TRUTH & LIES

We had such a positive response to our use of a quotation from Thomas Paine recently that we decided to treat you to another quote. This one's from Voltaire. We want to remind all those head-in-the-sand nimbies out there that a thing called the Enlightment happened. It ushered in the Age of Reason. The nimbies won't know much about that because they don't believe in reason or enlightenment. They believe in prejudice, lies and DO AS WE TELL YOU OR ELSE!!!

The first part of Voltaire's quote undoubtedly applies to the dreadful nimby movement which is allowing fanatics and demagogues to dictate their prejudices to all around them. We've seen recently how a handful of anti-wind nutters are trying to persuade their neighbours in Shropshire that the "Lorries carrying wind turbine parts are longer than an aircraft carrier." That, dear friends, is an absurdity. It is so untrue - so painfully, maniacally untrue - that only a complete idiot would believe them. But sadly, there are idiots aplenty in this country of ours. Some poor folk will trust their neighbours on this. They will endeavour to believe the (obvious) lie that vehicles longer than aircraft carriers will deliver wind turbine parts to their destination and probably damage your petunias in the process.

Another absurdity preached by the Shropshire loons is that wind turbines sound like aircraft taking off (we noted that the nimbies of Bridgnorth seem to have the hots for aircraft). Well, here's some lovely proof that the barking progress-deniers of Salop are lying through their sharpened fangs. No wind turbine sounds like an aircraft taking off. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seUDPNcpnWI&feature=youtu.be

The windfarm shown here is a prime example of the positive benefits windfarms can bring to the countryside and the community. It's worth a watch for those of you who have not yet been fortunate enough to have a tour of an operational windfarm. Of course, there will be nimby lunatics who try to claim that the sound on this video has been artificially engineered somehow or other, by some process currently unknown to science, so that the turbines sound so blissfully quiet. But the truth is that windfarms are quiet - surprisingly so. And kids love them.

So the "making you believe absurdities" part of the story is plain for all to see. Anti-wind nimbies lie, and their lies aren't even very good lies. They're ridiculous. Which means that you'd have to be ridiculous yourself to be taken in.

Another example? Okay. Here's a mad group from the Nottingham area. Nottingham University is eager to install a couple of wind turbines which will do precisely what they're meant to do: generate lots of lovely clean, green energy, thereby saving a fortune and cutting down on CO2 emissions (which, in case you've been living in a nuclear bunker for the past decade or two, is what we are all meant to be doing). Typically, a few fruitcakes are trying to stop this perfectly sane and sensible development, and they're using all the usual dishonest tactics to further their grotesque ends:

http://www.no2turbines.com

Now, let's not bother with their hysterical attempts at investigative journalism regarding Yes2Wind. Let's just go to their "Why Should I Care?" link and click on "Property Prices".

Whoosh! Dear oh dear, what an astonishing outbreak of phoney do we find there? "There is a great deal of conflicting evidence regarding the impact of wind turbines on property prices", or so they tell us.

In fact, there's no conflicting evidence. There is the evidence - which is, as numerous surveys show, that windfarm proximity does not tend to have any long term negative impact on house prices and, if anything, benefits the local property market. And then there is the sort of gibberish that the nimbies come out with.

Take a look: they've even quoted that part of the RICS report which VVASP quoted as "evidence" that windfarms drive property prices down. VVASP were told by the Advertising Standards Authority that they could not continue using that same quote to make that same claim because it wasn't true! But the nimbies of Nottingham do not care that they are deliberately misleading their neighbours, making claims that other nimby groups have been banned from making. They want all and sundry to Believe an Absurdity.

Now, some of us know only too well what the Absurdity-Believers are capable of. And maybe Atrocities is a strong word. But when, as per VVASP, they form mobs, browbeat and intimidate their neighbours, deny open debate and forbid free speech, force democratic bodies to dance to their lunatic tune, and ruin their own communities by creating unnecessary fear and division, well, that kind of comes under the heading of "Atrocities". Atrocities all inspired and fuelled by Absurdities (or lies, as we prefer to call them).

