TALIBAN IN THE LENCHES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Their opposition is based on fraud and intimidation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A VISION OF THE FUTURE

When plans were announced this week for a new high-speed rail link between London and Glasgow, BBC News repeatedly showed snips of a promotional video.

Over and over again, viewers saw a computer-generated image of the sleek new train gliding through an imaginary landscape. And over and over again, we saw wind turbines gracefully turning beside the virtual high-tech railway line.

A glimpse of the future, there, if ever there was one.

The time will come when windfarms (or 'Industrial Wind Power Plants', as the loony brigade of VVASP like to think of them) will be a familiar feature of the landscape. They will be one of our principal sources of electricity. Cleaner, safer, prettier and more efficient than coal, gas, oil or nuclear power stations, they will provide communities up and down the country with cheap energy from an abundant and endlessly renewable source.

They are the future.

Sadly, though, there are some extremists in our midst - the sort who prefer to call these modern miracles 'Industrial Wind Power Plants', rather than 'wind farms', which is what everyone else calls them.

These extremists have decided that they don't want a windfarm near them. They don't have a particularly good reason for this, other than the rather selfish and muddle-headed conviction that they bought a view when they moved to the country.

But they have made it their mission to lie about these things. They are determined to mislead anybody and everybody about them.

They have not - repeat, NOT - uncovered some dark conspiracy. They do NOT have damaging facts about wind energy which the government has tried to suppress. They're not even really anti-windfarms.

But in order to protect their narrow-minded worldview, they'll try to sell you all sorts of absolute hogwash about them.

So - we know what the future looks like. It's got windfarms.

And we know that a small number of busybodies, nimbies, hoodlums and nitwits are trying to stop the future happening.

They'd rather the planet was burned to a crisp by the foolishness of man because they can't think straight.

They'd rather our children went without the basics.

They'd rather trick you into believing a load of nonsense about wind energy than let you make an intelligent, informed decision.

They are Vale Villages Against Scottish Power, and all those nimby groups like them. Busily lying their heads off about windfarms in order to protect ... what?

Well, here's the good news. An organisation called 'Sustainable Energy Alliance' has been in touch. Why not check out their website:

www.se-alliance.org.uk

These people have seen all the nimby nonsense being spouted by the fools of VVASP before. And they know it's all lies.

The nimby nutters will not have everything their own way. Not as long as there are caring, concerned individuals who are prepared to stand up to the bullies and liars.

We can work towards a better, greener, cleaner future - or we can bury our heads in the sand. We can create a future for everyone or fight to satisfy an ignorant few. We can accept desirable solutions to the problems we all face, or we can lie about them.

Remember - we will be judged on the decisions we make by future generations. Try telling them that we wouldn't accept a windfarm in the Lenches because a few selfish, intolerant nutcases lied to us about them. I don't think they'd be very impressed. Do you?

PLANNING NEWS

Funny, isn't it?

The hardcore of the anti-windfarm protest may be determined to fight the plans for Lenchwick Windfarm tooth and nail, but they're quite happy to put in their own applications for planning permission - and they don't have ScottishPower Renewables' interest in telling the truth, either.

There is a clear overlap between the Lenches Sports Club and the anti-windfarm protest. This is what split the village of Church Lench when the windfarm was first mooted. Not only could most of the village old guard see the sense in the windfarm, but when the rowdy yahoos of the Sports Club got on their high horses, the old guard simply remembered who it was who'd blighted their outlooks with a more or less redundant sports field and unsightly nets. So - Sports Club all in favour of building what they want (regardless of what others think) but strongly opposed to sensible, social, green energy measures. The old-timers - no problems with wind energy and a working countryside, but a big problem with the kind of arrogant arses who insist that what they want (i.e., a sports field) is what the village wants, so you're having one, like it or not.

Quietly, the Sports Club has submitted another planning application. These people want a bigger sports field, with more nets. And they want permission to remove a hedge.

Actually, they've already removed that hedge. They're just assuming that the planning officers will let them do exactly what they want because that's what they've got used to. They expect to have their way, and when there's a chance that they won't - as with the windfarm issue - then they throw a tantrum.

