It isn’t that clear what the overall advantage of starting HS2 in the north will be except that it is probably easier as it cuts through less inhabited areas and so will make faster progress. It also creates jobs in areas that are currently suffering more.  Politically it delays decisions in sensitive areas and perhaps changes to airports will enable the southern part of the route to be adapted.  Heathrow is badly constrained by lack of runways, an airport operating at over 90% capacity is a recipe for delays and increasing cost of landing slots.

Meanwhile the UK is accelerating its slip down the league table of developed countries not helped at all by having a clogged up transport system while Asian and major EU countries are building more runways and a fast rail network to major cities.

Our state of democracy is that a few newts placed on a site or a footpath used by a few people can set back a major development by years and cost millions of pounds.  While campaigners can make all kinds of fanciful claims.

In particular articulate people close to the capital and hub of UK power have a stronger voice than those in far off regions.  This is creating a two speed Britain where a region buffered by the Chilterns is getting a disproportionate amount of investment. A few crumbs are cast out to other regions like a few miles of electrified rail between Manchester and Liverpool while London gets a £16bn pound new rail line that is about the same length.

So Heathrow’s days of operating at over 90% capacity should be numbered and a new rail line linking the major cities of the UK should be started immediately to help create an M25 effect by spreading the wealth about.

The Japanese stations are quite old and Japan is on the edge of a Tectonic Plate, so there were 2 major factors of risk.  With the natural one perhaps being of such significance that the building of the stations in that location would be questioned.

On the other side it can be said that the tsunami killed over ten thousand people and the nuclear station hasn’t killed anyone, as yet.  While the reactors aren’t likely to give off significant radiation even in a worse case.

Yet there is a lot of ignorance about nuclear power, most people have no idea what it is but it sounds worrying when headlines talk of meltdown, radiation and health risks.  So I’ll add that I know little about it either.

In the UK we are in a stable region of the earth and the physical risks to power stations primarily come from: gross human error, terrorists, meteorites, perceived possibility of a tidal wave from the Canary Islands or other random volcanic event.  None of these risks have as high a probability or impact as in Japan. The technology will use ‘passive’ safety and not the old water cooling used in Japan.

Some politicians are now stating their concerns about nuclear power in the UK and in Germany older reactors have been closed. The question then becomes; if no nuclear how do we supply enough clean power? It is said that one nuclear power station provides the same power as 1500 windmills, yet the wind often doesn’t blow on the coldest days. Others say we should use the energy in the tides and estuaries and insulate our houses more, drive smaller cars and use public transport. There is also the carbon capture and storage for coal powered stations.

Green energy is expensive. Some say building and de-commissioning nuclear power stations and storing the radio-active material is very expensive as well. Yet figures quoted in reports by the US government show that taking all that into account nuclear is significantly cheaper than coal with CCS, offshore windmills and solar. With on-shore windmills and hydro being less per kilo-watt hour.

Overall most of the green options are expensive, unreliable and require our green and pleasant land to be converted into a windmill farm with estuaries dammed.  Can’t say it appeals much and for that reason a proportion of nuclear gets my vote.

Ireland made great play of needing to maintain its low corporate tax advantage during discussions of its financial bail-out last week and other Eurozone countries are very unhappy about it.  Switzerland being outside the EU is beyond reach.  Then again the UK uses a low currency exchange rate as an advantage against the Euro so complaining by the UK isn’t going to be listened to.

The other issue is the open market that the UK supports, that enables any country wanting to grow its base to walk in and buy an international company ‘off the shelf’.  Other countries are much more protective of their assets.  Several countries have taken famous British names such as P&O, ICI, British Oxygen, Jaguar. We listen to our governments both Labour and Conservative telling us it’s for the best yet the track record in protecting national matters, even defence of late, isn’t one that gives confidence they know what they’re doing.

The biggest reason against carrying on is that it is keeping younger people either out of a job or blocking a rise to promotion. In many cases older people are likely to have old attitudes, some of which might be good but many are probably not the way of todays world.

The average life expectancy is rising so people are retired longer and pension schemes are struggling to cope. Also as the ‘baby boomer’ generation goes out of the workforce there will be a glut of pensioners. Simultaneously there will be a drop in the workforce unless others are brought in from outside the UK. Yet there is unemployment of over 2million so how can there be a shortage of workers and if they have the wrong skills they must be being given poor guidance on training choices.

Overall removing the compulsory retirement age appears a good thing to enable people enough time to pay for their pensions for a shortened retirement period.

Names are never lost, they can lie dormant and re-appear. The history and pedigree goes. Perhaps that gets diluted anyway as shares are often owned all over the world.

The most ominous thing that is lost is that control moves overseas, investment and closure decisions are made overseas.  The top jobs move overseas. These are worse features than losing the pedigree.