And then there's the greater Atrocities, which are to do with the planet (our real home, as opposed to the expensive monstrosities with views of "unspoilt" countryside which the nimbies think of as their exclusive homes) and with future generations. Lying your head off in order to prevent urgent action being taken and thereby stopping harmless, beneficial developments which will improve matters considerably for the current generation and those yet to come ... that's an atrocity.

The children of the future will not thank you for having lead such a perverse and deluded crusade against the solution. Why should they? You preached absurdities in order to make others commit atrocities. And that's how you will be remembered.

Of course, it's always extremely difficult to figure out why these headcases continually argue against something that is so good for the environment (near and far), so good for local business, tourism and the property market, so good for kids (remember, VVASP kept trying to drop weird hints about the proximity of the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm to a primary school, even though they could not prove that the turbines would pose any kind of threat whatsoever to the children), so good for everybody, in fact. Why would any sane (?) individual oppose - so fanatically, and so dishonestly - such a worthwhile thing?

This might suggest an answer:

http://blog.ewea.org/2011/11/wind-turbines-have-become-a-symbol-of-clean-energy/

That's it. Wind turbines are symbolic. Of the future. Of a better world.

And that's why the fascist fringe, the self-important nimby nutters of the world, are so dead set against them. All the Absurdities about noise, health, house prices, subsidies, intermittency, blah blah blah are simply sideshows - bogus excuses for opposing a Good Thing. The real reason they don't like them is because wind turbines remind them of their own failure to protect the countryside they claim to love and the children they pretend to be worried about.

Wind turbines simply remind these fools that driving gas-guzzlers, commuting stupid distances because you want to work in a city but boast that you have a place in the country, and all those other insanely wasteful activities are wrong.

In the mad world of the nimby, it's better to tell loud lies about the solution than admit that there's problem. And if that means tricking your neighbours into committing atrocities, well, so be it.

MARKET FORCES

We've heard it all before. Wind power is "Too Expensive". Wind turbines are "Inefficient". You know the rest.

What is so odd about these pronouncements so routinely yelled out by the anti-wind mafia is that they take no account of the way things work. Technology develops (especially when there is a pressing and growing need for it to do so) and markets adjust. So that when the nimbies cry out that wind power is "Too Expensive", not only to they fail to explain what that means (too expensive compared with what?) but they also try to give the impression that this is a fixed thing that can never change.

Well, a report just published by Bloomberg New Energy Finance shows how fast things are changing. With the costs of wind power falling rapidly (in the US, for example, wind turbines are now thirty per cent cheaper than they were three years ago) and improvements in design increasing the load capacities of modern turbines, wind power is now rivalling fossil fuel-based generation. Read all about it:

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2124487/onshore-wind-reach-grid-parity-2016

Basically, this means that it's getting more and more difficult for the nimbies to justify their sweeping statements about windfarms being "too expensive" and "inefficient", on the grounds that they are neither. They are becoming as cheap as the alternatives. Indeed, if the hidden costs of carbon emissions are factored in, wind power is already as cheap as, if not cheaper than, gas. And wholesale gas prices have been shooting up, lately, so wind power is extremely likely to become much cheaper while gas-fired power stations are only going to get much more expensive. That's called market forces. The nimbies want you to believe that windfarms are part of some woolly-minded green socialist conspiracy run out of Brussels. The market is deciding that they're not.

Meanwhile, a study carried out for Ofgem has considered the strange imbalance in the costs of accessing the National Grid in different parts of the UK. In short, the peculiar pricing structure that currently exists benefits southern England while making it more expensive for renewables in northern Scotland to access the grid. The study reveals that levelling the playing field would reduce the "costs" of windpower still further while undermining the case for new nuclear power stations in the UK. (See BBC article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-15711200)

Once again, we find that the so-called subsidy argument that the nimbies keep blowing out of their holes doesn't stand up. What's really been happening is that the UK government has been subsidising power stations (fossil fuel and nuclear) in southern Britain and making renewables more expensive because of issues which have nothing to do with real, inbuilt costs and everything to do with skewing the market. Make access to the National Grid the same across the whole of the UK, and the "costs" of renewables go down.

