Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 25 Gorffennaf 1922.
I am afraid I was damning it with faint praise rather than opposing it. But if I may devote myself more strictly to this part, my argument has the greater strength. If 20 years be ludicrous, surely 60 years is super-ludicrous. The 60 years' period is typical of the whole idea of the Ministry of Transport about electricity supply. The whole attempt of this Bill has been to stereotype technical practice in electricity supply, and there is no engineer in this country who is not perfectly well aware that, at the present moment, to try to stabilise the production and distribution of electricity is simple madness. Practically every piece of generating machinery or transmission line in this country, in all probability, will be hopelessly obsolete within five or ten years. The Parliamentary Secretary looks at me with awe and amazement, as if I were speaking madness. But I do appeal to the House whether I am not telling the truth when I say we are just on the verge of the greatest changes in the supply of electricity which have ever been experienced both in generation and in transmission? If the Minister and his technical advisers, who, apparently, are fast asleep in these matters, would consider for a moment, they must know that the present plan of generating electricity in this country is largely through coal-driven stations with steam-turbines driving large electric units. He seeks to standardise at a time when there is not the slightest doubt that many people who have technical knowledge of these things know that there are three definite and inevitable steps which are likely to be taken in the generating of electricity within the next five or ten years at the most.