A little Christmas cheer for those of you who enjoy a good laugh.
The Duke of Gloucester has been given permission for four wind turbines to be built on his estate in Northamptonshire.
But in an interesting development which we've been carefully monitoring, the middle class mentalists of the nimby movement have been turning ever more radical. In the latest outbreak of nimby madness, a septagenarian nimby has suggested that the Duke - who is a cousin of the Prince of Wales - should be "lynched".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/8946617/Duke-of-Gloucester-criticised-over-wind-farm-plan.html
We're not yet sure whether the Telegraph supports such calls for the slaughter of our royal family - it all sounds a little bit French for them, really. But it's an amusing twist in the saga of nimby idiocy.
To these nimbies - who invariably pour out the same discredited bilge ("spoil the landscape", "ruin the tourism industry", blah-de-blah-de-blah) - anyone who wishes to harness the unlimited and free resource known as "The Wind" to generate cheap, clean, green electricity for the good of their fellow man is a "villain". Be they farmer or Duke, conscientious co-operative or multinational, they are all "villains", each and every one.
The truth, of course, is that the real villains are the demented, bigoted liars and thugs who routinely object in a kneejerk fashion to things they don't want, don't understand and are incapable of being honest about.
And when these frauds start calling for the lynching of members of the (extended) royal family, maybe the average Briton can begin to see them for what they really are. Fanatical extremists, as bad as the Taliban, only their fanaticism is based on nothing more but the most deluded and misguided self-centredness. They are the Enemy Within, the homegrown traitors who hate everything about their country while pretending to be trying to protect some aspect of it or other. They are the lowest of the low.
Come the revolution, it won't be the Duke of Gloucester who'll be first up against the wall. It will be the evil-minded, selfish nimbies who have done so much to harm their communities and to hold Britain back. Let's hope that their days really are numbered.
Merry Christmas, one and all!!!!
Saturday, 24 December 2011
Tuesday, 20 December 2011
A CORRECTION (AT LAST!)
Seems the Christmas spirit has even percolated through to these maniacal grinches at the Daily Mail. The Mail, as you're probably aware, is the nation's chief inciter of silly middle-class panics. It "adjusts" its coverage of anything and everything in order to whip up pointless frenzies of needless hysteria. It's the rabble-rousing rag of Middle England.
And it's now admitting that it was WRONG about the impact of environmental policies on household energy bills. It was WRONG because it deliberately sought to mislead its readers into believing that green policies - like the elusive "subsidies" for windfarms in the UK - were driving up the average consumer's energy bills. It has now issued a modest correction:
http://www.actionforrenewables.org/blog/archive/201112/daily-mail-quietly-admits-green-technology-isn't-costing-you-much-it-claimed
This is a major breakthrough. The Mail really does not like apologising for its cavalier attitude to the truth and all the giant great testes of misinformation it routinely publishes. So, what on earth has prompted this rare crisis of conscience? What can have forced the atrocious Mail to admit that it was having you on about the costs of renewables?
Maybe they've decided to take the Wind of Change New Year's Resolution - you know, the one about not telling lies about windfarms any more - and have already turned over a new leaf.
Now wouldn't that be something?
And it's now admitting that it was WRONG about the impact of environmental policies on household energy bills. It was WRONG because it deliberately sought to mislead its readers into believing that green policies - like the elusive "subsidies" for windfarms in the UK - were driving up the average consumer's energy bills. It has now issued a modest correction:
http://www.actionforrenewables.org/blog/archive/201112/daily-mail-quietly-admits-green-technology-isn't-costing-you-much-it-claimed
This is a major breakthrough. The Mail really does not like apologising for its cavalier attitude to the truth and all the giant great testes of misinformation it routinely publishes. So, what on earth has prompted this rare crisis of conscience? What can have forced the atrocious Mail to admit that it was having you on about the costs of renewables?
Maybe they've decided to take the Wind of Change New Year's Resolution - you know, the one about not telling lies about windfarms any more - and have already turned over a new leaf.
Now wouldn't that be something?
Monday, 19 December 2011
ANOTHER COVER UP
There's lying - an art that nimbies excel in - and then there's covering up the truth. Once-respected British newspapers have been doing both.
We reported recently on the YouGov poll commissioned by the Sunday Times which revealed a clear majority of British people support windfarms. It seems that more than half of all Britons want to see more of them and only a modest fraction of those polled wish there were fewer.
Sadly, the Sunday Times assumes that most of its readership is composed of deluded and fanatical nimbies, and so it buried its own survey:
http://politicalscrapbook.net/2011/12/sunday-times-wind-farms/
Pandering to the barking tendencies of Britain's nimby minority is not exactly covering the news. Quite the reverse, in fact: it is an act of political propaganda designed to mislead the nation over a matter of the utmost importance. It is an act of treason, committed on behalf of an Australian-born resident of the United States of America whose grotesque media empire is making those who read its shoddy bilge and watch its viciously extremist news channels more and more stupid by the day. No state propaganda machine is as wildly out of control than Murdoch's Death Star of fake news and atrocious comment. And so, when it finds that the majority of Britons are enlightened and conscientious about renewable energy, it hides those findings and broadcasts yet another sickeningly misleading diatribe against renewables.
No wonder the nimby nutters of Olde Englande love the deranged dribblings of the right-wing press.
The news elsewhere is looking increasingly positive: Scotland is hailing 2011 as the "best year yet" for Scottish green energy, as well it might. £750 million worth of new green energy projects were switched on north of the border in the last twelve months, a worthy and magnificent achievement. South of the border, a survey carried out by the financial services firm Ernst & Young has revealed that businesses are showing increased confidence in clean energy technology but are losing confidence in the British government's monumentally inept approach to the green sector of the economy. Maybe the problem here is that so many government ministers are in thrall to the nuclear, oil and Murdoch lobbies, that David Cameron's claim to be promoting the "greenest government ever" has been exposed as cynical gobbledegook.
Wanna see a truly far-sighted green government? Look north. Scotland is leading the way.
Wanna see a government of muddled fools easily swayed by media demagogues and anti-renewables lobbyists? Look at Westminster.
They can't bury the truth forever, though. Let's all hope and pray that 2012 is the year in which even the crazed lunatics of Rupert Murdoch's evil empire and the craven hypocrites of the coalition government finally see the light, and stop dancing to the tune of the depraved, dishonest and utterly selfish nimbies who have been doing so much to harm our nation.
It might be our last chance to protect our "green and pleasant land" for future generations. Let's pledge to do everything in our power to follow Scotland's lead and tell the neo-fascist fringe of Tory ideologues, nimby maniacs and bigoted lobbyists what they can do with their self-serving lies.
Let's make 2012 the Year of Wind - for the good of everybody!!!
We reported recently on the YouGov poll commissioned by the Sunday Times which revealed a clear majority of British people support windfarms. It seems that more than half of all Britons want to see more of them and only a modest fraction of those polled wish there were fewer.
