SAME OLD, SAME OLD

If the UK is lagging behind Europe in developing renewables, the West Midlands is lagging behind the rest of the UK.

But maybe not for much longer. Local news last night broadcast a piece about proposed windfarms in Staffordshire.

And what do you know? We saw the same old nimby nonsense ... noise ... health ... tra la la ... all the tired old rubbish which gets transmitted from nimby group to nimby group like swine flu.

I bet the Staffordshire protesters are also claiming that windfarms massacre wildlife. Our own dear nookies have made the same weird claims here - even though RSPB have checked out the site of the proposed Lenchwick windfarm and given it the all clear.

Indeed, the RSPB has issued a joint statement, along with CPRE and the National Trust. Together, the three organisations have backed the government's plans to increase the number of windfarms across the country, as well as investing in other renewables.

After all, it's all well and good getting pompously protective towards the countryside, but global warming is a far bigger threat to our green and pleasant land than windfarms could ever be!

All of which makes CPRE Worcestershire's decision to support the VVASP nookies even more bizarre. Their move is at odds with the stance adopted by their national body. At a national level, CPRE have expressed concern at the possibility that nimbyism has set in in Worcestershire because, as they put it, that means we'll be getting nowhere.

The Staffordshire nimbies have adopted the same kneejerk stance as our local nookies. It's just as narrow-minded, just as ill-informed, and just as motivated by selfish interests and a total ignorance of the wider issues.

Perhaps they'll go the same way as VVASP, and plump for the '2km - OK' foolishness. Presumably, by declaring that windfarms are okay, just so long as they're, like, over the hill, VVASP has abandoned any pretence about concerns for wildlife.

See - if a windfarm is fundamentally 'OK', then all their hot air about threats to birds and bats must have been just that: hot air.

Hopefully, the Staffordshire campaigns will wither and crumble just as our local Lenchwick one has. There'll be no end of posturing, hectoring, bare-faced lies and mischievous, irresponsible spreading of dangerously misleading propaganda.

The protesters will make fools of themselves, just as they have done here.

They might even con or bully their local CPRE into supporting their cause.

But the world will move on, leaving them behind, with their naff placards.