It seems that, one by one, the fake and phoney arguments against renewables in general, and windfarms in particular, are falling like dominos. Which probably means that we're going to be hearing some even more ridiculous claims from the nimbies in future (such as "Lorries carrying turbine parts are longer than aircraft carriers").

GETTING THE WIND UP

As we reported earlier this year, when Wychavon District Council met to consider plans for a windfarm at Lenchwick in Worcestershire, all bar one of the councillors voted against.

The one who was happy to approve the plans was familiar with windfarms. The others were not. They even considered their visit to an operational windfarm as irrelevant when it came to weighing up the merits of the Lenchwick proposals. Apparently, a successful, soon to be expanded windfarm of ten 100-metre turbines could not be compared with a potential windfarm of just five 125-metre turbines. Five wind turbines would have a much bigger impact than ten, obviously. It was, quite simply, not comparing like with like.

Those councillors who had read the nimby literature with which the protesters of VVASP had saturation bombed them lined up to reel off all the usual myths. There was the all-too familiar competition to see who could make the most rabid and implausible claims about windfarms. It seems likely that the councillors had decided beforehand who would lead on what piece of nonsense - "You do the silly one about people in Cornwall having to move to the Midlands to escape the horror of the turbines; I'll do the old phoney one about subsidies". That way, each councillor could deliver his or her own example of nimby doublethink and there would be no unseemly repetition.

One of the falsehoods spewed out by a councillor who should have known better was the hoary old yarn about Denmark.

Denmark, of course, has been a world leader in the development of wind energy. So nimbies in the UK and elsewhere are forever trying to make out that Denmark has failed. The result is the strange assumption that the Danes have somehow or other given up on wind power.

Some have been keen to quote Aase Madsen, Chair of Energy in the Danish Parliament, who branded windpower a "terribly expensive disaster". The problem there is that Madsen, who represented the far-right Dansk Folkeparti, left Danish politics in 2005.

A more up-to-date source would be the new Prime Minister of Denmark, Helle Thorning-Schmidt. In October of this year (2011), Thorning-Schmidt announced that wind power would provide 50% of Denmark's electricity by 2020.

Fifty per cent is a lot. The European Commission envisages nearly 50% (actually, 49%) of Europe's electricity coming from wind power by 2050: wind will be the "biggest source of electricity in the bloc by 2050, outstripping both coal and nuclear power." Denmark will be way ahead of the game, though, anticipating a fossil fuel-free electricity generating system by then.

By the end of last year, Denmark's 3,752 megawatt installed capacity meant that wind power was meeting 25% of Denmark's electricity needs. That, it would seem, is set to double over the remainder of this decade. As the Danish Wind Industry Association was proud to announce, "The ambitious targets place Denmark in pole position on renewables among the developed countries".

In 2005 - the year in which the right-winger Aase Madsen left Danish politics - Denmark was sourcing 17.9% of its electricity from wind power (at that time, no other European country had broken the 10% barrier for wind energy). So, somehow or other, during a time when (if the nimbies were to be believed) the Danish people were donning sackcloth and lamenting their poor choice of renewable energy - a "terribly expensive disaster" - the Danes actually managed to increase their wind energy output significantly and are committed to raising it enormously.

Quelle surprise!! While English nimbies (and the councillors who represent them) were kidding themselves and each other that Denmark was a glaring example of a country which tried windpower and didn't like it, the Danes have kept on going for more and more windpower.

When you think that important planning decisions in the UK have been based an a total misunderstanding of how another country is dealing with the issue, you do have to ask yourself some deep and searching questions. Like: how can a council member on a planning committee be so wrong? Where the hell did he get his "facts" about Denmark's supposedly embarrrassing windpower misadventure, and why did he not bother to look into this before confidently misleading the rest of the room? And is such an individual the sort of person who really should be entrusted with important decisions, when he can't tell the difference between a nimby lie and a European wind energy success story?

