GETTING LEFT BEHIND

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is great. He's not just a TV chef. He's a campaigner. I genuinely believe he's at the forefront of our thinking about food. About responsible, ethical, healthy, wholesome and organic produce. About wasting nothing. About growing our own.

And last night, on his programme, he erected a wind turbine to help power his substantial family home and business in Dorset.

My last post was about windfarms becoming a part of the national consciousness. So, too, are turbines. Perhaps they don't yet have the impact - and what will soon be the iconic status - of windfarms, but let's face it, we're going to be seeing more of them.

Think about it: how long will it be before most, if not all of our homes and businesses are powering themselves using renewable energy sources? Not long, I suspect, given that oil's running out, so is gas (and global politics make gas an unreliable resource), coal is deadly and nuclear ... well, if you don't think about it, nuclear's great, but if you do think about it, it's possibly the world's worst nightmare. Which just leaves those lovely things: the sun, the wind, the waves.

So what if the protesters against the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm were to get their way (perish the thought)?

First of all, they'd have thrown the concerns of the next few generations back in their faces, as if to say - Go to hell! We've got the views from our gardens to think about! So don't come to us with your worries about climate change, global warming and the incipient energy crisis!

Secondly, they'll have made fools of themselves and, more importantly, those poor dumb clucks who were frightened or bullied into supporting their cause. Because little by little it will become clear just how many lies VVASP told about windfarms. And, really, who likes being lied to? Who's going to want to admit that they were fooled and coerced into believing a whole load of hogwash just so that a few nimbies could continue to live in the past?

Thirdly, they'll be remembered as traitors to their own people, and to the planet. Children in the future will be taught that these stupid, selfish, arrogant people actively stood in the way of progress, of clean energy and a sustainable future.

Fourthly, with any luck, they'll be the first to have their electricity cut off. After all, they didn't want the means of energy generation anywhere near them - even though windfarms are virtually silent, environmentally friendly and, to those with the eyes to see, a therapeutic inspiration. So, they didn't want to be part of the British Isles. They thought that somebody else should bear the responsibility. They thought they were different. And they should be deprived of the electricity they have consistently taken for granted.

The world is changing. VVASP and its gormless goon squads are refusing to change. But they won't be here for much longer. They want to enjoy their retirement in an area free from 'industrial' sights. Maybe they just bought their big house in the country and think that the countryside exists just for them, like a kind of wallpaper. But the first bunch will be dead before too long, and the second bunch will probably move away to infect another community.

We must make sure that their short-term interests do not determine a long-term issue. The rest of the world, from the USA to China, is embracing wind energy. And if we let the VVASP fools decide our future on the basis of their own ignorance and selfishness, we in the Vale of Evesham will be left behind.

Everyone else will have windfarms and turbines. And we'll be the last of the stupid ones, who couldn't see any farther than our own noses, who couldn't get our heads round the scientific facts, and who preferred to swallow lies and nonsense rather than grasp the opportunity we were offered.

So where do you want to be? At the forefront of the new age, like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall? Or skulking in the Dark Ages, like VVASP?