TWITSTORM

It's no wonder that some people think windfarms are "noisy".  They probably think everything is noisy, such is the constant drone of background idiocy in their heads.

For a perfect example of all that's wrong with the "debate" (ha ha!) about wind energy and renewables in the UK, you need only click on this link:

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2012/06/adam-bruce-contrary-to-popular-opinion-wind-energy-cuts-electricity-bills-and-boosts-economic-growth.html

Yes, it's the ConservativeHome blog - the voice of the Tory Party talking to itself, or what happens when you let the lunatics take over the asylum newsletter.  But in this instance, the post is written by a chap who happens to be both a former Conservative parliamentary candidate AND a man with a great deal of knowledge and experience in the wind power industry.

Adam Bruce, for it is he, explains pretty carefully in his post how wind power actually lowers the wholesale costs of electricity, citing evidence from Europe, the USA and Ireland.  As he points out, we would be able to see how well wind is doing in this regard if it weren't for the fact that our energy market in the UK is fantastically opaque.  Even so, being remarkably cheap - what with wind being a free and abundant resource, and all that - wind energy helps to counteract the escalating costs of gas and coal-powered generation.

The problem, of course, is "subsidies".  The anti-wind brigade shriek their heads off about subsidies all the time.  Not the REAL subsidies, you understand, because they go to nuclear and fossil fuels.  But the so-called "subsidies" which electricity companies pay to all renewables.  For onshore wind, that currently works out at somewhere between 1 and 2 p per household energy bill per day.

The world outside the Tory Party has woken up to the alarming fact that the fossil fuel industry receives enormous subsidies from governments all around the world.  Hence yesterday's groundbreaking "Twitterstorm", aimed at persuading governments to stop subsidising the very industry which has caused the terrifying problems we face as a result of climate change.

The world inside the Tory Party thinks that "subsidies" only go to renewables, and that climate change regulation is the only thing holding back the UK economy.  But then, they're morons.

Adam Bruce's post is sensible, factually accurate, and a fair and balanced riposte to those barking Tories who (thanks to disreputable propaganda merchants like REF and GWPF) actually do believe that wind power doesn't work and is simply some sort of giant conspiracy to fleece us of our hard-earned cash.  What he writes is true.  While lobbyists for nuclear and fossil fuels continually lie about the costs and "intermittency" of wind power, the reality is that wind is cheaper than practically all the alternatives and makes a real, positive difference to gross domestic product.

But then, you only have to skim through the comments after Bruce's piece to realise that many right-wingers respond with spittle-flecked fury to the facts.

The goons who chose to comment on Adam Bruce's honest and decent piece are liars to a man (and woman).  They quote the very propagandists who spread the anti-wind lies in the first place.  They pretend that they "haven't got the time" to debunk Bruce's flagrantly partisan post ("Well, he would say that, wouldn't he?" - amazing how many Tories have heard of Mandy Rice-Davies!) which, in truth, means that they're simply not capable of debunking it because it's true.  But they still hurl insults at Bruce, rather like a bunch of caged gorillas flinging their own excrement, because they can't handle the truth.

There is a battle for the soul of our nation going on at the moment, concurrent with the battle to protect the planet for future generations.  Read the comments after Adam Bruce's post and you'll see how the enemy behaves - like yer typical Nazi, in fact, with nothing but angry lies and abuse.  To call them twits is too kind, for they are misguided, evil cretins who react with violence to anything that challenges their warped, deluded, fanatically stupid beliefs.

Yesterday, the conscientious world created a Twitterstorm, calling on governments to end fossil fuels subsidies.  But on the ConservativeHome blog, the party faithless simply whipped up a Twitstorm when somebody told the truth about wind energy.