On Nigel Farage’s Office wall is a map of Reform’s target Areas. As the great patriot told me, almost all of his best opportunities are in former mining towns. We have all been let down badly by the woke elites, but these deprived areas have been let down more than most. For fifty years, the globalists have shown nothing but contempt for these once proud hives of industry; treating them as dumping grounds for criminals and migrants. When it comes to issues like Brexit and Grooming Gangs, they have been branded as too thick for their democratic voice to be heard. Labour assumed it was always entitled to their vote, while CCHQ was too busy admiring itself in the mirror to bother trying. Love them or loathe them, Reform deserves a shot. They can hardly do any worse.
And they might just do a LOT better! What if we could bring these broken communities back from the brink, and make them the most prosperous and high-tech places on the planet?
But how?
The most exciting opportunity right now is developing our next-generation Nuclear and AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities. The future of nuclear is not the giant power stations of the past, but Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Similar in size to a shipping container, these are safer, less contentious and more economical. A number of countries (including the UK) have SMRs in trial or nearing regulatory approval. The leading country in the space is Finland, which is aiming to have several operational by 2030. All its sites are in underground caves.
In terms of economics and practicality, this is a game changer. By putting sites underground, you avoid the decades of planning and environmental hassle that we see with conventional nuclear projects like Hinckley Point. These alone can run into billions. Secondly, security is much easier. With conventional nuclear plants, you need a full military garrison and emergency services brigade on standby 24/7. With drone warfare, even that may no longer be enough. But with an underground SMR, there is only one way in. And just 20m deep under solid rock is enough to shield anything from the most powerful nuclear weapons.
That blast shield also works the other way too. Because they are smaller, SMRs are much less dangerous than conventional reactors. Moreover, the enclosed pressure underground acts as a natural safety valve. Even if things do go very wrong, metres of natural rock is a far more effective blast shield than a concrete lid. You can just close the blast doors and seal up the hole. As the saying goes, who gives a Fukushima? All in all, small underground reactors are another level of safe compared to conventional reactors. Those safety features also mean you can put underground SMRs nearer population centres (as Finland is doing).
Here in the UK, we don’t need to use caves. We have over 1300 disused underground mines - Most of them several kilometres long and some over a thousand metres deep. And with all that space and SMR-energy on tap, those underground mines can also be the perfect place to instal energy-hungry AI server centres. Once again, being deep underground has the vital attributes of low temperature fluctuations and maximum security. The latter point is essential if AI servers are to store our personal data, drive our cars, and run everything from banks to government departments. This is not science fiction, all the leading players in AI (such as Meta, Google and Amazon) are already commissioning adjoining AI and SMR sites.
Once again, Two-Tier Kier and his lefty lackies are making a mess of it. Driven by pure spite, they aim trash local planning democracy to destroy our cherished landscapes, communities and farms for their concrete socialist projects. So much for environmentalism.
Yet there is a better solution, and its right under our feet. An underground AI and Nuclear revolution that not only promises safety, security and conservation, but also levels up the most deserving parts of our economy. That really is a big win.
