TALIBAN IN THE LENCHES

It's always a joy to hear from someone I've not heard from before, expressing support for the 'YES' to the wind turbines campaign.

Often, it is not the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm that has prompted people to get in touch but rather the muddle-headed foolishness and fraudulence of the 'NO' campaign. As one of my latest correspondents put it, it's the 'Taliban-like' screaming of the local nookies that inspires disgust and contempt. It's their lies, and their aggressive promotion of those lies, which is drumming up even more support for the windfarm.

All those lookalike nimby groups which sprout like mushrooms whenever and wherever a windfarm is proposed resort to the same lunatic nonsense. The Advertising Standards Authority has repeatedly ruled against these nimby groups, upholding complaints about their hysterical and misleading propaganda. And yet, regardless of the legal rulings over the promulgation of barefaced lies about windfarms, the reckless and dishonest nimbies continue to shriek their fear-mongering rubbish at any and every opportunity.

Of course, if nookies like VVASP actually had a reasonable argument in the first place, they wouldn't resort to transparent lies.

Nor would they issue threats, or bully parish councillors and others who don't agree with their dimwitted, anti-social views.

The chances are that they wouldn't divert public money into their foolish campaign if they actually did have a leg to stand on.

So there's the problem: the 'NO' brigade do not have a sound argument against windfarms. As a result, they tell lies about them - lies which have been exposed and denounced by impartial agencies time and time again. And they use naked aggression to force others to agree with them.

Their opposition is based on fraud and intimidation.

So maybe they are just like the Taliban, threatening and frightening their neighbours into striking a stupid pose against progress. Corrupting the democratic process and adopting the least reasonable attitudes imaginable. Using lies and threats instead of grown-up debate.

Well, we can be reasonably certain that, before too long, a planning application from ScottishPower Renewables will arrive.

And then we can expect to see the nookies behaving at their Taliban-like worst.

Look forward to torrents of lies. Pamphlets packed with misleading and inaccurate information pushed through your door. No end of insanely stupid arguments in the bar. Growling, shrieking red-faced loons marching about with placards. And - if recent events are anything to go by - barely concealed threats of physical violence against those who've actually got a brain, a conscience and a grasp of the facts.

But let's be clear. These dangerous idiots are not trying to protect the countryside. They're not really worried about noise or health, for all the lies they tell about windfarms causing cancer or leukemia or emitting strange, untraceable and unrecordable 'waves'. They're not worried about wildlife or house prices. All those specious, unscientific arguments are based on no evidence whatsoever and are simply fig-leaves.

They just want to carry on living in the twentieth century. Like the Taliban, they're trying to turn back the clock.

But they can be defeated. Anyone who relies on lies and threats to get their way is soon exposed. And those who do care about the countryside, the planet and the future will prevail.