Sadly, the Sunday Times assumes that most of its readership is composed of deluded and fanatical nimbies, and so it buried its own survey:
http://politicalscrapbook.net/2011/12/sunday-times-wind-farms/
Pandering to the barking tendencies of Britain's nimby minority is not exactly covering the news. Quite the reverse, in fact: it is an act of political propaganda designed to mislead the nation over a matter of the utmost importance. It is an act of treason, committed on behalf of an Australian-born resident of the United States of America whose grotesque media empire is making those who read its shoddy bilge and watch its viciously extremist news channels more and more stupid by the day. No state propaganda machine is as wildly out of control than Murdoch's Death Star of fake news and atrocious comment. And so, when it finds that the majority of Britons are enlightened and conscientious about renewable energy, it hides those findings and broadcasts yet another sickeningly misleading diatribe against renewables.
No wonder the nimby nutters of Olde Englande love the deranged dribblings of the right-wing press.
The news elsewhere is looking increasingly positive: Scotland is hailing 2011 as the "best year yet" for Scottish green energy, as well it might. £750 million worth of new green energy projects were switched on north of the border in the last twelve months, a worthy and magnificent achievement. South of the border, a survey carried out by the financial services firm Ernst & Young has revealed that businesses are showing increased confidence in clean energy technology but are losing confidence in the British government's monumentally inept approach to the green sector of the economy. Maybe the problem here is that so many government ministers are in thrall to the nuclear, oil and Murdoch lobbies, that David Cameron's claim to be promoting the "greenest government ever" has been exposed as cynical gobbledegook.
Wanna see a truly far-sighted green government? Look north. Scotland is leading the way.
Wanna see a government of muddled fools easily swayed by media demagogues and anti-renewables lobbyists? Look at Westminster.
They can't bury the truth forever, though. Let's all hope and pray that 2012 is the year in which even the crazed lunatics of Rupert Murdoch's evil empire and the craven hypocrites of the coalition government finally see the light, and stop dancing to the tune of the depraved, dishonest and utterly selfish nimbies who have been doing so much to harm our nation.
It might be our last chance to protect our "green and pleasant land" for future generations. Let's pledge to do everything in our power to follow Scotland's lead and tell the neo-fascist fringe of Tory ideologues, nimby maniacs and bigoted lobbyists what they can do with their self-serving lies.
Let's make 2012 the Year of Wind - for the good of everybody!!!
Thursday, 15 December 2011
JUST SO YOU KNOW
Yesterday, we learnt that the majority of people in Britain want to see more windfarms and think that government subsidies to support wind energy is the right thing to do.
Today, we learn that certain highly irresponsible newspapers in the UK have been lying about the costs paid by the consumer for renewable energy.
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) is an independent body. In a report released today, the CCC analyses the dramatic increase in the average household's energy bills.
In 2004, the average home paid £604 for energy. Last year, that had shot up to £1,060. But contrary to what the running dogs of the right-wing press would have you believe, that was not the fault of renewables.
The CCC has broken down that massive £455 increase to show that rising wholesale gas prices accounted for £290 of that. Only £30 went to investments in renewable energy (of which windfarms form only a part). £45 went to covering the costs of energy efficiency schemes. In other words, the consumer is paying 50% more to subsidise energy efficiency measures than they are to all renewables, and nearly TEN TIMES as much to cover the increasing costs of importing gas.
As usual, we find that all the demented claims about renewables being "inefficient", "too expensive", "totally reliant on subsidies" and a "massive burden on the consumer" are all tommy rot. They are lies. The nimby diddymen love to keep spouting this sort of gibberish, but gibberish it is. If you want to know why your bills are going up, look at the increase in wholesale gas costs and don't keep blaming renewables because only an idiot does that.
Oh, and by the way, the average household in the UK is paying £240 per year towards the costs of decommissioning useless nuclear power stations. That's £240 from every household going to NOT generating any electricity at all!! In comparison with which, £30 towards creating a level playing field for all forms of renewable energy is a pittance. The average consumer is paying over £500 extra per year for more expensive gas and the closure of nuclear power stations. Windfarm "subsidies" account for a few quid each year.
So, in the light of the CCC's report, which merely sets the record straight, we at Wind of Change are offering a humble suggestion to the right-wing press and the nimbies who read that rubbish for a New Year Resolution. Let's all promise to make 2012 the year in which we STOP TELLING LIES ABOUT RENEWABLES, shall we? Let's start getting properly patriotic and actually support the vital drive towards a sustainable, low-carbon future. Let's tell the truth about renewables so that tin-pot dictators in the Shires can't keep pulling the wool over everybody's eyes.
Let's stop being idiots and stand up for renewables!!!
Today, we learn that certain highly irresponsible newspapers in the UK have been lying about the costs paid by the consumer for renewable energy.
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) is an independent body. In a report released today, the CCC analyses the dramatic increase in the average household's energy bills.
In 2004, the average home paid £604 for energy. Last year, that had shot up to £1,060. But contrary to what the running dogs of the right-wing press would have you believe, that was not the fault of renewables.
The CCC has broken down that massive £455 increase to show that rising wholesale gas prices accounted for £290 of that. Only £30 went to investments in renewable energy (of which windfarms form only a part). £45 went to covering the costs of energy efficiency schemes. In other words, the consumer is paying 50% more to subsidise energy efficiency measures than they are to all renewables, and nearly TEN TIMES as much to cover the increasing costs of importing gas.
As usual, we find that all the demented claims about renewables being "inefficient", "too expensive", "totally reliant on subsidies" and a "massive burden on the consumer" are all tommy rot. They are lies. The nimby diddymen love to keep spouting this sort of gibberish, but gibberish it is. If you want to know why your bills are going up, look at the increase in wholesale gas costs and don't keep blaming renewables because only an idiot does that.
Oh, and by the way, the average household in the UK is paying £240 per year towards the costs of decommissioning useless nuclear power stations. That's £240 from every household going to NOT generating any electricity at all!! In comparison with which, £30 towards creating a level playing field for all forms of renewable energy is a pittance. The average consumer is paying over £500 extra per year for more expensive gas and the closure of nuclear power stations. Windfarm "subsidies" account for a few quid each year.
So, in the light of the CCC's report, which merely sets the record straight, we at Wind of Change are offering a humble suggestion to the right-wing press and the nimbies who read that rubbish for a New Year Resolution. Let's all promise to make 2012 the year in which we STOP TELLING LIES ABOUT RENEWABLES, shall we? Let's start getting properly patriotic and actually support the vital drive towards a sustainable, low-carbon future. Let's tell the truth about renewables so that tin-pot dictators in the Shires can't keep pulling the wool over everybody's eyes.
Let's stop being idiots and stand up for renewables!!!
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
MOST BRITONS SUPPORT WINDFARMS AND SUBSIDIES!!!
We all know that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are bad news for the planet. Methane, however, is worse - approximately 23 times as potent as CO2 as a greenhouse gas.
