Thread by @raycasey2003

Hi🦀#BenHouchen🦀fans

Welcome to the 2nd #BoondoggleBen thread, a continuation of Monday's work.

If there is anyone out there with more technical ability than me, I'd be grateful if you could sort a thread unroll

🦀#ToriesOut315🦀

Firstly, a classic of the genre:

On Easter Monday last year, @TheNorthernEcho disgracefully connived with #BentBen to run a fake story about 1,000 new jobs at a new cable factory in #Teesside.

Scott Hunter of TVM was on their case:

#BoondoggleBen

teesvalleymonitor.com/thousand-more-…

In February 2023, Ben's corrupt crony Middlesbrough Mayor Andy Preston, was fighting a (doomed) re-election campaign, and he needed a boost from a #BentBen Bob-The-Builder Bullsh!t Bingo press release

#BoondoggleBen #ToriesOut315

gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-…

MAJOR BOONDOGGLE ALERT

In February 2023, #BentBen's crony Denise McGuckin was talking about nuclear power stations.

First of all, the good news. Hartlepool Power Station was to be given a lifetime extension from 2024 to 2026

#BoondoggleBen

hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/politics/…

But Denise McGuckin's report to the Council had conflated 2 separate issues:

1⃣ A lifetime extension for Hartlepool Power Station (which she knew was already in the bag)
2⃣The potential choice of Hartlepool for a small modular reactor

#BoondoggleBen

theguardian.com/business/2022/…

But Liar Johnson watchers will recall that the whole small-modular-nuclear-reactor lark was dreamt up by Spaffer as an infrastructure distraction boondoggle, just like the Joanna Lumley Garden Bridge

#BoondoggleBen

smh.com.au/world/europe/b…

But suddenly, in February 2023 things started to go wrong in the world of small modular reactors.

The new Rolls Royce plc CEO launched a strategic review, to re-focus the company on it's core business, not boondoggles

#BoondoggleBen

theguardian.com/business/2023/…

But, if Hartlepool isn't going to get it's fantasy small modular reactor, at least it can rely on a replacement for it's existing Nuclear Power Station, right?

Well, maybe, if we're prepared to bleed the taxpayer white for the next 20 years

#BoondoggleBen

If you think I'm exaggerating, take Hinkley Point C nuclear power station as an example.

Each year, in a dance as old as time itself, EDF announces that the project has fallen another year behind schedule and will cost us another £3bn

#BoondoggleBen

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinkley_P…

And the only reason that the existing nuclear power station at Hartlepool is getting a lifetime extension is because there's an electricity supply squeeze caused by a 13-year combination of rank incompetence and the influence of 55 Tufton Street climate-deniers

#BoondoggleBen

The problems with UK electricity capacity began to worsen in 2013, when austerity ghoul #DodgyDave Cameron started laying the groundwork for the 2015 GE campaign by bragging to Sun Newspaper readers that he was going to "get rid of the green crap"

#BoondoggleBen

As soon as austerity sh!tehawk #DodgyDave Cameron won the 2015 GE, he swung into action, announcing that an Onshore Wind moratorium would go into effect in April 2016.

In December 2022, Rishi Sunak said that he was lifting this moratorium, but that was a lie

#BoondoggleBen

So, a run of 5 successive Brexit Bozo PMs has left UK plc critically short of electricity supply.

Luckily, EDF, who run Hartlepool Power Station, have magicked up a 2-year extension to it's safety certificate and it can run until 2026, so it's all gravy

#BoondoggleBen

By November 2022 one of the main #BoondoggleBen projects. the Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility (TV ERF), was in trouble.

Apparently, 3D-chess grandmasters Ben Houchen and Denise McGuckin hadn't figured out that a power station needs to be connected to the National Grid

A few months after a classic bullsh!t bingo #BoondoggleBen press release and photo op, it became apparent that the fantastic new TV ERF would need a multi-billion pound upgrade to the High Voltage Electricity Transmission Network

telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/…

Ben went to the 2022 Tory Party Conference bleating about the TV ERF.

12 years of incompetence, including incessant 180° policy switches, had rendered the UK electricity supply network unfit for purpose.

Who's going to tell him?

#BoondoggleBen

gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-…

A comedy #BoondoggleBen next

Julia Mazza of NE Bylines picked up on a typical Ben Houchen "toys-out-of-the-pram" tantrum, which resulted in a brand new roundabout having to be scrapped and replaced with another one 200 metres away, costing £4m

northeastbylines.co.uk/mayor-houchen-…

Finally, I'm going to re-classify Ben's crème de la crème project, the SeAH windfarm monopile factory at #TeessideFreeport as a #BoondoggleBen, and I'll explain why.

🦀#BenHouchen🦀fans will recall how this project was stolen from Humber Freeport on St Valentine's Day in 2022

The circumstances by which SeAH reneged on their deal with Humber and switched to #TeessideFreeport have never been satisfactorily explained, and will have been noted by Humber and the other 10 freeports

#BoondoggleBen

You'd think, judging by #BentBen's press releases, that #TeessideFreeport operates in a vacuum when it comes to windfarm contracts. But there are lots of freeports now and, thanks to Ben's February 2022 stunt, no holds will be barred when it comes to bidding

#BoondoggleBen

And SeAH can't expect to walk into the market and start picking up windfarm monopile contracts without strong competition. They're not an established European player, unlike Siemens and Vestas, to name but two

#BoondoggleBen

So, regardless of #BentBen's promises of jobs at the SeAH monopile factory at South Bank Quay (750 jobs or 1,500 jobs - depending on how the coin flips today) I wouldn't count my chickens. And I wouldn't rely on Ben Houchen to count them either

#BoondoggleBen #TeessideFreeport