Events | 2009.10.07
Hugh Muir's Diary
This thing is important. We need to hear from everybody. Er, sorry, apart from you
Great that, as it continues to forge our nuclear future, the French energy company EDF is listening to informed opinion. They are set to pay John Hutton , the energy minister, a pretty penny once he steps down from parliament to tell them what\'s what. Chris Patten too. But some voices are just better to listen to than others. And so it was that Tom Burke – a former executive director of Friends of the Earth; special adviser to Michael Heseltine, Michael Howard and John Gummer when they were environment secretaries; and co-founder of Third Generation Environmentalism – found himself in May booked to speak at a series of debates at all three party conferences; and then, last month, found himself unbooked again. The events were sponsored by EDF. The company, having agreed to his appearances, appears to have thought better of the idea. Did it get cold feet? Wouldn\'t that be something.
These are folk who know how to turn a euro, and that\'s worth remembering later this week when President Sarkozy is bound to join in the international haranguing of Iran over its unexplained nuclear programme. One might have thought he would be able to find out a bit about it all through France\'s own links to Iran . The official Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation is a 40% shareholder, with French state-owned nuclear conglomerate Areva, in Sofidif, a uranium-enrichment joint-venture company operating in Europe. The arrangement dates back to February 1974, was agreed under the Shah, and remains in place. Sofidif still retains a 25% share in Eurodif, the international uranium-enrichment consortium that runs France\'s huge plant in Pierrelatte in the south of Sarkozy country. Iran needs telling, and who better to do that than its friends.
But then the president has so many friends. Lula, the president of Brazil, is another one, and the talk in Paris is that Sarkozy has a plan to see the former trade unionist elevated to the post of UN secretary general in succession to the incumbent, Ban Ki-moon. The French president has high hopes of securing for Brazil its rightful place in the world, and securing for France a few lucrative trade deals with the emerging power, now out of recession. But there\'s a problem because he had a nice deal to sell them Rafale fighter jets, which he has also tried to hawk to Oman and Kuwait; but things have stalled after two of the planes crashed into each other during exercises near Perpignan. Brazil would like to know a bit more about what it is buying. Do the buttons work? How long does the warranty last? The usual questions.
As Jack Straw prepares for his next big assignment – Question Time in the company of Nick Griffin – one wonders how the non-engagement strategy of the major parties is working out. We will have nothing to do with them, they say. Except perhaps in the east London borough of Redbridge, where veteran Labour councillor Filly Maravala has upset a few colleagues, and Lib Dem Gary Strait has done the same, by nominating BNP councillor Julian Leppert for the vice-chairmanship of a committee. We had to, they say. There was no one else. But the local Labour leader describes the decision as "disappointing"; and Keith Prince, the Tory leader of the council, adds: "I am worried about the message this sends, as the BNP should not be given any platform. A lot of people will be angered by this." The committee position gives Leppert a role in promoting cycling – which is good, as he says he sold his previous car not so long ago on discovering that the number plate seemed to spell out the word Nazi. It\'s all good as far as he is concerned. "Filly and Gary are good blokes and I am happy to work with them and the group," the contented far-righter says.
And so, amid much fanfare, Rupert Murdoch – having extracted as much benefit as he can for his businesses – abandons Labour and reunites the Sun with the true blue Tories. Meanwhile, the pope continues to look to Rome. Bears emerge from the forests, noticeably less tense, pounds lighter.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/[...]df-iran-nuclear-leppert-rafale
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