Tumbling totems and talismen

Oh dear, the neo-luxury industry certainly does seem to be having a tough time getting the wind beneath its wings:

Iberdrola Renewables’ decision to cut its investment in Britain by more than 40 per cent, or £300 million — enough to build a wind farm powering 200,000 homes — is the latest obstacle to Gordon Brown’s target of generating 35 per cent of the country’s electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Lifting it to that level from the current 5 per cent would cost an estimated £100 billion. But wind energy investments have collapsed as funding dries up in the credit crunch and the price of oil, gas and coal has fallen. Delays obtaining access to the national grid and planning permission have compounded the industry’s woes.

Shell and BP have shelved or pulled out of renewable energy projects, including a £3 billion project for 341 turbines in the Thames Estuary, and questions have been raised over the future of npower’s £2.2 billion Gwint y Mor farm off the Welsh coast.

Fortunately Lord Cull is on the case:

"We are way off the pace," Jonathon Porritt, the head of the Sustainable Development Commission, said. "The UK has talked about this for years, but the Government now has very little time to get this together. People just do not consider the UK to be a good place to invest in renewables."

Why would any respectable firm consider the UK to be a bad place to invest in any sector? High-government officials as well as local rabble activists seem to be promoting that all important underpinning of any investment environment, the rule of law:

A group has claimed responsibility for attacking the home of former bank boss Sir Fred Goodwin and warned "this is just the beginning".

Of course, should you agree with the sarcastic tone of this post .... well, you are just some sort of anti-social weirdo. Don't believe me, ask the expert:

Opposition to wind farms should become as socially unacceptable as failing to wear a seatbelt, Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary, has said.

As luck would have it, the good secretary was talking up his own book at an aptly titled movie premier and alternative headline for this post:

The Age of Stupid