HA!!!

Now here's something to tell the evil-minded, foolish nookies of VVASP.

The UK's wind power generating capacity has just topped 5.1 gigawatts. There are an addditional 18 gigawatts of wind power projects currently stuck in the planning system.

First things first - 5 gigawatts amounts to 4% of the UK's electricity generating output. Add on the 18 gigawatts worth currently being held up by deranged nookies and other idiots and you get closer to 20% of the UK's total output.

That's right - 20% of the UK's electricity could be being produced (as we speak) by wind power alone. And this from a source which the cretins of VVASP like to think is unreliable, using turbines which one VVASP weirdo claims cost a couple of billion pounds each.

Anyway, back to reality. Reuters reported last year that the UK's electricity generating capacity from ALL sources (coal, gas, oil, nuclear, renewables and imports) was 105,171 megawatts (or 105 GW). At that point, oil and renewables combined accounted for 8.2 per cent of the total electricity generated.

Very soon indeed, wind power will be achieving upwards of 8 per cent of our electricity generation all on its own. It was only back in February 2007 that the UK topped 2 gigawatts of wind generated electricity, so that figure has more than double in less than three years. Sadly, back in 2007 Germany was producing 20 gigawatts of wind energy, ten times as much as we were, so we were a long way behind. But hey - we're catching up!

And, amazingly, all this has happened while the jerks of VVASP and their sister terrorist organisations haven't even seen a windfarm!!! If they had (well, most of them - can't do anything about the handful who have visited windfarms on behalf of the villagers and come back tellling tall stories), they'd know that there isn't a problem with them. But because to depart from the party line and admit that there's nothing to worry about would be to incur the wrath of Dr R.S. and his thugs they have to keep shouting out lies as loud as they can - it's the only way to fit in.

So, while a small bunch of self-centred, spineless and demented fools are trying to hold up a perfectly harmless and really rather lovely windfarm near Lenchwick, the wind energy industry is streaking ahead, producing more and more clean, green energy. And that's very good news for everyone.

If only the sheep-like herd of VVASP supporters could be bothered to open their eyes, stop listening to the constant stream of self-serving bilge emanating from a few very dangerous individuals and embrace the exciting development, recognising it for what it is and not what Dr Fraud wants everyone to think it is, we'd all be a whole lot happier.

Don't forget - 5 gigawatts of UK electricity currently coming from wind power. Doesn't that make you smile?

SNEAKIN' SUPPOSITION

A while back, the Economics Officer at Wychavon District Council submitted her report on the Lenchwick Windfarm planning application. Quite properly, and in line with experience elsewhere, the officer concluded that there were no significant economic risks posed to the locality by the windfarm and, indeed, a slim package of economic benefits would come with the turbines.

Oh dear. Hasn't this got the nutty nimbies going mad? One absolute idiot (massive egotist) drafted a huge report criticising the Economics Officers conclusions. Another total nutcase emailed her, demanding how she could have made her observations when so many businesses and other interest in the immediate area are convinced that they face financial obliteration when the turbines are installed.

The standard argument goes something like: 'We (NIMBY Ltd.) contribute umpteen million to the local economy by letting out a holiday flat or two. All that will disappear when the wind farm comes. The wind farm will contribute nothing while making oddles of billions for Scottish Power. Blah blah blah frothing at the mouth ...'

Now, as the Economics Officer is perfectly well aware, no business elsewhere has been killed off by the arrival of a windfarm. Tourism is not adversely affected at all by windfarms - and yes, they do tend to bring positive net results for the local economy.

What is so astonishing, though, is how many of the NIMBY NUTTERS keep guessing about these things. Looking at the silly objections they've sent in (and, of course, discounting the many that were actually written by Stroud himself) you see that all their objections are based on nothing more than guesswork, ignorance and misunderstandings.

Take the people who let holiday cottages and are 'convinced' that the windfarm will destroy their business. These idiots have had nearly TWO YEARS in which to find out, from elsewhere in the country, whether windfarms impact on holiday lets. That's all they had to do. Then, when they had found out that, no, windfarms do not negatively impact on holiday lets, they could come back to the Lenches and keep their idiot mouths closed, for once.