So this story isn't good news:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/shock-as-retreat-of-arctic-sea-ice-releases-deadly-greenhouse-gas-6276134.html
Oh dear.
Still, fortunately there are some groups which, having taken the science of climate change onboard, have some solutions in mind. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), for example, recently released a report examining how the UK could source at least 60% of its electricity from renewables by 2030:
http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/positive_energy_final_designed.pdf
Of course, the UK would be off to a fairly good start because Scotland has already committed itself to achieving 100% renewable energy by 2020. Realistically, the rest of the British Isles ought to be upping its game so that Scotland doesn't leave us standing (Scotland can already foresee a net income of £2bn and world-leader status in new-energy technologies, as long as Westminster doesn't foul everything up for them). And, given the scale of the climate crisis we face, 60% renewable energy for the UK by 2030 should be thought of as a modest ambition.
However, here's some more bad news. Amply covered by the Telegraph, among others, the right-wing Adam Smith Institute has paired up with the anti-renewables, climate-change-denying Scientific Alliance to produce a thoroughly bogus report about renewables not being economically viable. There's nothing new in this report - in fact, it's the same old misleading hogwash advanced by lobby groups and right-wing ideologues that we've all grown so familiar and fed up with (unless we're raving nimbies). And it's not just the renewables industry that has attacked the wayward propagandists of the Adam Smith Institute over this blatantly inaccurate and unscientific report. The government has, too.
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2131709/government-industry-attack-adam-smith-institute-anti-renewables-report
The big question is: how is all this playing out with the great British public? Well, as two recent YouGov polls show, the results are ... interesting.
For reasons best known to themselves, the Times and the Sunday Times have chosen not to publish some of the results of their YouGov survey, but you can see them here:
http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/gm4jg0973n/Sunday%20Times%20Results%20111125%20VI%20and%20Trackers.pdf
First of all, the poll shows that a clear majority of those polled support the construction of a high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. So, that's one in the eye for those noisy anti-HS2 fanatics.
Then we discover that the majority of those polled - even among Conservative voters - feel that there should be MORE windfarms in Britain than there are at the moment. Yep, no less than 68% of those polled want to see more elegant, inspiring and impressive wind turbines quietly and harmlessly generating clean, green, cheap electricity.
Now, here's the really fun part. According to the Sunday Times poll, no fewer than 60% of those polled (Tory voters included) believe that the government is RIGHT to subsidise windfarms to encourage the use of wind power. No wonder these results haven't been published in the Murdoch press!! After all the insane exaggerations and blatant lies about windfarms and subsidies, it seems the majority of the Great British Public thinks that subsidies for windfarms are the RIGHT THING TO DO!!
What's this??? Can it be that the deranged anti-nowhere league which is currently marching, jackbotted and megaphoned, through this green and pleasant land of ours is simply an abusive and noisome minority of frauds and fools??? Could it be that most Britons can see sense and know that we need:
1) a High-Speed Rail Link
2) MORE windfarms
3) SUBSIDIES for those windfarms
Wow!
And then there's another YouGov poll, recently conducted for energy giant EDF:
http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/o3ga459pt3/YG-Archive-EDF-final1005117UPDATED_v2-151111.pdf
This one's possibly more conclusive. The vast majority (72%) of those polled in 2010 were "FAVOURABLE" towards windfarms. That includes Conservative voters. By way of contrast, just 42% were favourable towards nuclear power stations and a measly 24% towards gas-fired power stations.
Now, to go back aways, VVASP lied - repeat: LIED - about the level of local opposition to the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm. They'd probably lie about the resuts of these YouGov surveys. But both polls are unequivocal: the majority of Britons are FAVOURABLE towards wind power, SUPPORT windfarms and believe that government SUBSIDIES for wind power are RIGHT.
It's not all good news, though. Constant right-wing propaganda is having an effect on these figures. In 2007, for example, 76% of those polled were favourable towards wind power. It's not the increase in the number of working windfarms which has brought this figure down to 72% because people tend to like working windfarms and only go a bit berserk about windfarms that don't exist yet. So the only explanation for the minor erosion in public support for windfarms is the incessant campaign of lies against them masterminded by weirdos and maniacs.
The same demented campaigning by dishonest, not-what-they-seem groups, like the so-called Scientific Alliance and the laughable Global Warming Policy Foundation, accounts for one of the most depressing figures in the EDF poll. Last year, for the first time in the surveys, more people thought that "It is not yet clear whether climate change is happening or not - scientists are divided on this issue" than "It is a serious and urgent problem and radical steps must be taken NOW to prevent terrible damage being done to the planet".
Seems the propaganda is working, in its insidious, drip-drip way. People are beginning to believe the anti-renewables, climate-change-denying lies. Thanks to the monstrous efforts of a tiny minority, the whole country is getting steadily stupider.
There's still hope, folks. But it's diminishing fast.
So this story isn't good news:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/shock-as-retreat-of-arctic-sea-ice-releases-deadly-greenhouse-gas-6276134.html
Oh dear.
Still, fortunately there are some groups which, having taken the science of climate change onboard, have some solutions in mind. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), for example, recently released a report examining how the UK could source at least 60% of its electricity from renewables by 2030:
http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/positive_energy_final_designed.pdf
Of course, the UK would be off to a fairly good start because Scotland has already committed itself to achieving 100% renewable energy by 2020. Realistically, the rest of the British Isles ought to be upping its game so that Scotland doesn't leave us standing (Scotland can already foresee a net income of £2bn and world-leader status in new-energy technologies, as long as Westminster doesn't foul everything up for them). And, given the scale of the climate crisis we face, 60% renewable energy for the UK by 2030 should be thought of as a modest ambition.
However, here's some more bad news. Amply covered by the Telegraph, among others, the right-wing Adam Smith Institute has paired up with the anti-renewables, climate-change-denying Scientific Alliance to produce a thoroughly bogus report about renewables not being economically viable. There's nothing new in this report - in fact, it's the same old misleading hogwash advanced by lobby groups and right-wing ideologues that we've all grown so familiar and fed up with (unless we're raving nimbies). And it's not just the renewables industry that has attacked the wayward propagandists of the Adam Smith Institute over this blatantly inaccurate and unscientific report. The government has, too.
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2131709/government-industry-attack-adam-smith-institute-anti-renewables-report
The big question is: how is all this playing out with the great British public? Well, as two recent YouGov polls show, the results are ... interesting.
For reasons best known to themselves, the Times and the Sunday Times have chosen not to publish some of the results of their YouGov survey, but you can see them here:
http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/gm4jg0973n/Sunday%20Times%20Results%20111125%20VI%20and%20Trackers.pdf
First of all, the poll shows that a clear majority of those polled support the construction of a high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. So, that's one in the eye for those noisy anti-HS2 fanatics.
Then we discover that the majority of those polled - even among Conservative voters - feel that there should be MORE windfarms in Britain than there are at the moment. Yep, no less than 68% of those polled want to see more elegant, inspiring and impressive wind turbines quietly and harmlessly generating clean, green, cheap electricity.
