The nobbling of Britain’s nuclear energy sector

The UK once led the world in nuclear energy, but now it’s a has-been. The malaise is due to the left’s opposition and decisions taken by the Blair government.

Cooling towers
(Image credit: © Getty Images/iStockphoto)

You don’t have to be a faithful follower of the net-zero advocates to believe that reducing the UK’s dependence on imported hydrocarbons and encouraging others to do likewise is an economic imperative.

There is a mountain of evidence that the possession of hydrocarbon wealth is responsible for corruption, aggression, repression, and economic mismanagement – it undermines enterprise in countries that are “blessed” with it. These include Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, for whom it has financed extravagance for the few while helping to create misery for the many. The other losers are the hard-working and entrepreneurial people of countries that have to overpay for their energy.

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Max King
Investment Writer

Max has an Economics degree from the University of Cambridge and is a chartered accountant. He worked at Investec Asset Management for 12 years, managing multi-asset funds investing in internally and externally managed funds, including investment trusts. This included a fund of investment trusts which grew to £120m+. Max has managed ten investment trusts (winning many awards) and sat on the boards of three trusts – two directorships are still active.

After 39 years in financial services, including 30 as a professional fund manager, Max took semi-retirement in 2017. Max has been a MoneyWeek columnist since 2016 writing about investment funds and more generally on markets online, plus occasional opinion pieces. He also writes for the Investment Trust Handbook each year and has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and other publications. See here for details of current investments held by Max.