Hinkley Point is a terrible deal. May must show courage and cancel it | Simon Jenkins
They haven't gone away. The great spending dinosaurs of the political dark ages, back before June 2017, are still roaming the jungle. Theresa May's first decision as prime minister, to approve the 18bn Hinkley Point nuclear power station, is still crashing about Whitehall. Now the national audit office (NAO) has added its voice to those calling it a really bad deal. The project now has no independent supporters.
Hinkley was a hangover from when Whitehall's energy department took leave of its senses and approved anything that looked remotely "green". It just passed the bill to the Treasury. The Treasury then passed the risk to Chinese investors and French contractors. The risk proved so great that these backers swiftly passed it back to the Treasury and future British taxpayers and energy users, in loan guarantees and sky-high prices.
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