DEMOCRACY IN PERIL

We here at Wind of Change have reported frequently on the tendency of nimby anti-windfarm campaigners to undermine local democracy. This ranges from the corruption of parish councils to the falsification of local opinion poll results.

Our own local nimby group - VVASP - did both. Parish councils were barracked and harrassed until well-meaning councillors stood aside. Their places were then taken by dedicated nimbies who had no intention of sticking to the guidelines. They established a fake "Windfarm Working Party" in order to subvert the surrounding parish councils, mislead officers and members of the District Council, and get their hands on public money which they channelled into their devious and dishonest campaign.

They also misrepresented the outcomes of three local surveys carried out by the parish councils, inventing a non-existent "75%" of opposition to the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm in a parish which didn't even see 75% of the ballot papers returned (the real level of expressed opposition was 44%). The nimbies' falsified figures were later passed on to the local MP for Redditch, who foolishly read them out in the District Council planning meeting.

A triumph, then, on many levels, for those who would wilfully undermine local democracy in order to get their way.

Well, sadly, things have moved on. Donald "Trumpety" Trump has made a lot of money available to the fanatics of CATS ("Communities Against Turbines Scotland" - although it should be pointed out that when they say "communities" they actually mean "a few scattered idiots").

The Trump has done this because he wants to stop a very important offshore windfarm development which he knew was on the cards when he applied for permission to wreck the Aberdeenshire coastline with his ghastly "luxury" golf resort. So now we have an American citizen trying to undermine our democracy!

CATS has hinted that it will use some of Trump's ill-gotten gains to campaign against local councillors who support wind energy projects. Now, Scotland has plans for a lot more in the way of renewables, with about 20 gigawatts-worth in various stages of development, and over 11,000 jons already dependent on the renewables sector. So, by seeking to oppose and smear politicians who support wind power and other renewables, the crazy CATS are doing all they can to betray the interests of Scotland and the UK as a whole. But then, they are fanatics and fifth columnists who have completely lost the plot.

The goods news is that the Scottish Green Party has reported Donald Trump to the Electoral Commission over his grubby donation to the stray CATS.

Basically, Trump has determined to buy our political process. What he cannot achieve by bullying, lying and throwing screaming fits, he intends to achieve through the wholesale corruption of the democratic process - aided and abetted, of course, by the halfwits of CATS.

But political donations from overseas are not allowed under the rules governing public elections in the UK. The fact that CATS was prepared to divert Trump's dirty money into campaigns targetting pro-wind candidates for local government means that the rules have almost certainly been breached.

There will undoubtedly be a few maniacs in the UK who greet Trump's mind-bendingly selfish and intolerant stance as a breakthrough for the vicious and destructive anti-windfarm movement. But then, as we already know, such people don't believe in democracy, public opinion, science or the national good. They would be quite happy for an American billionaire to dictate who we can and cannot elect to represent us, just as long as it means that their blinkered and unpatriotic position on wind is the one that prevails.

Each and every single one of us needs to ask ourselves this:

Do you believe in democracy, freedom of speech, energy security for our children, lower electricity bills and a cleaner environment?

If you do, then you have a solemn obligation to fight the lying fascists of the anti-windfarm minority, their deranged propagandists and their monstrous paymasters, like Donald Trump.