The Big Bang
Overshadowed by the budget and programme for government, yesterday MLAs voted in favour of the government discontinuing all operations at the nuclear plant at Sellafield. Nationalists and the Alliance backed the motion, whilst unionists came over as decidedly more nuclear friendly.
Highlights included Brian Wilson telling MLAs that opposition to nuclear power was "one reason that the Green Party came into power". After chortling broke out in the chamber, the sole Green MLA had to correct himself by saying no nukes was a reason the Greens had come into existence, not power.
Another good moment was when the DUP's David Simpson reckoned that "were I to go around every MLA and ask each about his or her knowledge of nuclear physics, I would probably be met with a few blank faces." Mr Simpson also acknowledged that "yes, my face, too, would be blank, if asked my knowledge of nuclear physics. If a Member were to tell me that he or she had a degree in that subject, I would ask what the heck he or she was doing in the Assembly."
The Upper Bann MP's previous contribution to scientific debate has been to argue that creationism should be taught as part of the science curriculum. Let's just hope that the big bang remains a theory about the start of the universe, rather than anything to do with the future of Sellafield.
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Cannot understand David Simpson's point about a waste of time having a member with a degree in nuclear physics. Such people are highly educated and intelligent and can understand how to think and analyse. Or maybe David is right they could not cope with many of our representatives.