So they're putting in for planning permission. For something they've already done. They don't want a windfarm for everyone. They want bigger sports facilities for themselves. And bugger the neighbours.

But there are rumours of another planning application ...

These people, let's remember, didn't want the anenometer (wind-measuring) masts erected temporarily because they might be 'quite visible' from somewhere. In fact, they're not - certainly not as visible as the Sports Club's huge ugly netting and floodlights, but hey, it's all a matter of perspective, isn't it? I mean, who are we to argue with these people? They've decided they want floodlights, nets and more tarmac, so that's what we get. They don't want a couple of needle-thin, hard-to-spot anenometers set up because ... well, because it wasn't their idea, that's why.

Except now, sources inform me, they DO want a couple of anenometers. They want to erect two of their own!

Why would they want to do this? The only reason can be to try and find some tiny, tiny discrepancy between their figures and the data gathered by consultants working for ScottishPower Renewables.

After all, they didn't want these masts a few months ago. But now, it would seem, they're putting in for planning permission to erect two of their own. They're desperately, stupidly, mindlessly trying to replicate everything SPR are doing in the hope - vague, vain, silly hope - that they'll get different results.

Wind-measuring, background noise monitoring ... they're probably planning on commissioning their own surveys of birds and bats in the area, presumably on the grounds that the National Trust, CPRE and the RSPB cannot be trusted.

But who's going to be paying for this lunatic copy-cat behaviour? Who's going to be paying for the extra (and belated) wind-measuring equipment? Who's covering the cost of all this futile effort and huge waste of money?

Yes - you guessed it. We are. All of us. It's your parish council tax money that is paying for all this, whether you live in Church Lench, Norton and Lenchwick, Harvington ...

While we wait for the Audit Commission to let us know whether or not what these selfish fools are up to is entirely legal - spending YOUR money on THEIR idiocy - we might just pause to consider the kind of people who are behind all this.

The kind that tear up a hedge and then apply for planning permission to remove it.

The kind that erect banners (on council land) when the MP is visiting and then quickly remove them immediately afterwards.

The kind that make sure they get what they want, regardless of the costs to others, and fight dirty against what they don't want, regardless of the benefits.

The kind that lie to their friends, try to scare their neighbours, and bully anyone who disagrees with them.

The kind that have no problem at all with green energy - unless it might be a little bit near them.

The kind that is entirely without scruple or honesty.

That's the kind of evil we're up against.

CITY OF DREAMING SPIRES

What about this then?

Oxford City Council has announced that it is the first city in England and Wales to commit to having a commercial-scale windfarm on council land.

The site has been earmarked, a test mast will soon be up, and the council hopes to submit a planning application by 2011. They're looking at a generating capacity of between two and three megawatts.

This is terrific news.

There will soon be windfarms in all sorts of areas, all around the country. The nookie brigade likes to imagine that it is being picked on, as renewable energy companies eye up rural areas for windfarm development. But now a city - and an ancient one at that, known for the beauty of its colleges - has taken the initiative, proving that wind energy is pretty well universal and that no one has the right to 'opt out' of a green future.

It doesn't affect the Lenchwick Windfarm decision. Just because someone else, somewhere else, has decided to go for a windfarm doesn't mean that our lousy nimbies can argue that we don't need one around here.

But it does deal a massive blow to their nonsensical lies about windfarms.

While our local nookies are living in the past, desperately trying to preserve their weird dream of an empty and inactive picture-postcard landscape, those who do have their fingers on the pulse are moving forwards towards a more clean and efficient future. And while our nookies exhibit their selfishness, ignorance and arrogance, more responsible individuals are taking the necessary steps to ensure that our children will be provided for and the planet might stand a chance.

As Councillor John Tanner of Oxford says, 'Wind turbines are a beautiful way of helping to tackle climate change with renewable energy.

'Wind turbines are quiet, graceful and not a threat to wildlife.'

Isn't it nice to hear some sense talked for a change?

Maybe we should be putting that up on placards around the place:

Wind turbines are quiet, graceful and not a threat to wildlife!

Thanks, Councillor Tanner. And thanks to the City of Oxford for making such an intelligent decision.

