Orders of the Day — Atomic Energy Authority Bill
Mr David Robertson (Caithness and Sutherland)
I hope that the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Vauxhall (Mr. G. R. Strauss) will forgive me if I do not follow his line of argument. I can safely leave him to my right hon. Friend the Lord Privy Seal and to other of my hon. Friends on this side of the House. I rise to deal with a constituency aspect of this matter, which is of importance, and I make no apology for concentrating on my own constituency in this matter. [An HON. MEMBER: "What has it to do with the Bill?"] It has a good deal to do with the Bill.
The people who live in the north of Scotland will learn tonight with pleasure that Dounreay has been selected as the site of the first industrial plant for the production of atomic energy. They will realise that perhaps a new era is beginning, and that the old one, which depopulated the Highlands, is ending. I believe it heralds the second industrial revolution. The first one passed us by because of our lack of coal, but happily our vast water-power resources are being harnessed and used for the production of electricity by the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board, which has done a magnificent job.