Could it be that the false "facts" about Danish windpower came - like so much other nonsense - from the anti-wind crazies, the deliquents of VVASP, who exercised mob-rule over their own communities and imposed a blanket ban on the real facts so that only their laughable false facts were heard?

Probably.

And this is just one example of a fake, inaccurate, made-up and demonstrably untrue "fact" being used to justify opposition to a very sensible, desirable and necessary development.

Let's be clear. The real facts are that Denmark remains a world leader in renewable energy, and in windpower in particular, and the notion that the Danes had a change of heart about windpower is just yer typical nimby lie. The Danes are way ahead of us now and they will be for the foreseeable.

Whether or not the nimby nutters and the councillors who strive so hard to please them will accept the facts or keep regurgitating their own gibberish remains to be seen.

AND THE WINNER IS ...

"Winner of what?" we hear you ask. Well, Winner of the Best Nimby Whopper This Week, of course!

As ever, it's been almost too close to call. But, step forward the Belligerent Bigots of Bridgnorth, who are opposing a community wind energy project with all the contempt for the facts and their fellow man that characterises your average nimby protest.

So, wait for it ... Are you sitting comfortably? Here goes:-

Lorries carrying turbine parts are longer than an aircraft carrier.

We think that a pause for applause is called for.

For a little more information about the project to which these zombies are opposed, and the zombified reasons they have given for their zombified opposition, go to: http://www.sharenergy.coop/crida/thescheme/opposition. If you fancy a giggle, that is.

For now, though, let us just contemplate the VVASP-scale mendacity and idiocy of the award-winning statement above. "Lorries carrying turbine parts are longer than an aircraft carrier." Maybe the cretinous nimbies are hoping that the majority of Britons will soon have forgotten how big an aircraft carrier actually is (three cheers for the defence cuts, eh, folks?). But, for the record, the Ark Royal is 210 metres in length. The lorries which transport turbine parts to windfarm sites are, at most, 30 metres in length.

So, the truly, outrageously INSANE comment of the Bridgnorth protesters really should be revised to read:

Lorries carrying turbine parts are, at most, one-seventh of the length of an aircraft carrier.

But no, in the mad, mad world of the nimby (otherwise known as the Land that Time Forgot), it doesn't matter what you say, just as long as you reinterpret wind energy as the Devil's work.

Let us not imagine that the statement to which we have awarded the Wind of Change prize for nimby Lie of the Week is a rogue occurence. Rather, it is on a par with practically every other nimby pronouncement (and the same goes for the artificial arguments being deployed against other vital infrastructure projects, like HS2) - an absolute lie dressed up as a fact with the intention of fooling those of a nervous disposition.

Because, let's face it, the vision of something longer than an aircraft carrier trying to negotiate your narrow lane or street is quite alarming. Fortunately, it's blatantly untrue, when you think about it. But they don't want you to think about it. They want you to believe it. Crazy, hunh?

(The same bunch really do have a thing for aeroplanes: they're also trying to pretend that wind turbines sound "like an aircraft taking off" - which just shows that these protesters are barmy, and if they're not certifiable, then they are deliberately telling GREAT BIG LIES to their neighbours. So, which is it? Mad or bad? You decide.)

No, the sad fact is that lies are the nimby currency. Here's another rather sad example. We reported recently on those Leicestershire villagers who, plagued by nimby liars, formed some rather bizarre prejudices towards their local windfarm. Then, when the windfarm was installed and started operating, those same villagers were willing to admit that they had been wrong (or, rather, misled by deranged nimby fanatics) - see the article here: http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/wrong-turbine-noise-admit-protesters/story-13713002-detail/story.html.

It's a hugely reassuring, heartwarming piece. Those who had been forced by the usual redfaced crazies into believing all manner of nonsense about a forthcoming windfarm discovered, much to their delight, that having a windfarm nearby is not a pain at all - in fact, it's a pleasure.