WHAT IT'S REALLY ALL ABOUT

President Obama's determination to establish some form of universal health-care in the US is proving just how demented, deluded and downright evil some people can be.

In the Land of the Free, where Fox News, part of Mr Murdoch's global empire, is allowed to spread whatever lies it feels like spreading, the notion that we're all in this together doesn't always go down too well.

And in the ideological battle between private wealth and the public good, the right wing is never too shy to exploit any ludicrous myth, to tell barefaced untruths and to marshal mobs of placard-wielding crazies - just to prevent a wholly rational, intelligent and socially-responsible policy from being implemented.

Can you tell where I'm going with this, yet?

Looking around our local villages, it's impressive to note that outright opposition to the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm is concentrated in those small areas where there's the most money sloshing about. It seems to be in those places that concern about the future for all of us is pretty well non-existent. All sorts of phoney concerns have been and are being raised, but the opposition to the windfarm can hardly be based on such issues as the threat to wildlife (a canard, if ever there was one), noise (something that VVASP has consistently overplayed) or even property prices (otherwise, we'd all be worried).

No - the opposition to the windfarm, such as it is, is based purely on self-interest, and a rather misplaced self-interest at that.

It's a kind of blind and irrational opposition, like the opposition in the US to Obama's health-care proposals. It spreads lies and fear, it whips up angry crowds, and it does so all because of a political resistance to certain developments.

In America, they think of it as Socialism - the idea that nobody should go without the basics of health-care is deemed, by the right-wing nutters, to be a dangerously 'Communist' idea.

Something similar's been going on in these parts. A few crazies have tried to pretend that the proposed windfarm is nothing more than a conspiracy cooked up by the EU, Gordon Brown, money-grubbing power companies and a few 'greens'. And VVASP will happily try to sell you that lunatic hogwash.

But what are they really opposed to?

Can it be that their opposition is based purely on a hatred of any social cause? On a refusal to yield one inch for the sake of future generations and the health of the planet?

There aren't really any stronger grounds for opposing the windfarm, unless you've been terrified by VVASP's lies into opposing something you simply don't understand.

Remember that constant, fraudulent refrain - 'We're not against renewables, just not round here'? Doesn't that tell us what's really motivating the protesters of Church Lench and its environs? A total lack of care for the rest of society. An arrogant belief that, if you can afford to move to the Lenches then you can buy your way out of social responsibilities. A crazy right-wing conviction that private wealth is the only thing that matters.

Every time a member of VVASP regurgitates yet another misleading bit of propaganda, we can be assured that they don't believe it. They just want you to believe it. They want you to fight so that they can maintain their lofty disdain for everybody else.

Had there been any genuine, legitimate grounds for opposing the windfarm, this blog probably wouldn't exist.

It's the fact that the protesters are putting themselves, and their own narrow self-interest, before everything else, and are prepared to lie, bully, mislead, frighten, misrepresent and pontificate in order to force everyone around them to support their selfishness - that's why this blog's here, and why people all over the area, and even overseas, are reading it.

The battle lines have been drawn. Misguided self-interest versus the greater good. A tiny patch of land versus the planet. Greed versus right.

We'll just have to put up with a lot of hot air and red faces before common sense finally prevails.

KNEEJERK RESPONSES

BBC local news is getting very good at letting us know where windfarms are being proposed for various sites in the West Midlands. The very latest is at Bishop's Itchington, near Burton Dassett in Warwickshire.

But, hey - guess what? Every time, we hear the same old tiresome nimby nonsense. The same old kneejerk silliness. The same old unsubstantiated claims about 'noise', 'health', 'wildlife', 'property depreciation' and all that daft blather.

Wherever they're proposed, it seems, the same kind of nimbies (have you noticed that they all tend to look alike?) pop up, all spouting the same irrational rubbish.

They all say, 'Oh no, we believe in windfarms - just not here!'

That, then, is the predictable nimby stance, at least until everyone grows up a bit and acknowledges that these things are here, they're necessary, they produce cheap, clean energy and, compared with the nuclear or fossil fuel alternatives, they do no harm whatsoever.