But did they? Did they take that sensible, and relatively straightforward, step of finding out the truth?

Did they heckkers!

Same with the fools at the trout lakes. "These turbines are going to kill our fish!" they keep weeping. But have they visited the Tamar Lakes, where fishers still fish and walkers still walk and visitors stay for a few days, with wind turbines just a kilometre away?

No, of course not. That would be like, finding out the truth. And that would make those people UNPOPULAR IN THE VILLAGE.

Remember Rod Stroud's rule - if you're not against the windfarm, you're not welcome here.

So we have a bunch of idiots constantly sounding off when they don't have the foggiest idea what they're on about. They haven't bothered to do any proper research, they've just listened to the Stroudy lie machine. They wouldn't dare go visit a real windfarm in case they came back wondering what all the fuss is about (that's happened in the Lenches - chap walks into the Club and says just that - of course, they hated him for it).

Guesswork. That's all it is. These things haven't happened anywhere else but they're certain to happen in the Lenches. Why? Well, because we say so. We might be pig ignorant, stupid, hugely prejudiced, biased, foolish, borderline senile and totally wrong - BUT IT'S DEFINITELY GOING TO HAPPEN! ALL THESE LOCAL BUSINESSES WILL FOLD! THEY WILL, YOU KNOW! THERE'S REASON AT ALL WHY THEY SHOULD - BUT THEY WILL!!!

Basically, what they should do is rename their useless, fraudulent, offensive and puerile protest group 'Totally Wrong About Turbines', put 'TWAT' signs up outside their houses, and then for once in their lives they'd be right.

Honestly - it's now over a year since ScottishPower Renewables held their public drop-in sessions, so that locals could see the plans and ask questions, and of course the nookies of TWAT did all they could to disrupt the proceedings.

But have they bothered to find proper, honest, scientific, credible and factual answers to their worries in all that time?

No. They just keep on making stupid guesses. Like the TWATs they are.

CYCLISTS BEWARE!!

The so-called "objections" to the windfarm planning application continue to provide a combination of hilarity and outrage for the saner and more balanced members of the community.

One correspondent got in touch to ask if we'd seen the objection which made out that any cyclists going past the turbines could be adversely affected by the down-draught of the blades, a problem which was apparently mentioned repeatedly during coverage of this year's Tour de France.

Well, the first thing to hope is that the organisers of next year's Tour de France don't send the competitors off on a detour round the top of Bishampton Bank. Not that anyone has ever been seen cycling over those fields. Besides which, only a complete moron could get confused between the rotor blades of a helicopter (which produce a down-draught) and the blades of a wind turbine (which don't). So, in short, in the extremely unlikely event that someone will decide to cycle past the turbines they certainly won't be affected by a down-draught. End of.

One of the objections to the planning application was submitted by a pre-school or nursery group in the Lenches. This came as a surprise to the person who actually ran the pre-school until a few weeks ago. Finally, it comes to light that somebody involved with the group acted without authority and submitted an objection, off their own bat, on official headed paper, contrary to the interests of the children themselves. Oh dear. Naughty naughty.

Now, we at Wind of Change knew that this sort of thing was likely to happen - objections arriving in the names of individuals or groups who in fact had no intention whatsoever of objecting. Why? Because dishonesty and deviousness have been the hallmarks of the VVASP campaign to date. Whatever makes anyone think that they might finally start telling the truth at this late stage?

We've noticed that absolutely no parish councillor is allowed to express an opinion in public about the windfarm unless they happen to be approved of by Dr Stroud. If they're against the windfarm (even if they're not sure why, or even what a windfarm is, like the Norton and Lenchwick representative on the Windfarm Working Party), they're allowed an opinion. If they're in favour of the windfarm, then they're sharply criticised if they dare to express that opinion. That's what the Lenches now call 'democracy'.

The latest lie involves just how many letters of objection have been received. VVASP are now claiming something in the order of 700, and we at Wind Of Change are happy to offer a prize to the first person who can tell us where those 700-odd letters actually are (and a runner-up prize for anyone who guesses correctly how many of those letters were written by Big Chief Nimby himself).