The article was accompanied in the same local newspaper by an editorial opinion piece:

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Leicester-Mercury-Opinion-Wind-farm-positive/story-13713025-detail/story.html

In its way, this piece is even better. It's unusual to find a local paper which supports windfarms (they usually pander to the prejudices of their Daily Mail-type readers), but here we find an editor praising those good villagers who have admitted that they were wrong ('misled' - ed.) about the turbines and welcoming this development as having been good for the area and a potential bonus to other communities. Why? Because a community which now knows, and is prepared to admit, that the nimby maniacs who tell lies about windfarms were wrong can only be good for the country as a whole (too late for the muppets of Wychavon DC and their VVASP puppet-masters, of course, but there's still hope for others).

Look at the bottom of that pleasant op-ed piece, though, and you'll see that two of the usual fruitloops latched onto the story instantly, spreading their sickening bile. One of them might seem rather familiar to anyone who's been following the Action for Renewables blog in recent months (www.actionforrenewables.org). Quite simply, a good article appears in which locals explained that they had been wrong to argue so fervently against their proposed windfarm on the basis of false facts and the swivel-eyed nimbies, predictably, lose their rags.

A measure of the contempt in which these nimby nutters hold their fellow man. First, they lie to you. Then, when you see through their lies, they go berserk. The willingness of the Leicestershire villagers to admit that they were wrong (misled!!) is offensive to the fanatical anti-windfarm fringe. Don't those villagers realise that they were meant to obey orders without question, believe whatever idiotic lie they were told (lorries longer than aircraft carriers!) and shut up about the realities of windfarms, never, ever admitting that they're actually quite nice and attractive and harmless and quiet?!?

That's the nimbies for you. People of Bridgnorth, beware! They're lying to you now, and when you find that the "forest of turbines" - well, two actually - turn out to be both charming and harmless, they will shriek and shout at you if you so much as mention that fact to anyone.

In the meantime, anyone spotting a lorry that is longer than an aircraft carrier is warmly encouraged to contact us here at Wind of Change immediately. We'd love to see what it looks like!

IT'S A GAS, GAS, GAS!!!

One of our regular correspondents has been telling us about a day he spent at a documentary production company back in the 90s. The head of that independent documentary company had previously been in charge of the BBC's Panorama slot, and he freely admitted that the editorial team at Panorama would say: "Right - who are we going to get, this week?"

This week, Panorama "got" renewables. Specifically, offshore windfarms. And boy, have they stirred up a hornet's nest!

First fact: the Panorama programme modelled its argument on an energy report drawn up by KPMG. This report has not been published yet, and there is some doubt as to whether or not it will be (see: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2123108/wind-power-sector-slams-flawed-kpmg-energy-report). The KPMG report seems to have argued that renewables will force energy bills up, leading to increased levels of fuel poverty, and that new nuclear and gas-fired power stations would be cheaper.

This is a very odd claim, and one wonders whether KMPG's findings are in any way related to the fact that it has recently secured lucrative employment advising the Russian gas giant Gazprom on its gas pipeline exporting gas to Western Europe (http://www.globalgastransport.info/archive.php?id=2358). Or, to put it another way, while a company is making money out of a Russian gas pipeline, can that same company be trusted not to try and push gas as the "best" form of electricity generation in the UK?

It's a valid question, because Ofgem currently recognises that no less than 56% of the average consumer's bill is based on the cost of wholesale gas. In other words, half of your energy bills cover the costs of importing the gas which is burned to create electricity. That cost is set to rise, probably dramatically, as international demand for gas grows (in Japan, for example, where their nuclear embarrassment has led to a "dash for gas"). Already, wholesale gas prices for this winter are 40% higher than they were last winter, and those costs will be passed on directly to the consumer.

