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The moratorium on the building of new nuclear power stations in the UK that has existed since the 1980s may be ended as a result of government concerns about the security of energy provision and the environmental impact of fossil‐fuel‐based energy supply. This viewpoint argues that the case for nuclear power on both counts is unproven. Moreover, renewed government support for a civil nuclear power programme may be a case of government attempting to pick winners, when the evidence suggests that such decisions are best taken by energy suppliers, producers and consumers.

Nationalisation promised to run the coal industry efficiently in the public interest. But nationalisation is politicisation. The consumer is replaced by party politics. Despite surplus stocks, the National Union of Mineworkers under Arthur Scargill resists concentration on the most efficient pits. The industry has become an engine not for coal production but for Job preservation.