Our friends over at BLoW are already working away at this one, apparently. The 700 letters claim (as misleading as every other claim made by VVASP) appeared in a full-page newspaper ad taken out by the nimby nutters. They're crowing about a couple of reports commissioned by Wychavon which, to the untrained eye, look like damning indictments of the windfarm planning application.

BLoW have already issued a press release, but we've decided to watch this space because the district council have evidently commissioned a rather unsatisfactory report. Unsatisfactory on the grounds of science and impartiality, that is. And that's going to take some explaining.

So - whatever next? We can but wait and see, and try to avoid cycling in places which are inappropriate for cyclists, lest we get blown off our saddles by something we don't quite understand.

FICTION AND REALITY

Did you know that it takes 2400 wind turbines costing £200,000,000 EACH to produce the same amount of power as one nuclear power station?

You didn't? Shame on you.

It's absolute nonsense, of course. Pure drivel, plain and simple. But it's just one of the latest loopy communications sent to Wychavon by yet another narrow-minded anti-windfarm nimby.

Even if the turbines were made out of cut diamonds it is unlikely that they would cost £200,000,000 EACH. And, of course, they still wouldn't present us with the monumental problems which come with nuclear power, such as the disposal of hazardous waste (still no one knows how to safeguard it for more than a hundred years or so), and the nasty nimbies always ignore the fact that NUCLEAR POWER STATIONS NEED BASE LOAD BACK UP POWER SOURCES JUST LIKE WIND TURBINES DO. No, they never take into account the fact that nuclear power stations frequently go offline for safety reasons, leaving the National Grid with the problem of compensating for the sudden massive loss of energy input. And yet the National Grid somehow manages - just as it will manage fine when the odd turbine isn't turning.

So, yet another nimby nutter spills bilge all over the place while they froth at the mouth over something they simply don't understand.

Now - how about some good news, for a change? On Monday 6th September, a new record was set for wind-generated electricity in the UK. On that day, 5% of our electricity needs was generated by wind turbines. Not bad, eh, especially when you consider that wind turbines don't work (one of VVASP's stupid 'FACTS') and that they cost a whopping £200,000,000 EACH (which they don't).

What with all the loony hoo-hah over windfarms it's a miracle that any have been built. Scotland, where people tend to be rather more sensible, has quite a few windfarms these days, which explains why record-breaking amounts of wind-generated electricity are becoming available to the Grid. And in Scotland, they're smart enough to realise that tourism is not affected by the presence of windfarms, and that even the view from Stirling Castle can be enhanced (or at least not harmed in any real way) by a nice clean windfarm or two.

Sadly, though, those of us who must share our neighbourhood with petty-minded English people - those who prefer nonsensical fictions to genuine facts - have to live through the madness and hysteria stoked up by irresponsible nookies.

Example of nimby gibberish - wind turbines cost £200,000,000 EACH and don't really work.

Example of genuine, honest, simple truth - the UK is already generating up to 5% of our energy needs from clean, green, renewable, inoffensive and harmless wind turbines.

One day, surely, even the most mindless of the nimbies will start to tire of their own lies.

THE PRESS

Recently, the Shropshire Star ran a story about a truck carrying wind turbine components travelling through the town of Welshpool, a task which took all of seven minutes. The paper claimed that the streets of Welshpool had been lined with protesters. In reality, there were eight identikit nimbies protesting against they knew not what. Hardly lining the streets, eh?

We've been rather fortunate round our way with the local press. Reactionary at heart, the temptation for our local editors to fall for the nutty nimby line that the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm will destroy everything in sight has been immense. But, thanks to the efforts of a loyal few, mostly those of BLoW ('Back Local Windfarms'), the local press has received much in the way of letters and press releases which contradict the mad notions of the nookies.

True, whenever a local paper prints a letter in support of the windfarm the editor receives howls of protests from the deluded monkeys of VVASP. And VVASP press releases have been given space in the papers when BLoW press releases haven't - which must have helped certain gormless Tory MPs to think that the anti-windfarm band wagon was worth jumping onto (when two local youngsters had a letter supporting the windfarm in the paper, the editor gave the batty 'spokesperson' of VVASP an automatic right of reply, which was a mistake). But overall, the local press has been obliged to remain rather lofty, evidently at times getting tired of all the craziness, the foolishness and the blatant lies put about by our nimby friends and their vainglorious leader.

