Lucy Beattie General Election 2024 Interview 2

Highland News & Media

Transcript

00:00It was the Ella Poole Hustings last night, and probably one of the biggest dividing lines

00:06between yourself and Jamie Stone, who are certainly going by the polling, the two most

00:12likely candidates to win in this seat, is the issue of nuclear power, which many people

00:20are very passionately supportive of in Keith Ness because of Doon Ray.

00:25They feel they've got the skills and they're losing something if they didn't have a replacement,

00:29whereas the SNP is very, very strongly against it.

00:35There was an interesting discussion with some locals a few moments ago, and they had an

00:42interesting and educated perspective about that.

00:45Where do you stand on nuclear power at this stage in relation to your own party?

00:50Well, first of all, just to say about the SNP's position, that their position is for

00:54clean energy, so that doesn't necessarily exclude nuclear fusion.

00:59And since December of last year, we have got the situation where fusion technology

01:02has actually been achieved, which is really, really encouraging.

01:06The question that came up last night was about two issues, about the sort of historical nature

01:12of the nuclear plant up at Doon Ray, and they asked about hot spots on the beach, and certainly

01:20I remember growing up here in North Broome, seeing a Geiger counter out on the beach as

01:26a young child, and sort of wondering what was a Geiger counter and what's radioactive

01:30seaweed, why are we looking for this?

01:33We were sort of getting hit potentially from Sellafield and Doon Ray, and they were checking

01:36in and then later on after Chernobyl in 1986, our sheep actually on the farm were tested

01:43for quite a number of years actually, for nuclear fallout poisoning.

01:48But so that was one of the issues, and a place like Ullapool has had a strong following for

01:52CND, I mean we're sitting here outside the Cayley Place, and as you'll know, Jeanne

01:56Atkins was very, very forthright in her stance against NATO, and that was one of the reasons

02:02that she left the SNP.

02:03I guess things have moved on in terms of SNP policy, things have moved on in terms of the

02:08world, but crucially getting back to our area and the people in Cape Ness, so there's a

02:14huge potential for R&D up there, and that's already happening, the site is decommissioning,

02:20the NDA is working really, really well towards that, and in fact, as far as I'm aware, folks

02:25who are at base at Doon Ray have utilised their knowledge to help with the work going

02:30on in Fukushima after the disaster there, and that level of high expertise should be

02:36maintained, and we talk about just transition, if people have these scientific skill sets,

02:41or whether it's technical skill sets, or welding, or whatever's happening up there, these shouldn't

02:46be lost, and these jobs shouldn't be lost.

02:49So when you're looking at things like the just transition, what's there to fill the gap?

02:52If you're looking at clean energy, we do have a vast abundance of natural resources.

02:58There is some consternation and discussion about the pylons and how this infrastructure

03:02carries it, and that's something that's being driven at the moment by Ofgem in the wake

03:05of the Ukraine war.

03:06I mean, there's two reasons, you know, there is the climate agenda, but also the agenda

03:11to be self-sufficient.

03:13So I think when you're looking at self-sufficiency, there's huge potential with storage, but also

03:18with green hydrogen, and that's something that I'd really like to see us working towards.

03:23There's been a number of people that I've talked to who are sceptical about, and I'm

03:28talking specifically in Caithness, which is, we're in Ullapool now, but Caithness, Southland,

03:32these areas, very sceptical about the commitments made by the current Scottish government, the

03:39SNP government, about a lot of these areas.

03:42How will you try to address those concerns?

03:46Obviously, a lot of these decisions couldn't be down to one MP if elected, but how would

03:52you try and allay some of those concerns that they would have in order to persuade people

03:56to vote for you in these areas?

03:58Yeah, well, I mean, certainly in terms of my groundwork, you know, getting out and speaking

04:00to people, I've spoken to a lot of people who work at BNRE, I've also spoken to people

04:06like Richard Hardy from the Prospect Union, and asked him about his work in the Just Transition

04:10Commission, because I think that's really essential.

04:13I've also reached out to Focus North.

04:15I spoke to Peter Fitchender, who told me about their vision for development, and next

04:20week, on Wednesday, I'm actually going up to Caithness, and the Caithness Chamber of

04:24Commerce is hosting a hustings, so, I mean, the point of a hustings is to tell a little

04:28bit about myself, but it's also to hear what people's views are, and listen to them, and

04:32try and synthesise some of that knowledge.

04:34You want a dialogue?

04:35Yeah, I would definitely like a dialogue.

04:38Okay.

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