Now, here's the really fun part. According to the Sunday Times poll, no fewer than 60% of those polled (Tory voters included) believe that the government is RIGHT to subsidise windfarms to encourage the use of wind power. No wonder these results haven't been published in the Murdoch press!! After all the insane exaggerations and blatant lies about windfarms and subsidies, it seems the majority of the Great British Public thinks that subsidies for windfarms are the RIGHT THING TO DO!!
What's this??? Can it be that the deranged anti-nowhere league which is currently marching, jackbotted and megaphoned, through this green and pleasant land of ours is simply an abusive and noisome minority of frauds and fools??? Could it be that most Britons can see sense and know that we need:
1) a High-Speed Rail Link
2) MORE windfarms
3) SUBSIDIES for those windfarms
Wow!
And then there's another YouGov poll, recently conducted for energy giant EDF:
http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/o3ga459pt3/YG-Archive-EDF-final1005117UPDATED_v2-151111.pdf
This one's possibly more conclusive. The vast majority (72%) of those polled in 2010 were "FAVOURABLE" towards windfarms. That includes Conservative voters. By way of contrast, just 42% were favourable towards nuclear power stations and a measly 24% towards gas-fired power stations.
Now, to go back aways, VVASP lied - repeat: LIED - about the level of local opposition to the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm. They'd probably lie about the resuts of these YouGov surveys. But both polls are unequivocal: the majority of Britons are FAVOURABLE towards wind power, SUPPORT windfarms and believe that government SUBSIDIES for wind power are RIGHT.
It's not all good news, though. Constant right-wing propaganda is having an effect on these figures. In 2007, for example, 76% of those polled were favourable towards wind power. It's not the increase in the number of working windfarms which has brought this figure down to 72% because people tend to like working windfarms and only go a bit berserk about windfarms that don't exist yet. So the only explanation for the minor erosion in public support for windfarms is the incessant campaign of lies against them masterminded by weirdos and maniacs.
The same demented campaigning by dishonest, not-what-they-seem groups, like the so-called Scientific Alliance and the laughable Global Warming Policy Foundation, accounts for one of the most depressing figures in the EDF poll. Last year, for the first time in the surveys, more people thought that "It is not yet clear whether climate change is happening or not - scientists are divided on this issue" than "It is a serious and urgent problem and radical steps must be taken NOW to prevent terrible damage being done to the planet".
Seems the propaganda is working, in its insidious, drip-drip way. People are beginning to believe the anti-renewables, climate-change-denying lies. Thanks to the monstrous efforts of a tiny minority, the whole country is getting steadily stupider.
There's still hope, folks. But it's diminishing fast.
Sunday, 11 December 2011
NEWS FROM BRIDGNORTH, or: THE NIMBIES' DIRTY SECRET
In the real world, unnecessary aggressiveness coupled with bizarre, irrational and fantastical claims can be enough to get you sectioned under the terms of the Mental Health Act.
In the looking-glass world of nimbydom, it's called "protecting the countryside". Not protecting it for everybody, you understand - protecting it for the few who have bought a home (or a second, or a third home) in it.
A co-operative is proposing a community-owned wind development of two medium-scale turbines about three miles from the town of Bridgnorth in Shropshire. We've previously reported on the insanity of the claims being made by the anti-group (which has already learnt to repeat the nimby mantra of being "in favour" of renewables as long as nobody can see them). The gloriously mendacious "Stop Bridgnorth Windfarm" group announced that the trucks which carry wind turbine parts are "longer than an aircraft carrier". This is a very silly claim to make, not least of all because the turbine parts themselves are considerably shorter than any aircraft carrier. Someone, we are meant to suppose, is making lorries which are massively longer than is actually necessary.
But Wind of Change has now been informed that the liars of Bridgnorth have gone even further in their deep-rooted dishonesty. Not only will the turbine trucks be unrealistically long, but they will be trundling along the lanes around Bridgnorth for years on end and "most of the roundabouts in the area will have to be removed" to accommodate these apocalyptic convoys (which do not, in fact, exist).
That's just the start. Apparently, according to the Bridgnorth nimbies, wind turbines sound like a) a lawn-mower (they refuse to divulge whether this is a Flymo or a Qualcast); b) a chainsaw; or c) a helicopter taking off. Extraordinary, really, when you consider that no one has ever managed to record a turbine sounding like any of those things.
As usual, these innocent, community-owned turbines will ruin tourism in the area - just as other turbines have manifestly failed to destroy tourism elsewhere. They will lead to an increase in agricultural accidents and - horror of horrors! - provide an income for the farmer (which is "immoral", apparently). They will burst into flame and shower the populace with ice (?!?). Most terrifying of all, the electricity generated by these turbines might be used by people who don't even live in Bridgnorth!!
It's the end of the world as we know it.
Oh, and according to the raft of lies which is the protest group's website, wind turbines reduce local house prices by 40%. This is less than the insane claim made by VVASP in Worcestershire, that windfarms reduce local house prices by 54% - a claim they could only arrive at by deliberately misrepresenting the results of an RICS-sponsored study. Like all other studies, that report found no evidence of windfarms impacting adversely on house prices. It's yet another nimby myth that they do. Stop Bridgnorth Windfarm claim to have got their 40% figure from someone in Scotland (presumably, the same person who claimed that wind turbines sound like an aircraft taking off). Unfortunately, whoever this unidentified Scottish person was, they quite clearly don't live anywhere near a wind turbine or, indeed, planet Earth.
Overall, the maniacal nimbies of Bridgnorth really do seem intent on setting a new benchmark for nimby dishonesty. This is an interesting development. As if there haven't been enough mindless nimby myths spouted in recent years - with the connivance of right-wing newspapers that exist solely to frighten the middle-class with phantom bogeys - Bridgnorth has decided to invent a few more. More elaborate, more ludicrous ... and yet, nimbies being what they are, more perversely "believable". As our correspondent (who is neither for nor against the proposed turbines) has told us: "The word hypocrites keeps popping into my head for some reason."
Co-operatives, in the main, do not engage in anti-social activities. We pointed this out after the VVASP High Command visited a windfarm in Cambridgeshire and came back telling all sorts of silly stories about it. The windfarm was on land owned by the Co-Operative Group - Britain's largest owner of farmland - and the farm in question was awarded a Farmer's Weekly award in that very year, with a special commendation for the "beauty" of the farm.
But in the mad, mad, oh so very mad world of the nimby, a "co-operative" is presumably some sort of conspiracy dedicated to destroying the countryside, tourism, the property market and several roundabouts.
Our correspondent from Shropshire has pointed out to us that the hardcore of the Bridgnorth nimby loons actually live in the sort of houses "that could grace the cover of 'Country Life'" and makes the suggestion that the term NIMBY might be altered to "Not Near My Elizabethan Moated Mansion" (NNMEMM - it sounds a bit like the sort of noise a nimby makes when you challenge one of their absurd claims, but otherwise it doesn't really roll off the tongue).
