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Sir,

 

So Matt Bruce of the Labour Party (Letters 8th January) thinks there is a contradiction between the SNP’s policy on windfarms and the hard work by Angus Macneil MP on trying to get the inter-connector built.

 

Not so. The SNP strongly opposes Labour’s plan to cover much of Lewis with hundreds of massive turbines, destroying the environment, wrecking the tourist industry, damaging the value of homes and covering carbon-absorbing peatlands of global significance with millions of tons of concrete, simply to make profits for a handful of wealthy businessmen with no tangible benefit for islanders. The SNP Government was right to refuse the plan in 2008.

A chilling implication of Matt Bruce’s letter is that, if Alasdair Morrison is elected this May, this windfarm application could be revived and the fight to stop it would have to be waged all over again.

 

On the other hand, the SNP supports the installation of much smaller wind turbine developments serving community organisations, small businesses, tourist and social facilities, schools, homes and crofts. These are much less intrusive than Labour’s plan and, crucially, would allow ordinary islanders to make money by exporting electricity if the inter-connector were to be built. In total, they could generate more than enough electricity to justify the cost of the inter-connector.

 

However, the ideal time for the construction of the inter-connector was the early 2000’s when the strike price was higher and before Labour’s mismanagement of the economy damaged the prospects for a UK Government subsidy. The strike price has been cut to £95/Megawatt-hour by the Tory Government, and will be reduced further to £90 from 2017. It is these issues of the strike price and the subsidy on which our MP is lobbying UK Government ministers.

 

The early 2000’s was when Alasdair Morrison was the Labour MSP for a Labour Government in Holyrood and Calum Macdonald was Labour MP for a Labour Government in London. One of our neighbours was even the Energy Minister in London. So why was the inter-connector not built? Did Alasdair Morrison sit on his hands for eight long years and achieve nothing?

 

And is now looking for someone else to blame while getting the hapless Matt Bruce to write his mealy-mouthed excuses.

 

Dr David Wilson

Press Officer,

Lewis branch SNP


 

 

 

Letter: Labour failed to connect

19 January 2015