Wot no engineers, wot no trams?

Two little reports caught my eye in the IoS's business section. The number of electrical engineers graduating in the UK is tiny. They report that "Only around 50 electrical engineers are graduating each year from UK universities, forcing some companies to recruit engineers from countries as far afield as Serbia and Poland to make up the shortfall." No wonder so much of the debate about how to secure the future of our electricity supply is so ill informed. (Even David Cameron has been conned into buying a wind turbine for his roof believing it will help eliminate climate change (or, more likely, believing that it might help win him a few green* votes). But he's rich and, as Hilaire Belloc put it 'it is the business of the wealthy man to give employment to the artisan**'.)

Elsewhere they report that "Blackpool trams face the end of the line" because "The 100-year-old tramway needs considerable investment and campaigners claim it will have to close if the Department of Transport fails to support an £88m funding application from local councils." I love trams, I even made a special trip to Croydon (my birthplace) to ride on their shiny new system in 2000 whilst the rest of the family enjoyed the Dome. But I can't fault the DoT for its reluctance to fund tram schemes, investment in them is unlikely to be justified except in exceptional circumstances in densely populated urban areas. The Fylde Coast doesn't make the grade. Maybe they should try the heritage fund.

* green as in environmentally concerned or as in naive? You choose.
** or, in this case, snake oil salesmen.