By contrast, renewables (that's ALL renewables, not just wind) account for no more than £20 per year on the average bill for domestic energy use. The average domestic gas bill, meanwhile, increased by roughly £170 last year. So which is the most expensive source for electricity, at least as far as the consumer is concerned? Well, it's gas, obviously.

Which KPMG are trying to argue is "cheaper" than renewables.

Go figure.

Second fact: the Panorama programme was presented by Tom Heap, who happily describes himself as an "Eco-Sceptic" (http://tomheap.com/?page_id=196). In plain English, this means that Tom Heap does not much care for environmentalists or anyone who is growing increasingly concerned about climate change and our irresponsible attitudes towards sustainability. In this, Heap seems to be at odds with the global scientific consensus and the International Energy Agency, which is now warning that we are rapidly running out of time to deal with the terrifying problems of climate change (http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2123758/world-headed-irreversible-climate-change-iea-warns). In the face of these scientific warnings, Heap's one-sided approach to pressing issues is astonishingly irresponsible.

Usually, the BBC is constrained by the slightly difficult concept of "balance". It is this very "balance" which often confuses important debates - for example, even though the vast majority of scientists agree that climate change is happening and it's probably down to humankind's activities, the rules of "balance" mean that some crackpot has to be interviewed to represent the opposing viewpoint of a tiny and deluded minority.

But Heap didn't bother with balance at all in his Panorama puff-piece for the fossil fuel industries (gas and nuclear). Not one activist, campaigner, expert, representative, lobbyist or scientist was allowed to argue the case for renewables. Not one.

So - a reporter who does like the green movement bases a totally one-sided piece based on a skewed report written (but not yet published) by an accountancy firm with an interest in fossil fuels. In the circumstances, there's hardly any wonder that Heap and the Panorama team did not dare to interview anyone from the pro-renewables side of the argument. If they had, the "reporter" and his silly claims would have been made to look extremely stupid. But, as we've noted elsewhere, the anti-renewables loonies don't like debate. It scares them. If you trying to defend an indefensible position, do not open it up for debate. Simples.

Fortunately, it looks like many individuals, groups and organisations are preparing detailed complaints to the BBC over this outrageously lousy piece of reporting. The question is, will it make the slightest bit of difference? The BBC has colluded in a rather blatant attempt to shackle the UK energy consumer to a generation source that is not renewable, will only go up in cost and will do nothing to help curb global warming - and for whose benefit?

Answer: KPMG and its clients, of course.

DUPLICRACY

For those who chanced to see it, it was a chilling moment.

January, 2011. Outside a District Council offices in the English Midlands. A lone supporter of a windfarm planning application explains to a local TV news reporter that the planning committee meeting which is about to start will be the first open debate about the proposed windfarm in over two years. An anti-windfarm protest group had actively prevented any form of intelligent, rational, informed debate from taking place. That sole supporter was instantly jeered, heckled and insulted by the crowd of 100+ anti's, all gathered around him in a semi-circle, all wearing their screaming yellow T-shirts and brandishing banners.

It went out live on the lunchtime news. The mob-rule, which residents of the village of Church Lench had complained of, was momentarily visible for the whole of the region to see. Anyone who expressed a divergent opinion was shouted down. There had been no debate. The majority of the protesters were protesting against something they did not understand because their leaders had ruthlessly misinformed them, heightening their ignorance, and had systematically obstructed any real facts from getting through.

That is how the anti-windfarm minority conducts itself. It refuses to allow any form of debate. Rather, it heckles, hectors, harasses and harangues. It doesn't want to discuss. It merely shouts.

This is becoming a major problem. If you visit an anti-windfarm (or anti-renewables) website and try to leave a pro-wind comment, the chances are that the "moderators" of that site will block it. If you visit a pro-wind (or green business) website, you will find that deranged souls have been trolling that site, plastering their nonsensical, unsubstantiated and waywardly inaccurate anti-wind power claims all over it.

One would hope that those who want to get the latest news about developments in the world of renewables would be able to do so without risk of harassment or having to wade through the sick dribblings of the anti-wind loonies and the demented climate change deniers. No such luck. Question those mentalists on their own websites and they'll silence you. But on pro-renewables websites, the same mentalists consider it open season.

