It is a common fantasy: What would I do if I won the lottery?
Well on 8th December 2023 one ticket outside the UK won €240,000,000 that at the time was equivalent to US $258,648,000 and £206,064,000!
Now, on “the continent” there is a long established tradition of lottery syndicates and these syndicates can be very large. Whole villages or even towns take part which means that the prize is split between many. However, just suppose that one individual was the winner. And let us suppose that that individual had been you!
OK, you live in the USA or the UK. But let us say that you were on a trip to somewhere in Europe, and were at the airport, you’d bought some items with the Euros you had in your wallet and you still had a collection of Euro coins in your pocket and wanted to get rid of them – so you saw a lottery retailer and bought the ticket using up nearly all of the remaining cash. Then after a week you check the numbers – just in case – and you realise that you’ve just become £206,064,000 richer!
Well, the lottery organisers have amassed a lot of experience with how big winners react and what they spend it on. Statistically most big winners pay off their mortgage and all other debts and then buy a car. The manufacturer that does the best from this is Daimler-Benz! The Mercedes S class is the most bought motor car.
I can understand why. Before the financial crisis in the fall of 2008 I was a “rich dude” and I owned a Merc – well three in fact! Therefore I have first hand experience of owning and driving an S class.
However, as a Merc aficionado and ex member of the UK’s Mercedes Owners Club I can inform you that there is a certain Merc that is regarded as the absolute pinnacle which stands head and shoulders above all other Mercs – and I include the Maybach cars of the 21st Century.
That is the Grand Mercedes or Mercedes 600 (https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/vehicles/mercedes-benz-classic/grandmercedes/). It came as a standard saloon, a 4 or 6 door pullman limousine and a landaulette. The landaulette (above) was the most exclusive and rarest of them all and was mainly purchased by rulers of countries. Most of whom were dictators. These dictators also had a pullman limousine which was generally armour plated as these individuals had many people wishing them ill!
To say these cars are expensive to buy, run and maintain is to understate the matter considerably. They cost an absolute fortune! Thus when I had money (i.e.; when I was a multi-millionaire) the one Mercedes I did not even consider was the Grand Mercedes. For the simple reason > I could not afford one!
However, the Grand Mercedes is simply – IMHO – the best and most fantastic luxury car ever made by man! It is head and shoulders above anything that came out of the Rolls Royce factory in Crewe! Seriously, you must hand it to the Germans! When that nation sets out to do something, they generally succeed and then some!
OK….. Where am I going with this?
To the Bristol Channel coast of Somerset is the answer! To Hinkley Point!
Put simply, what EDF are building in Somerset is a version of the reactor they have built at Flamanville, Manche on the Cotentin Peninsula.
However, British engineers and scientists – in order to meet the concerns of politicians and environmental pressure groups and anti-nuclear campaigners – set about over engineering the French design to an extreme degree. This process of design change started before construction and continued through it. Raising the cost considerably. Furthermore, because the UK had not built a nuclear power plant for decades the workforce had to relearn the skills.
So imagine this: When Daimler-Benz set about building their Grand Mercedes cars they made sure that their most skilled workers were on that production line! What EDF had had to do is to use people without any previous experience and train them “on the job”!
So now it is clear why Hinkley Point (https://www.edfenergy.com/energy/nuclear-new-build-projects/hinkley-point-c/reactor) is costing so much!
So, am I against the project?
NO!
What I am against is the shambolic and timid way the politicians have handled this project!
You see, there is one thing that these politicians have been concerned about before anything – and that includes a “Three Mile Island meltdown” and Fukushima type radiation leak – is this: Loosing votes at the next election!
The result is that they have pandered to every anti-nuclear pressure group which has resulted in an over engineered and over priced power plant and huge delays. Furthermore their political cowardice has prevented EDF from capitalising on the “learning curve”! You see, what SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED is this: That construction of the subsequent nuclear power stations (to replace the elderly existing nuclear power stations) should have started in sequence with construction beginning of each station some two to three years afterwards!
Why?
So those workers who had been trained up could be re-employed doing what they had learned!
This would have resulted in significant cost savings on subsequent power stations!
But no!
These inept and political cowards sought to soft peddle as they were frightened of loosing their seats. Having said that, many of the politicians opposing them would have opposed the construction of these nuclear plants and could well have cancelled them!
Which is why the UK is at grave risk of power cuts due to these ridiculous wind turbines!
Needless to say, I do not have a high opinion for people like “Kneeler” Starmer!
But then, it is not just the likes of Starmer who are part of the problem.
You see, in order to build eight more plants such as Hinkley Point one needs private capital. Private capital does not want to invest in nuclear power. The rate of return is too slow and nuclear power is unpopular with the chattering classes who read the Guardian!
This is why large corporations have embraced “wokery” to such a degree!
They are beholden to the chattering classes who read the Guardian!