Quite often these periods of bad news create quite a storm at the time but within weeks of it being resolved things seem to carry on as normal as far as the public is concerned. Of the three BA stand to gain the most by winning their battle although their pension deficit seems like it will always be a weight round the companies neck. BP can only keep its head down and hope that no major US cases are brought against it, but it seems like some upheaval in its US business is inevitable. Prudential has several options with changes to the board and breaking up being two mentioned in the press.

Of the three BP should be protected in some way by the government in a similar way that the French protect their strategic assets. BA and Prudential are renowned British names but not strategic.

Nissan announced that their new electrically powered car, the Nissan Leaf, will be produced in Sunderland from 2013. Up to 50,000 cars a year will be made.  Nissan stated that the UK commitment to providing the infrastructure and education to operate these cars helped the decision.  The North East has agreed to fit 13,000 charging points and London 25,000. Also a novel leasing arrangement for batteries will ease the cost of ownership and another plus the batteries will be made in Sunderland as well.  Photographs of the car look quite smart with nothing to make it look different. Ironically the ‘green’ car will be produced next to the Juke urban off-roader which doesn’t sound quite as green.

Ford announced about £1.5bn investment in new efficient engine R&D and manufacturing in the UK.  A significant portion of the money will be loans from the UK Automotive Assistance Programme and the EU. Ford will test 15 electric vehicles as well as work on low carbon engines.  Ford produce 25% of their world supply of engines in the UK.

Sheffield Forgemasters received government loan support to make a 15,000 tonne forging press, making the company one of two companies in the world capable of making specific nuclear components. The government said the UK can produce 50% of the parts for a nuclear power station and the investment will take it to 70%. The government is also to support up to 1000 apprentice places a year in the nuclear industry.

It is a curious business the offering of loans to keep manufacturing in a country. Subsidising has long been illegal in the EU. However such large scale investment is often only possible with government assistance. Vice versa governments often say that infrastructure projects, for such as energy, cannot be afforded without industrial investment.  Does one balance the other out or is it just convenient to make the best of both worlds. No doubt a company has to get the best deal it can so an existing plant must count for something and make the loan required less than it would be from a place without a plant or who didn’t have other incentives to offer such as car power point infrastructure. We can only welcome this as good news.

I’ve read a few comments saying that a number of pharmaceutical companies are moving their facilities east, usually in smaller numbers than this.  This industry has been held as one of the UK’s torch bearers into the future but appears to be going the same way as the heavy industries.

Yet the offer includes quite a lot of Kraft shares. It isn’t clear that I’d want them. Even if overall there’s a big offer.

A smaller company has a lot more potential than a big one with no new ideas.  You could say the price takes that into account.

Overall this is a bad day for UK Ltd.  It’s aggravated by the purchaser not being one I have any empathy with.  Although it was suggested Hershey might take over Cadbury even though it’s a lot smaller.  That would also be an irritation.

Add it to the list of ICI, P&O, British Oxygen, Rolls Royce, Jaguar, Mini, Pilkington and so on.

Once these schemes were beacons of comfort.  Now they seem to be a cause of concern to both worker and retired, not to mention the company. Add this to job insecurity and falling economies.  Maybe they go hand in hand and when the economy improves so will they. But it seems unreal for schemes designed to give a pension for a few years to now have to pay out to a baby-boom generation living much longer and with a bit of inflation proofing.

For years pension schemes seemed like friendly institutions offering early retirements, paying out if you left early or were sick and needed the money.  The BA scheme recently contributed a few hundred million to shore up BA even though it was massively in debt. We also felt that somehow they were guaranteed by the government and controlled by very disciplined and conservative experts.

None of that appears to have been true.  Now to add a bit more uncertainty, the opportunity is being seized by some financial companies to buy company pension schemes and treat them as stand-alone entities.   How much of a risk this is I don’t know but if it was my pension I’d be very worried.  One slip in the pot and it won’t come back so they need very careful management.

If any of these big schemes fall through how confident can we be that the Pension Protection Fund won’t collapse like a pack of  cards. What happens to the last few schemes standing?  It has already been seen that some pension trustees are trying to take advantage of the assurance scheme to their gain.

Like the economy as a whole we keep our heads down, hope the storm passes and think about what to do if it comes. Maybe if you can, make some diversified scheme.  It would be good to have the government guarantee payment but there are people without pensions and people with private pensions and it could get complicated. Those with public service pensions are the lucky ones, inflation proofed as well.

Mr Pension Regulator are you good enough. Can you control the fund managers. Are the accounting rules appropriate.  Is the actuary using decent assumptions. Is anyone taking excessive fees. Is regulation allowing some risk but keeping a sound foundation. Any buried mines out there.  You’re the expert, we all expect…………