One area where it seems France has got it right is its reputation for ignoring EU regulations that go against the national interest. Street markets selling livestock alongside un-refrigerated cheeses operate with impunity on the other side of the Channel. Try that over here and the health and safety Gestapo would have a blue fit.

Another area where the French have emphatically got it right is in power generation. After the oil shocks of 1973, France, with no significant oil or gas reserves of its own, embarked on a massive expansion of nuclear power, completely ignoring the doom-mongerers such
as Greenpeace.

The result has been an unqualified success story. Today, France has 59 nuclear power plants producing 78 per cent of its electricity needs. Electricity is so cheap and abundant that much of it is exported to the UK and Germany, earning the French economy about three billion euros a year.

The cost of electricity to the consumer is among the lowest in Europe and, crucially, France has security of supply. In other words, the Russians could decide to turn off the gas tap and it wouldn't bother the French a jot.

And because nuclear emits no carbon or pollutants, France is also one of the "greenest" countries in the industrialised world.

Contrast this with the situation in the UK. Despite North Sea oil, our energy policy has been allowed to stagnate over the last 40 years. We largely abandoned clean coal technology in favour of a "dash for gas", which has now left us overly reliant on unstable foreign regimes which can put up prices or even cut off supplies on a whim.

Unlike the French, we listened to the alarmist prattling of the eco-warriors, and nuclear power fell out of fashion.

The result is an impending energy crisis. Nuclear provides about 20 per cent of our electricity needs, but the power stations that produce it are ageing and all but one will have to close by 2023.

We are rapidly approaching a vast energy gap between what we are capable of producing and what we need.

Green activists are unperturbed, despite being proved so comprehensively wrong, and now claim renewable energy is the answer to all our problems. But despite huge government subsidies, wind, solar and wave power produce only five per cent of our electricity needs. To suggest that renewables could replace all our nuclear output – as well as coal and gas-fired stations that would need to close to reduce our carbon emissions – is laughable.

To put it into some kind of perspective – you would need 400 wind farms the size of Ovenden Moor to replace a single coal-fired plant such as Drax.

Thankfully, the Government has belatedly realised that urgent action is needed. This week, Business Secretary John Hutton announced a major expansion of nuclear power – not just replacing ageing power plants – and the creation of a £20bn industry providing 100,000 new jobs.

We are lucky enough to observe at close hand the nuclear experiment of the French and it is clear that nuclear power is safe, reliable, cheap and clean.



Class anger

The annual festival of comedy that is the spring teachers' union conferences didn't disappoint this year.

Delegates of the far left NUT would clearly rather be voting on an amendment calling for the overthrow of capitalism by
a workers' revolution – but only during term time.

Instead, they had to settle for a call for strike action over pay.

Bradford teacher Ian Murch warned: "You wouldn't like us when we are angry – and we are getting a bit angry now."

Ooh! He sounds absolutely furious, doesn't he? I reckon someone in the staff room has been using his coffee mug without permission.