Could this be the reason why Stop Bridgnorth Windfarm have gone further than anybody else to misrepresent wind turbines, mislead their neighbours and ride roughshod over such basic concepts as the truth and common decency? As our person in Shropshire has put it in respect of their "epic" nimbyism: "If Carlsberg made nimbyism, this would be it." Theirs is a sort of gold-standard nimbyism - more boorishly nimby than any other nimbies - and their extraordinary example has led us to formulating what we call the Wind of Change First Law of Nimbyism.
The purported hazards of a wind turbine are directly proportional to the average cost of houses in the area.
None of these hazards are real, of course, as anyone who has actually looked into the subject will know. They are invented hazards, fake bugaboos dreamt up by the weird minds of the nimbies and broadcast far and wide as if they had some credibility. But the point is this: the more expensive the housing is in an area where a turbine or two are proposed, the more vicious and dishonest will be the anti campaign.
Hence the Wind of Change First Law of Nimbyism. It certainly helps to explain why, when windfarms all over the country (and the rest of the world) have been getting on with generating lots and lots of clean, green, cheap energy at no risk to the surrounding population, places like Bridgnorth are being coerced into believing that they will suffer in ways that almost defy imagination.
It's got nothing whatever to do with the turbines. It has got everything to do with the evil mindset of the grasping, intolerant, demented types who have infested our countryside with their petty-minded selfishness and congenital thuggery.
Stop Bridgnorth Windfarm are proof of the First Law of Nimbyism. The more expensive their houses, the more extreme the lies they will tell about windfarms, and the more aggressively they will defend something they don't own against something they don't understand.
That's their dirty little secret.
In the looking-glass world of nimbydom, it's called "protecting the countryside". Not protecting it for everybody, you understand - protecting it for the few who have bought a home (or a second, or a third home) in it.
A co-operative is proposing a community-owned wind development of two medium-scale turbines about three miles from the town of Bridgnorth in Shropshire. We've previously reported on the insanity of the claims being made by the anti-group (which has already learnt to repeat the nimby mantra of being "in favour" of renewables as long as nobody can see them). The gloriously mendacious "Stop Bridgnorth Windfarm" group announced that the trucks which carry wind turbine parts are "longer than an aircraft carrier". This is a very silly claim to make, not least of all because the turbine parts themselves are considerably shorter than any aircraft carrier. Someone, we are meant to suppose, is making lorries which are massively longer than is actually necessary.
But Wind of Change has now been informed that the liars of Bridgnorth have gone even further in their deep-rooted dishonesty. Not only will the turbine trucks be unrealistically long, but they will be trundling along the lanes around Bridgnorth for years on end and "most of the roundabouts in the area will have to be removed" to accommodate these apocalyptic convoys (which do not, in fact, exist).
That's just the start. Apparently, according to the Bridgnorth nimbies, wind turbines sound like a) a lawn-mower (they refuse to divulge whether this is a Flymo or a Qualcast); b) a chainsaw; or c) a helicopter taking off. Extraordinary, really, when you consider that no one has ever managed to record a turbine sounding like any of those things.
As usual, these innocent, community-owned turbines will ruin tourism in the area - just as other turbines have manifestly failed to destroy tourism elsewhere. They will lead to an increase in agricultural accidents and - horror of horrors! - provide an income for the farmer (which is "immoral", apparently). They will burst into flame and shower the populace with ice (?!?). Most terrifying of all, the electricity generated by these turbines might be used by people who don't even live in Bridgnorth!!
It's the end of the world as we know it.
Oh, and according to the raft of lies which is the protest group's website, wind turbines reduce local house prices by 40%. This is less than the insane claim made by VVASP in Worcestershire, that windfarms reduce local house prices by 54% - a claim they could only arrive at by deliberately misrepresenting the results of an RICS-sponsored study. Like all other studies, that report found no evidence of windfarms impacting adversely on house prices. It's yet another nimby myth that they do. Stop Bridgnorth Windfarm claim to have got their 40% figure from someone in Scotland (presumably, the same person who claimed that wind turbines sound like an aircraft taking off). Unfortunately, whoever this unidentified Scottish person was, they quite clearly don't live anywhere near a wind turbine or, indeed, planet Earth.
Overall, the maniacal nimbies of Bridgnorth really do seem intent on setting a new benchmark for nimby dishonesty. This is an interesting development. As if there haven't been enough mindless nimby myths spouted in recent years - with the connivance of right-wing newspapers that exist solely to frighten the middle-class with phantom bogeys - Bridgnorth has decided to invent a few more. More elaborate, more ludicrous ... and yet, nimbies being what they are, more perversely "believable". As our correspondent (who is neither for nor against the proposed turbines) has told us: "The word hypocrites keeps popping into my head for some reason."
Co-operatives, in the main, do not engage in anti-social activities. We pointed this out after the VVASP High Command visited a windfarm in Cambridgeshire and came back telling all sorts of silly stories about it. The windfarm was on land owned by the Co-Operative Group - Britain's largest owner of farmland - and the farm in question was awarded a Farmer's Weekly award in that very year, with a special commendation for the "beauty" of the farm.
But in the mad, mad, oh so very mad world of the nimby, a "co-operative" is presumably some sort of conspiracy dedicated to destroying the countryside, tourism, the property market and several roundabouts.
Our correspondent from Shropshire has pointed out to us that the hardcore of the Bridgnorth nimby loons actually live in the sort of houses "that could grace the cover of 'Country Life'" and makes the suggestion that the term NIMBY might be altered to "Not Near My Elizabethan Moated Mansion" (NNMEMM - it sounds a bit like the sort of noise a nimby makes when you challenge one of their absurd claims, but otherwise it doesn't really roll off the tongue).
Could this be the reason why Stop Bridgnorth Windfarm have gone further than anybody else to misrepresent wind turbines, mislead their neighbours and ride roughshod over such basic concepts as the truth and common decency? As our person in Shropshire has put it in respect of their "epic" nimbyism: "If Carlsberg made nimbyism, this would be it." Theirs is a sort of gold-standard nimbyism - more boorishly nimby than any other nimbies - and their extraordinary example has led us to formulating what we call the Wind of Change First Law of Nimbyism.
The purported hazards of a wind turbine are directly proportional to the average cost of houses in the area.
None of these hazards are real, of course, as anyone who has actually looked into the subject will know. They are invented hazards, fake bugaboos dreamt up by the weird minds of the nimbies and broadcast far and wide as if they had some credibility. But the point is this: the more expensive the housing is in an area where a turbine or two are proposed, the more vicious and dishonest will be the anti campaign.
Hence the Wind of Change First Law of Nimbyism. It certainly helps to explain why, when windfarms all over the country (and the rest of the world) have been getting on with generating lots and lots of clean, green, cheap energy at no risk to the surrounding population, places like Bridgnorth are being coerced into believing that they will suffer in ways that almost defy imagination.