Yesterday, the Evesham Journal dipped its toes back in the water by printing a rather lovely letter from a local teenager. This young woman (19 years old) is a resident of Harvington, a village where the majority couldn't really give a damn about the windfarm and yet the craven and undemocratic parish council still insisted on fighting somebody else's battle with their residents' money. What the letter in the Journal proves, yet again, is that Harvington isn't entirely swamped by deranged middle-aged nimbies, and that the youth of the area is only too aware of our responsibilities and the need to solve pressing problems so that they too will be able to enjoy the environment and have clean, green energy resources.

As with so many other letters in support of the windfarm which the papers have bothered to print, yesterday's was from someone who actually knows what they're talking about - which instantly gives them an advantage over Dr Evil and his nimby army of barefaced liars. The young woman in question is familiar with windfarms in France, so she knows that they do no harm. She also recognises that the silly stories spread about the place have been repeated ad nauseamby people suffering from 'vanity' - they're simply too wrapped up in the values of their properties to remember that the world doesn't revolve entirely around them.

Well, three cheers for yet another young person of the area who knows that the windfarm is good news for everyone, and especially for the young (unlike those delicate little flowers of the Lenches who have believed all the dishonest gibberish their parents have forced down their throats and actually think that the windfarm might scare their ponies).

And well done to the Evesham Journal for printing it. Okay, so they didn't run with the story of Dr Rod Stroud libelling the planning officer at Wychavon, or the inimitable Les Evans telling porkies about having spoken to 'the Fintry group'. No, they haven't been entirely balanced in their reporting. But at least they do occasionally give a voice to the reasonable, socially responsible young people of the area.

Which is more than the evil doctor and his mad minions have done.

BLATANT HYPOCRISY

When, not so long ago, Dr Evil was trying to persuade other nimby nutters around the country to object to our windfarm (using, of course, the Dr Stroud Do-It-Yourself Guide to Objecting), one thing he was very keen to emphasise was that about 100 homes would be a kilometre or so from the turbines, as would a primary school.

The latter point was one he was very eager to stress. There will be a PRIMARY SCHOOL about a kilometre from the turbines. A primary school.

Now, is that relevant? The simple truth is that the children and staff at the school will be completely unaffected by the windfarm. It is an act of monstrous social terrorism to pretend otherwise.

Scientifically, what harm could possibly come to them? Seriously, if we put aside the kind of madness which allows Dr Evil to make his absurd claims and look at this sensibly - what, realistically, is the existence of the turbines a kilometre and more away going to mean for the school?

Well, there'd be good news. Access to funding. Some interesting views. The opportunity to visit the turbines (and hold competitions to name them). Most importantly, of course, the children who attend Church Lench First School will grow up familiar with the clean, green energy generating methods which are the future for us all. They will have an advantage that most of their peers won't have - an awareness of what 21st century eco-technology means for us all. No harm to wildlife or property prices, no risks to health or peace of mind. Each day, they will have an object lesson in how we need to live.

Now, if Dr Evil and his mad minions cared for the children at all - that is, if they were capable of caring about anything but themselves - they'd have left the primary school out of this. Because it's irrelevant (in fact, the children will benefit from the windfarm, as will most if not all of us), and because raising the spectre of "untold imaginary harm to little ones" is just plain sick.

But the nimby terrorists of VVASP and their ilk don't care about children at all. It is, of course, the children who stand to benefit most from the windfarm and others like it - it's their future, after all, that is being safeguarded by these marvellous machines.

What Stroud and all his Mini-Me-Me-Me's are doing when they say "And it'll be close to a primary school" is proving how little they really care about the kids. Proving that this is all about a bunch of deranged nimby nutters who will say anything - ANYTHING - if it wins them an iota of support. Who don't give a damn about the children who will benefit from the windfarm but who want to raise fears (groundless, unnecessary, foolish fears) about safety just because it suits their own selfish purposes.

