedule and the cost of building them has already risen to double the estimates, forcing the government to subsidize the new-builds even more, despite what they promised the electorate.   (Good move getting the politicians to cover the cost of disposing of the waste for us.   Almost like a subsidy.)   Anyway, government promises mean nothing, do they?   The awarding of a few more directorships smooths the way for any recalcitrant ex-politicians;  peanuts from our budget of billions.   A side benefit of this cost is that it is taking all the government funding, thereby stifling alternative forms of generation.   After all, we don't want any competition, or anything that can reduce our ability to hold the country to ransom by producing electricity more efficiently than us.   Hopefully no-one will get round to working out what the true cost of this energy is.   Quite how much we will have to charge per unit, over what period, just to recoup our costs is too scary to contemplate.   Happily, by then the country will be too-heavily committed to get out of the arrangements.

So, with everything neatly set up, we are now in a prime position to play our Enron Master Card.   Any spell of unusual weather (or even usual weather sustained for longer than normal) can trigger the first power cuts.   We will explain that the demand exceeds our capacity to generate.   (Having first reduced the available power to ensure we are not being in any way dishonest.)   To limit the demand the price has got to go up.   Coincidentally, so will our profits.

Our helpful stooge, sorry, member of parliament, is now a noble worth several million pounds - due to his invaluable “consultancy services”.   Happily, his family building firm - now a stock-market listed company - is up to its eyes in work, constructing executive houses for the nuclear workers.   Oh, and a few warehouse buildings.  The ability to provide industrial buildings in green countryside, thanks to some helpful local associates, has vastly improved the finances of the family firm.   Furthermore, as a reward, some of the staff originally employed by the quangos have been relocated in the building company and enjoy commensurate levels of recompense for their hard work and loyalty.   Even though there is no direct involvement or financial benefit for the parliamentarian, it is nice to know that the family have been properly (and thoroughly) catered for.   It must give a nice feeling of security for when the inevitable happens.

The bottom line?   Well, we had to lay out a few million pounds to help people believe that we really did intend to build on some scabby green fields, but we saved considerably more on the land we eventually purchased.   Our new site just happens to be on the same one as the original nuclear buildings, with all the resources already in situ.   If necessary we can use the dairy land we sort of bought, for expansion in the future, no point in leaving it to rot.   Perhaps a nice industrial zone?   Or, even better, we could sell it to our friendly builders.   Executive homes on the coast for our management employees would be really popular!   Smart move by that landowner obtaining permission for residential caravans.   That eases the way for a full change of use.   A nice stepping-stone.   How wonderfully perspicacious of the chappy.

Also, as a bonus, we will now have a marine off-loading facility just like we wanted a bit further away on our decoy site.   These estate agents are quite thorough, aren’t they?   Funny that they should need a harbour just like we did, and how nice of the associates to agree to the idea so readily.   No idea why one was never needed before, but that was probably before we got ourselves so organised with stuffing the local quangos and committees.   Still, it will be quite a relief to have someone else to blame for stirring up the toxic sediment, leaving us nicely in the clear when the pollution really starts washing ashore and blowing onto the land.   That means it will be the estate agents’ problem and they represent the taxpayer.   Great stuff.  Ah, what’s a few deaths and deformities in some rural community compared to lots of employment?   And they thought tourism might be an answer!   Who would possibly be daft enough to want to go there when there is all that industry and pollution?

Thank goodness, too, for helpful councilors who can't see the larger plan, except so far as it benefits them and their businesses.   Must see what can be done in the way of a few MBEs and OBEs next year.   What is the going rate for party donations these days . . . ?   Oh, that’s cheap!   It will be nice to have a few trustworthy friends in the upper house.   What's the rate for that?   Wow, we'll have three.

Good job business isn’t sentimental.   That entire wild coastline is going to be ruined.   The main site is already costing more than twice what is being spent on the armed forces in Afghanistan each year.   By the time they have our load of waste to cope with they won't be able to afford to get involved in such silly games.   Hmm, we've made a point that there will be less waste, but avoided telling them how much more concentrated is it going to be.   Boy, will that stuff need some hole!   Mind you, there may well be an ex-lake or two that will need re-filling once we've taken all the water.

You have to admire the estate agents   Getting paid for cleaning up the mess that they themselves produce and then awarding themselves bonuses for doing it so well.   We do love circular arrangements.   Perhaps, one day, some clever soul will ask what a similar level of investment in the county - without the nuclear bits - would have achieved, but hopefully not until we’ve ruined it all for them.   By then all it will be fit for is more of the same.   Strange to think that our waste will still be here in 20,000 years.   Still, we’ll have had our money by then, so why should we care?   It’s not even our country.   Hah.   We’re not that foolish.

The biggest irony of course, is that the area doesn’t even have the industry that needs the power we will produce!   Er, except for the plant we will build.   See what I mean about circular arrangements?

To further substantiate the fiction, I offer a quotation from "Inside Sellafield", written by former director of corporate affairs and the company secretary.   It is not a book I would recommend to anyone with integrity and an open mind, as it amply illustrates what is wrong with the nuclear industry - cynical disregard for the rights of other humans and a shocking illustration of incompetence or, worse, a deliberate policy of misleading the population over the true extent of the the pollution generated by the industry.   Here we can, perhaps, see the origins of the "reduce CO2 at any price" scam: