Government nuclear announcement only bold in its deception

I was sitting in my local last night with the Arsenal game on and looking around me at the rapt faces in the Hackney pub and I started to wonder what makes people so passionate about football yet so apathetic about politics and the future of our planet.

Well for one, when was the last time you saw a government make a move you could really applaud? Take action that was bold, creative and from the heart? Something that grips and inspires the human spirit?

I'm not sure I've ever seen a government make a move like that, so it was no surprise today when the government officially announced plans for a new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK.

The decision defies logic.

The government claims that we need nuclear power to fight climate change.

But according to the government's own figures, even if the UK built 10 new nuclear reactors it would only deliver a 4% cut in carbon emissions some time after 2025. The real solutions to climate change are available now. Energy efficiency, cleaner use of fossil fuels, renewables and state of the art decentralised power stations are the real solution to cutting our emissions and halting climate change.

The government says we need nuclear power to bridge the energy gap.

Electricity is not the same as energy. The lion's share of our energy demand is for heat and transport. Most of the gas we use is for heating and hot water and for industrial purposes. Nuclear power cannot replace that energy.

And it's a similar case for oil as it's virtually all used for transport - nuclear power can't take its place.

The real answer to lessening our oil dependence includes improved vehicle efficiency, improved public transport systems and reducing the need to travel especially for business.

Why hasn't anyone called foul yet?

And so I'm searching for answers, something that makes some sense as to why the government would go down the nuclear path when there isn't a snowball's chance in a reactor that it will deliver on the government's promises. But the only good answers I can come up with have nothing to do with climate change or our energy needs. We're at a completely different game - they're playing politics.

The government has said that climate change is one of the greatest threats we face. Yet it became quickly clear that they weren't doing anything about it. All talk, no action and sooner or later someone is going to notice you're playing off side.

They need to give the impression they are doing something. Something big, visible, seemingly bold - whether it actually has any impact or not.

They're trying to fake us out, and before Brown needs to go to the polls.

They lack the vision to see the solutions all around them. Sweden currently gets 30% of their energy for renewables, Woking Borough Council has cut their emissions by 77% through the use of Combined Heat and Power stations (CHP) and renewables. Scientists have proven that Germany - which is already way ahead of us on renewables (14 per cent in 2007) - can power itself entirely by renewable energy sources. 100 per cent.

Yet our own government is hanging on to old technologies, technologies that won't deliver the emissions cuts and will drain investment away from proven technologies because they're more concerned about holding on to power than taking the bold steps that are needed to implement a real solution.

So a new game begins, and we're going to be there every step of the way. We're going to advance on the companies who want to build new nuclear power stations, we're going to block the bulldozers, we're going to stand in front of every pound that goes into nuclear power instead of the real solutions to climate change.

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