When you realise that this is the sort of thing that has been running riot around the Lenches for nearly two years now, and once you appreciate that supposedly right-minded members of the community are prepared to stoop this low, then you can see why Wind of Change came into existence. It's to highlight this kind of disgusting, disgraceful, utterly immoral behaviour, and to fight the bad Doctor and his madness all the way.

People who make out that there will be dangers to a primary school when they clearly don't care at all about the children there are ... well, what are they? You tell me.

LEADERSHIP CRISIS IN LENCHES

A resident of Church Lench summed it up succinctly last weekend. The problem with Church Lench, he said, was that one person will say, "Oh, well, I think this" and the next person will say, "Oh, yes, I think that as well", and on and on it goes. No capacity for independent thought.

Retrospectively, it can be seen that this is where certain individuals in the Lenches let the side down very badly. Inevitably, there would be an outbreak of idiocy the moment the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm was mentioned. Unavoidable, sad to say, because some people are dumb enough to read the Daily Mail and actually believe it (yes, incredible, I know) and a few others will just protest about anything, given half a chance.

There are those in the area who were in a position to stop the madness in its tracks. They could have put a halt to Dr Evil's lunatic crusade, insisted on a proper, intelligent, open debate (in which the mad myths promulgated by Dr Evil and his weirdo front would have been demolished) and, basically, they had the chance to put the interests of the community first, rather than the self-interest of a few deranged nutters.

But they didn't. No, instead they either joined in the madness or let the nimbies run riot while they kept their heads down.

Like certain Tory MPs, they mistook the shouting of some crazed, antisocial fanatics for the voice of the people.

They had a chance to prove that the Lenches could respond in a grown up manner to the windfarm issue, but they blew it. They let the nutters have things their way.

Well done, guys. You preferred lies to facts, cowardice to common sense, fraudulent dishonesty to free debate.

That won't be forgotten.

The same individual from Church Lench also pointed out what a dismal response the anti-windfarm faction managed when it came to submitting objections to the planning application. 400 so-called letters is abysmal. Even worse when you consider how many of those letters were actually written by the same person (step forward, Dr Evil, manic scribbler of preposterous gibberish).

Surely, the planning officers at Wychavon District Council will be able to spot the template letters - the drongos who sent them couldn't even be bothered to [insert number of years here] or decide which of the country pursuits/family activities/rural pastimes they would like to do if they ever figured out where the Lenches actually are.

True, there was plenty of guff about the turbines destroying wildlife, always accompanied by those insistent claims that this will 'certainly' happen, even though the evidence for it having happened elsewhere is ... well, er, no, actually, it isn't.


And that, dear friends, is the level of objection. Most of the so-called objections don't actually stand up. Others were made by people who claim to have friends or homes in the area when it is patently obvious that they don't. Some were submitted by locals, who failed to realise that Dr Stroud wanted you to create your own version of his daft letter, you inveterate nitwit!!! One was supplied by a university student who was so keen to show off his vocabulary that his letter made no sense whatsoever (something along the lines of, just because there's no evidence that something might happen, doesn't mean it won't happen - at least, that's the best we can do in deciphering the hifalutin nightmare of his pseudo-scientific missive).

The council officers aren't idiots, of course. They'll realise that 400 letters of objection, some of them completely phoney, some of them incoherent and at least half of them penned by the same hand (that being the hand of the arch-deceiver and self-appointed village chief), 400 letters of that dire standard is a pathetic result for the nimbies - especially when they were loudly proclaiming their intention of cobbling together upwards of 1,000!

Put it this way - for all their lies, all their money, all their pomposity and self-righteousness, VVASP have failed. Dismally.

Just as they failed to protest properly when the ScottishPower Renewable supertruck passed through the villages. Our information is that the vehicle travelled along its designated route approximately two hours after the nimby fools wandered off, having been completely wrongfooted by the appearance of a somewhat smaller low-loader.

Which just goes to show that VVASP are up against people who are far cleverer than they are. And that their protest is pants.

And remember - there were those in the villages who could have put a stop to all this insanity right at the very start. They could have.

But they didn't.