It's got nothing whatever to do with the turbines. It has got everything to do with the evil mindset of the grasping, intolerant, demented types who have infested our countryside with their petty-minded selfishness and congenital thuggery.
Stop Bridgnorth Windfarm are proof of the First Law of Nimbyism. The more expensive their houses, the more extreme the lies they will tell about windfarms, and the more aggressively they will defend something they don't own against something they don't understand.
That's their dirty little secret.
Friday, 9 December 2011
IF THEY CAN DO IT, WHY CAN'T WE?
Not all Lords are going out of their way to mislead the public about the climate crisis in the manner of Lord Lawson and his terminally dodgy "Global Warming Policy Foundation".
On last night's Newsnight programme, Lord Prescott pointed out how absurd it was letting "NIMBYs" decide where we can (or rather can't) put windfarms when wind is our "energy of the future". We in the UK get forty per cent of Europe's wind passing over us, and yet the swivel-eyed petty Hitlers of Middle England do nothing but tell idiotic lies to each other about wind turbines. Absolute madness!
Sadly, the madness shows no signs of abating. Thirty years of right-wing propaganda from Westminster and Fleet Street have created a generation of evil, so determined to cling on to their minor privileges with their cold dead hands that they are perfectly happy to betray all future generations and the vast majority of their fellow countrymen.
So we've decided - as it's Friday - to jolly things up a little. First, why not take a look at a whole array of new(ish) wind turbine designs. The Cretin School of Advanced Nimbyism can only huff and puff about wind turbines being "blots on the landscape" which are "destroying" our "green and pleasant land" (that's how hysterical our native nimbies are). But if you take a look at these, you'll see that wind turbines will soon be available in a range of shapes and sizes, and in pretty much any colour you fancy. You can even vote on which particularly design appeals to you the most:
http://www.oobject.com/category/beautiful-wind-turbines/
Yep - you read that right: "beautiful wind turbines". Which is what they are.
Having feasted your eyes on some truly innovative and spectacular turbine designs, and maybe got a taste of what a rich and exciting future there is in wind energy technology, now click on this next link:
http://inhabitat.com/german-village-produces-321-more-energy-than-it-needs/
It's a fascinating little story. A small village in Bavaria is currently producing 321% of the energy it actually requires and earning the equivalent of $5.7 million in annual revenue from its home-produced renewable energy.
So, even if you're a deluded follower of Lord Lawson, you can still appreciate the ECONOMIC argument for renewable energy. Just as the people of Texas have done.
If you're a demented fraud determined to oppose anything and everything for no good reason, then you still won't get it. Besides, you're probably loitering around some village hall and winding yourself up ready for the latest Anti-Whatever-It-Is meeting. But if you have a brain, then there's a chance you might recognise the genius inherent in any community which can generate - cleanly and harmlessly - more than three times the energy it needs and sell most of it on, making a massive amount of money for the community without really having to do anything.
That's a real community at work. Not a toxic community of Me-Me-Me warthogs, recently arrived in their 4x4s and desperate to exercise their misplaced sense of superiority. A real community doing intelligent, far-sighted, socially and environmentally friendly things. And making oodles of money for being good. Oh, and keeping the place looking pretty, too.
Now that, dear friends, is what we call a no-brainer.
On last night's Newsnight programme, Lord Prescott pointed out how absurd it was letting "NIMBYs" decide where we can (or rather can't) put windfarms when wind is our "energy of the future". We in the UK get forty per cent of Europe's wind passing over us, and yet the swivel-eyed petty Hitlers of Middle England do nothing but tell idiotic lies to each other about wind turbines. Absolute madness!
Sadly, the madness shows no signs of abating. Thirty years of right-wing propaganda from Westminster and Fleet Street have created a generation of evil, so determined to cling on to their minor privileges with their cold dead hands that they are perfectly happy to betray all future generations and the vast majority of their fellow countrymen.
So we've decided - as it's Friday - to jolly things up a little. First, why not take a look at a whole array of new(ish) wind turbine designs. The Cretin School of Advanced Nimbyism can only huff and puff about wind turbines being "blots on the landscape" which are "destroying" our "green and pleasant land" (that's how hysterical our native nimbies are). But if you take a look at these, you'll see that wind turbines will soon be available in a range of shapes and sizes, and in pretty much any colour you fancy. You can even vote on which particularly design appeals to you the most:
http://www.oobject.com/category/beautiful-wind-turbines/
Yep - you read that right: "beautiful wind turbines". Which is what they are.
Having feasted your eyes on some truly innovative and spectacular turbine designs, and maybe got a taste of what a rich and exciting future there is in wind energy technology, now click on this next link:
http://inhabitat.com/german-village-produces-321-more-energy-than-it-needs/
It's a fascinating little story. A small village in Bavaria is currently producing 321% of the energy it actually requires and earning the equivalent of $5.7 million in annual revenue from its home-produced renewable energy.
So, even if you're a deluded follower of Lord Lawson, you can still appreciate the ECONOMIC argument for renewable energy. Just as the people of Texas have done.
If you're a demented fraud determined to oppose anything and everything for no good reason, then you still won't get it. Besides, you're probably loitering around some village hall and winding yourself up ready for the latest Anti-Whatever-It-Is meeting. But if you have a brain, then there's a chance you might recognise the genius inherent in any community which can generate - cleanly and harmlessly - more than three times the energy it needs and sell most of it on, making a massive amount of money for the community without really having to do anything.
That's a real community at work. Not a toxic community of Me-Me-Me warthogs, recently arrived in their 4x4s and desperate to exercise their misplaced sense of superiority. A real community doing intelligent, far-sighted, socially and environmentally friendly things. And making oodles of money for being good. Oh, and keeping the place looking pretty, too.
Now that, dear friends, is what we call a no-brainer.
Thursday, 8 December 2011
"PATRONISING AND WRONG"
If you're fundamentally selfish, and don't want to accept any responsibility - individual or communal - for the harm we have all done to the environment and the measures we must all adopt to limit the effects of our recklessness, then sooner or later you have to pretend that climate change isn't happening. Or, if it is, then it isn't our fault. No, sirree. So we don't have to do anything about it, right?
Ha! If only ...
It's just that sort of shifty thinking that mad groups like Nigel Lawson's "Global Warming Policy Foundation" are trying to encourage.
The BBC's highly-acclaimed Frozen Planet series came to an end with an episode in which Sir David Attenborough examined various kinds of proof that the Arctic ice is melting. He carefully avoided mentioning man-made climate change. All the same, the nutters attacked.
In its infinite wisdom, the BBC's Radio Times magazine invited Lawson to stick his oar in. This in the name of "balance" which, in all cases concerning climate change, means pretending that a few brainless statements have as much weight as a mass of detailed scientific evidence and data. It's oh so similar to the "debate" about wind energy and renewables in general. Lots of proper science completely drowned out by a few opinions falsely presented as "fact" and then foisted on anybody who'll listen.