Until then, we'll see outbreaks of mindless nimbyism, always chanting the same stupid mantra - 'We believe in renewable energy, but just not where we can see it.'

So where, then? Where would these cretins be prepared to accept a windfarm? How can they all assume that it should be somebody else's problem? How dare they think that they are unique, special, and should be exempted from all responsibility for society, the planet and the future?

(Want to know the latest scam? 'Epidemiology'. Yep, that's right. Turning science on its head, they're trying to pretend that wind turbines are somehow responsible for spreading disease.)

Now, this will change, as one by one the moronic claims made by nimbies everywhere and our own local nookies in particular are proven to have been absolutely muddled, misleading and fraudulent. Besides which, the nookies don't actually believe any of this rubbish. They don't want the windfarm because ... well, because they don't want it. They think they're special and important enough to be excused this sort of thing. They don't want it because it wasn't their idea, because they won't own it - but having no better reasons to oppose the plans than their own self-importance, they have to dream up any old nonsense, and jump on any anti-green bandwagon they can find, in order to kid themselves that there's just a speck of principle behind their thoughtless opposition.

We must all share responsibility. We can't all go round saying, 'Build a windfarm near somebody else - we don't want one here.' We have to put this Thatcherite brand of selfishness to sleep and start accepting the changes which are inevitably coming.

So email me. Tell me you support the windfarm, and that, when the time comes for the rational people of the area to be heard, you'll lend your voice to the 'YES' campaign.

ALL CHANGE

Did you come across that story, carried by the BBC, which looked into food production over the next x-number of years?

More growing our own food. Less waste. More local shops. Less supermarkets.

All because of climate change.

Why is this relevant, you might well ask.

Well, quite simply because we just cannot go on as we are. Oil is running out. So is gas. So - potentially - is nuclear (the idea that nuclear can produce 'cheap' energy indefinitely is pure myth). We're facing huge changes. For all that there are still a dwindling number of climate change deniers, the facts are there. If we don't make the changes to our lifestyles soon, we will be forced to. There is no alternative.

Unless, of course, you're a nookie who recently moved into the area because you think of it as 'exclusive'. If so, you probably drive a fairly inefficient vehicle, which is both noisy and kills wildlife (oh - isn't that what turbines are meant to do?) You probably think of the countryside as some enclave that once upon a time was mainly the preserve of the farming community, but that bunch are as messy as they come, so they can all clear off leaving you with your uninterrupted views of something or other and your innate sense of superiority.

In other words, you're a neo-colonial with delusions of grandeur. And you want to keep your privileges exactly as they are, thank you very much. No social housing, no eco-developments and, most of all, NO WINDFARMS.

But - guess what? - you're a dying breed. You're a symbol of an age which has taken, abused, misused, and generally stuffed the planet.

And get this: you are not allowed to stand in the way of legitimate, vital attempts to redress the balance. Your petty-minded 'me-first' attitude will not be tolerated. And making up excuses to oppose the windfarm, on such trumped-up bases as noise, harm to wildlife, and harm to the environment won't hold water. It's a fig leaf, designed only to camouflage the fact that your opposition to the windfarm is purely selfish.

The proposed Lenchwick Wind Farm will 'kill the Vale countryside', will it? You hypocrite! Nothing is killing the countryside more than global warming and the influx of people who have no genuine interest in or care for the environment (that's you, that is).

You want a countryside pickled in aspic, where nothing moves or makes a sound. After all, that's what you paid for, isn't it?

And that's what you'll get - the real death of the countryside, not because of valuable renewable initiatives but because of your behaviour, your attitudes, and your adherence to a nonsensical idea of what life in the country is like.

The rest of you out there - those of you who are concerned about sustainability, and the future for your children - should take note of what the nookie fraternity have already done to our local area. They have tried to turn it into a rich person's playground. Which it is not. They have polarised the area over the windfarm, making up lies about it, scaring and threatening their neighbours, with the sole purpose of protecting their privileges.

They have diverted your tax money into a misguided scheme to try to find grounds for opposing the plans - not for the benefit of the local area, society as a whole, or the planet, but purely for their own benefit, to maintain their myth of an empty landscape.

And they will sell us all downriver, given half a chance.

Don't you think it's time we said 'NO' to such selfishness, such arrogance, and such blatant neglect of the global need?

Don't you think it's time we said 'YES' to the Lenchwick Windfarm?

YES WE CAN!!!

Okay - things are pretty quiet out there, at the moment.

All sorts of questions are being asked about the so-called 'Windfarm Working Party' and its mission to use other people's money on the VVASP's anti-windfarm cause. So, with any luck, those parish councils who willingly participated in that gross misuse of public money have shot themselves in the foot. Now their prejudiced, ill-considered and, frankly, somewhat bonkers opposition to the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm is fairly common knowledge, and maybe their grasping-at-straws objections to the planning application, when it arrives, can be justifiably ignored by the district council planning committee.

In other words, a textbook example of how not to mount an anti campaign. Let's hope that Peter Luff MP, in his quiet little meetings with the local nookies, didn't suggest this course of action.

BUT ...

The war is not yet over. There are plenty of us who would welcome the windfarm. But I think we can be fairly confident that the arrival of the planning application for the windfarm will simply set off a whole new round of lies and myths and arrant nonsense from those who wish to 'protect' their little patch of countryside against anything they haven't bought themselves.

So we need to start thinking. Friends, we need to give some thought to a co-ordinated 'YES' campaign.

We have heard no end of huffing and puffing from the nimbies. We have seen their signs posted around the Lenches, occasionally on their own property. We have seen how unreasonable some of these people can be. We have, perhaps, even seen friends - usually people of sense and sound judgement - terrified by the VVASP's lies into supporting the protest.

We, who are in favour of renewable energy - not just 'somewhere else' but where it can really do some good - need to be ready to make our own principled stand.

We must prepare ourselves for the time when we should be making our views known.

This may take a little while to achieve. But I am now going to ask all of you who have been keeping an eye on this blog, and who support the windfarm proposals, to get in touch via the email address.

Let me know if you would be prepared to take part in an active 'YES' campaign when the time is right.

It will simply be a case of standing up and being counted. We need to establish the fact that the nookies are NOT the majority locally. They may be louder and more aggressive than the supporters of the windfarm, but they do not reflect the will of the people.

So please, my friends - drop me a line.

Would you join a 'YES' campaign?

MYSTERY SOLVED

Remember the strange case of the appearing-disappearing placards of Sheriffs Lench?

Well, it's all become clear, now.

Peter Luff MP was visiting a homestead in Sheriffs Lench to listen to the 'concerns' of residents.

And if you want to see just how many residents gathered to voice their concerns, go to VVASP's website.

Oh, but the MP was coming! Which is why nine '2km- OK' placards suddenly appeared along the roadside in Sheriffs Lench, only to be taken away as soon as the MP had gone.

Now, Peter Luff is no fool. He's even described the protesters' reactions to the proposed windfarm as 'overly dramatic'. Of course, he has to listen to these whinging nimbies - that's his job. And an awkward squad like that, even though they are far from representative of the people, can make life very difficult for an MP.

But he's not an idiot. Do you think he realised that he was the victim of a typical VVASP hoax? Do you think he expected to see more people there? Maybe he guessed that the placards had been erected purely for his benefit.

Accurate information and VVASP don't even have a nodding acquaintance with each other. Their website gives contact details for local parish council chairs - and it's woefully out of date.

They want you to appreciate how big the turbines will be, so they direct you to a website showing an open day at Burtonwold Windfarm. Loads of people having a great time. You see, that's the VVASP's problem - they're so blind, so incapable of looking beyond their own prejudices, that they see a large turbine, when what everybody else sees is a lot of happy people.

It's also most likely that, deep down, Peter Luff acknowledges the stupidity of the '2km - OK' campaign. It's not based on any science, or the situation in any other European country. It's just VVASP making things up again.

So - having seen the strength of local opposition, with - ooh - one or two people from Sheriffs Lench bothering to meet him, Peter Luff probably went home shaking his head and thinking, 'Who the hell are these people?'

They're the kind of people who hate to see the happy, smiling faces that you'll find on the Burtonwold Windfarm site.

The kind of people who think they own the countryside, even though they only arrived yesterday.