Anyway, the Guardian has discovered that the BBC prepared a rebuttal to Lawson's stupid remarks. They had to be on their guard, because the loonies of the climate "sceptic" camp want everybody to believe that the BBC is guilty of "bias". Naughtily, you see, the BBC occasionally reports on the science. And that always infuriates the deniers. They're just like anti-wind nimbies, you see. Their opinion matters more than the evidence. If they had their way, the BBC (and all other media outlets) would be banned from covering hugely important issues like climate change and we'd all be none the wiser. As it is, any attempt by the BBC to report and explain the science leads to vociferous demands for "balance" and the "alternative" point-of-view. It's rather as if any programme about the Holocaust would have to be "balanced" by a noisy rant from the nutters who deny that the Holocaust ever happened.
Although the BBC haven't bothered publishing it, the response to Lawson's idiotic denialism they commissioned from Mark Brandon, an Open University polar oceanographer and scientific script consultant to the Frozen Planet series, was unequivocal. Lawson's attempts at undermining Sir David Attenborough, the BBC and the science of climate change were just plain wrong, "patronising in tone" and "the usual tired obfuscation and generalisation".
The BBC haven't dared to confront Lawson with the facts but the Open University has published a piece calmly explaining - using science - why Nigel Lawson was so stupefyingly wrong. It's here:
http://www8.open.ac.uk/platform/news-and-features/the-science-behind-climate-change-explained
The sad thing is that, for as long as wealthy but delusional twerps like Lawson and his climate change denying mates keep pumping out their inaccurate nonsense - like the "Renewable Energy Foundation" with its constant misleading attacks on windpower - the longer those few selfish types who don't fancy glimpsing a wind turbine from time to time can continue to convince themselves that nothing needs to be done. If there's no such thing as man-made climate change, then we don't need renewables, so we don't need a windfarm a couple of miles away from the gazebo. What Lawson and his drones are preaching is a great big dangerous lie, which helps to fuel all those other lies about windpower, recycling, sustainability, etc., etc.
We've said it before: the problem with one lie (climate change isn't happening) is that it leads to so many others (we don't need windfarms/windfarms don't work/it's all just a subsidy scam ...)
So here's an idea. Let's stop telling lies. Shall we, nimbies everywhere? For the good of everybody, and most of all our children?
Wouldn't it be lovely? - if the climate change sceptics and the anti-wind loonies and all the others who think they're more important than anybody else all just stopped telling fibs.
Then we might start getting somewhere.
In the meantime, here's Tony Juniper's response to the poorly-researched BBC Panorama programme from the other week about green energy. Makes you wonder in which direction the BBC really might be "biased".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28jjWyaeNUI&feature=youtu.be
Ha! If only ...
It's just that sort of shifty thinking that mad groups like Nigel Lawson's "Global Warming Policy Foundation" are trying to encourage.
The BBC's highly-acclaimed Frozen Planet series came to an end with an episode in which Sir David Attenborough examined various kinds of proof that the Arctic ice is melting. He carefully avoided mentioning man-made climate change. All the same, the nutters attacked.
In its infinite wisdom, the BBC's Radio Times magazine invited Lawson to stick his oar in. This in the name of "balance" which, in all cases concerning climate change, means pretending that a few brainless statements have as much weight as a mass of detailed scientific evidence and data. It's oh so similar to the "debate" about wind energy and renewables in general. Lots of proper science completely drowned out by a few opinions falsely presented as "fact" and then foisted on anybody who'll listen.
Anyway, the Guardian has discovered that the BBC prepared a rebuttal to Lawson's stupid remarks. They had to be on their guard, because the loonies of the climate "sceptic" camp want everybody to believe that the BBC is guilty of "bias". Naughtily, you see, the BBC occasionally reports on the science. And that always infuriates the deniers. They're just like anti-wind nimbies, you see. Their opinion matters more than the evidence. If they had their way, the BBC (and all other media outlets) would be banned from covering hugely important issues like climate change and we'd all be none the wiser. As it is, any attempt by the BBC to report and explain the science leads to vociferous demands for "balance" and the "alternative" point-of-view. It's rather as if any programme about the Holocaust would have to be "balanced" by a noisy rant from the nutters who deny that the Holocaust ever happened.
Although the BBC haven't bothered publishing it, the response to Lawson's idiotic denialism they commissioned from Mark Brandon, an Open University polar oceanographer and scientific script consultant to the Frozen Planet series, was unequivocal. Lawson's attempts at undermining Sir David Attenborough, the BBC and the science of climate change were just plain wrong, "patronising in tone" and "the usual tired obfuscation and generalisation".
The BBC haven't dared to confront Lawson with the facts but the Open University has published a piece calmly explaining - using science - why Nigel Lawson was so stupefyingly wrong. It's here:
http://www8.open.ac.uk/platform/news-and-features/the-science-behind-climate-change-explained
The sad thing is that, for as long as wealthy but delusional twerps like Lawson and his climate change denying mates keep pumping out their inaccurate nonsense - like the "Renewable Energy Foundation" with its constant misleading attacks on windpower - the longer those few selfish types who don't fancy glimpsing a wind turbine from time to time can continue to convince themselves that nothing needs to be done. If there's no such thing as man-made climate change, then we don't need renewables, so we don't need a windfarm a couple of miles away from the gazebo. What Lawson and his drones are preaching is a great big dangerous lie, which helps to fuel all those other lies about windpower, recycling, sustainability, etc., etc.
We've said it before: the problem with one lie (climate change isn't happening) is that it leads to so many others (we don't need windfarms/windfarms don't work/it's all just a subsidy scam ...)
So here's an idea. Let's stop telling lies. Shall we, nimbies everywhere? For the good of everybody, and most of all our children?
Wouldn't it be lovely? - if the climate change sceptics and the anti-wind loonies and all the others who think they're more important than anybody else all just stopped telling fibs.
Then we might start getting somewhere.
In the meantime, here's Tony Juniper's response to the poorly-researched BBC Panorama programme from the other week about green energy. Makes you wonder in which direction the BBC really might be "biased".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28jjWyaeNUI&feature=youtu.be
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
WHO'S STEERING THIS SHIP?
Through much of the nimby madness of the Battle for Lenchwick Windfarm, the frothy-mouthed sclerotic terrorists of VVASP were praying for a Conservative victory in the 2010 general election.
They weren't taken in by David Cameron's everso slimy claims about leading "the greenest government ever". One would also hope that they weren't so completely bonkers that they actually believed their own guff about windfarms being part of some madcap leftwing conspiracy organised by Gordon Brown and the EU (although one can't be too sure - there were a lot of people believing a lot of very mad things back then). No. They wanted a Tory government - a) because most of them are Tories anyway, and b) because if you're looking for craven hypocrisy and outright opportunism, look no further than the Conservative Party of Great Britain.
Individual Tory MPs feel free to play both sides of the windfarm debate. Take Neil Carmichael, for example. The Tory MP for Stroud (sic) is smarmying up to his nastier voters by opposing a windfarm in Berkeley Vale. Meanwhile, the same Tory MP is actively trying to get a windfarm built on his own farm in Northumberland. He'd make money from it, see? So it's one rule for down south and another for up north - or, if you prefer, two different kinds of blatant self-interest: be against windfarms where there are votes in it for you, but be for windfarms where you stand to make a profit from them.
As we know only too well, other Tory MPs (such as the not-terribly-bright one for Redditch) are perfectly happy to stand up and spout lies handed to them by their local nimbies in the hopes of retaining their majority. Yes - lies. Falsified figures about public opinion. Lies.
Even Cameron himself has been known to spout the odd nugget of anti-windfarm gibberish to appease the Daily Mail readers, even though he's perfectly familiar with the convenient truth about windfarms (his father-in-law has one on the family estate, dontcha know?)
So the nasty nimbies of Lench reckoned they'd be onto a safe bet if the Tories got in at the last election. A little hypocrisy goes a long way, and a public servant who is prepared to lie to the planning committee, well, that's money in the bank to the nimbies.
But recent findings are showing just how out-of-control the coalition government really is. Thanks to a number of Freedom of Information requests submitted by Caroline Lucas (a real MP), we now know that the oil and nuclear industries have almost completely infiltrated the coalition government:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/dec/05/energy-companies-lend-staff-government
More than fifty employees of the oil and nuclear industries have been working for "free" for periods of up to two years in the government departments responsible for energy. Not one of these "seconded" employees works for the renewables industry.
It is hardly a surprise, then, to discover that the government co-operated with nuclear power companies to "control" the UK news coverage of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima earlier this year. Nor that the government shared intelligence with nuclear power companies regarding its legal battle with Greenpeace. Nor that an unprecedented alliance of environmentalist and countryside groups has attacked George Osborne for putting the government "on a path to becoming the most environmentally destructive government to hold power in this country since the modern environmental movement was born".
Astonishingly, at a time when even insurance companies are beginning to respond to the problems of climate change (Boston Globe 30 November 2011) while hundreds of the world's biggest companies (including Tesco, Shell, BSkyB and Lloyds Bank) demand a global agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the UK's Met Office releases the latest detailed and really rather scary studies of climate change in 24 countries (http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-change/policy-relevant/obs-projections-impacts) and the BBC is about to screen Sir David Attenborough's Frozen Planet episode about the perceptable realities of climate change (the one that viewers in America are not allowed to watch), the renewable energy industry in the UK is struggling.
Increasingly, apart from a few barking exceptions like Nigel Lawson, the world is waking up to the enormous problems that lie just over the horizon. But what is our government doing? Letting the most polluting, most expensive and most dangerous of all the power industries dictate our energy policy.
Maybe that's why the nimby nutters were so desperate for a Tory government. After all, a bunch of myopic, money-minded, thick, selfish liars is bound to want a similar bunch to be their "democratically elected" representatives.
Who cares what it costs us all - the country, the future, our children, the planet - as long as our view of the Malverns isn't affected in any way? Just keep the lies and the backhanders coming, folks, and we can all go down together.
They weren't taken in by David Cameron's everso slimy claims about leading "the greenest government ever". One would also hope that they weren't so completely bonkers that they actually believed their own guff about windfarms being part of some madcap leftwing conspiracy organised by Gordon Brown and the EU (although one can't be too sure - there were a lot of people believing a lot of very mad things back then). No. They wanted a Tory government - a) because most of them are Tories anyway, and b) because if you're looking for craven hypocrisy and outright opportunism, look no further than the Conservative Party of Great Britain.
Individual Tory MPs feel free to play both sides of the windfarm debate. Take Neil Carmichael, for example. The Tory MP for Stroud (sic) is smarmying up to his nastier voters by opposing a windfarm in Berkeley Vale. Meanwhile, the same Tory MP is actively trying to get a windfarm built on his own farm in Northumberland. He'd make money from it, see? So it's one rule for down south and another for up north - or, if you prefer, two different kinds of blatant self-interest: be against windfarms where there are votes in it for you, but be for windfarms where you stand to make a profit from them.
As we know only too well, other Tory MPs (such as the not-terribly-bright one for Redditch) are perfectly happy to stand up and spout lies handed to them by their local nimbies in the hopes of retaining their majority. Yes - lies. Falsified figures about public opinion. Lies.
Even Cameron himself has been known to spout the odd nugget of anti-windfarm gibberish to appease the Daily Mail readers, even though he's perfectly familiar with the convenient truth about windfarms (his father-in-law has one on the family estate, dontcha know?)
So the nasty nimbies of Lench reckoned they'd be onto a safe bet if the Tories got in at the last election. A little hypocrisy goes a long way, and a public servant who is prepared to lie to the planning committee, well, that's money in the bank to the nimbies.
But recent findings are showing just how out-of-control the coalition government really is. Thanks to a number of Freedom of Information requests submitted by Caroline Lucas (a real MP), we now know that the oil and nuclear industries have almost completely infiltrated the coalition government:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/dec/05/energy-companies-lend-staff-government
More than fifty employees of the oil and nuclear industries have been working for "free" for periods of up to two years in the government departments responsible for energy. Not one of these "seconded" employees works for the renewables industry.
It is hardly a surprise, then, to discover that the government co-operated with nuclear power companies to "control" the UK news coverage of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima earlier this year. Nor that the government shared intelligence with nuclear power companies regarding its legal battle with Greenpeace. Nor that an unprecedented alliance of environmentalist and countryside groups has attacked George Osborne for putting the government "on a path to becoming the most environmentally destructive government to hold power in this country since the modern environmental movement was born".
Astonishingly, at a time when even insurance companies are beginning to respond to the problems of climate change (Boston Globe 30 November 2011) while hundreds of the world's biggest companies (including Tesco, Shell, BSkyB and Lloyds Bank) demand a global agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the UK's Met Office releases the latest detailed and really rather scary studies of climate change in 24 countries (http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-change/policy-relevant/obs-projections-impacts) and the BBC is about to screen Sir David Attenborough's Frozen Planet episode about the perceptable realities of climate change (the one that viewers in America are not allowed to watch), the renewable energy industry in the UK is struggling.
Increasingly, apart from a few barking exceptions like Nigel Lawson, the world is waking up to the enormous problems that lie just over the horizon. But what is our government doing? Letting the most polluting, most expensive and most dangerous of all the power industries dictate our energy policy.
Maybe that's why the nimby nutters were so desperate for a Tory government. After all, a bunch of myopic, money-minded, thick, selfish liars is bound to want a similar bunch to be their "democratically elected" representatives.
Who cares what it costs us all - the country, the future, our children, the planet - as long as our view of the Malverns isn't affected in any way? Just keep the lies and the backhanders coming, folks, and we can all go down together.
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