This tells us a lot about the state of play in the great windfarm "debate". Keep an eye on what's happening around the world and you'll quickly realise that renewables are the primary energy source of the 21st century. That's what's happening. But there are some very twisted souls who don't want that.

Some are no doubt working for the fossil fuels/nuclear lobbies. Some are just opinionated weirdos who won't shut up. Some got a bee in their bonnets over a local windfarm application and now see it as their mission to oppose wind turbines anywhere and everywhere. Some just read useless right-wing scare-sheets and believe all the rubbish they're told. But they all have one thing in common. They believe that their opinions are right and that no one else should be entitled to one.

It's interesting to see how the nimbies exploit the notion of democracy. If a windfarm is refused planning approval, they declare a victory for "democracy" (regardless of the fact that they themselves are in the minority). Alternatively, should a local council go with the science, the evidence, the clear and pressing need and the majority opinion, these same witless dupes announce that "democracy" has counted for nothing.

Their notion of democracy means one thing and one thing only: it's what they want, irrespective of what everyone else wants.

To achieve their ends, they wilfully undermine all forms of democracy. In the battle of Lenchwick, parish councils were attacked: one was forced to resign and was replaced with representatives of the fraudulent protest group VVASP. Independent parish councillors were warned that they were "not allowed" to express their opinions in public, while the VVASP parish councils could make their feelings known whenever and however they felt like it. Public money was appropriated under false pretences and diverted into a political anti-windfarm campaign. The district council was tricked by these same single-issue "parish councillors" into hiring a noise consultant who regularly works for an anti-windfarm lobbying organisation. Local surveys were grossly misrepresented, and the falsified figures read out at the planning meeting by a pet Tory MP. Lies were published, and when those lies were successfully challenged, more lies were told. Any local resident who went "off message" and pointed out a fact about windfarms - such as, they're not noisy at all - was victimised. Some were threatened.

Lies, falsification, thuggery and mob rule have no place in democracy. You either believe in free speech or you don't. Anti-wind nimbies don't. They'll demand it for themselves, but they'll prevent others from exercising the same rights.

They'll interfere with green websites to spread their deluded nonsense but they won't allow any genuine facts onto their own websites, in spite of their duplicitous claims to be giving out "comprehensive information". They'll tell lies about local supporters, windfarm developers, governments and scientists, but they won't allow the other side of the story to be told. They'll squeal to the local papers and the police if their grotesque protest signs are removed from public property, while at the same time removing and destroying any pro-windfarm signs that might appear in appropriate places.

The whole windfarm debate is not a debate at all. It's a one-sided slanging match conducted by idiots who don't want their neighbours to hear the facts. They make up facts which aren't true and then accuse the other side of lying. They pretend that they are the victims of a multi-national green conspiracy while they victimise their own neighbours for expressing honest opinions. They will purposefully undermine local democracy and then declare a victory for local democracy.

Any country which allows this sort of behaviour to succeed is in big trouble. Naturally, the Tories pander to these lunatics because the majority of them are Tory voters. But in doing so, they are sanctioning the mindless destruction of democracy by an unscrupulous minority of fanatics. Those MPs who thoughtlessly offer support to these fascist mobs and their despicably selfish and deceitful ringleaders are guilty of undermining what little we have left in the way of democracy.

Perhaps the tide is turning. Even climate change skeptics are finally realising that, yes, the Earth is warming up - see here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/opinion/dr-mullers-findings-on-global-warming.html?_r=3

That's a good thing, because it shows that, after too many years of denial, even the skeptics are beginning to acknowledge the truth. The next step is to accept that we need to be implementing strategies to curb the worst effects of global warming. And that means two things: sustainability and renewables.

The arguments against windfarms are fading thick and fast - largely because those arguments were bogus and dishonest in the first place. Anti-windfarm protesters fall into two categories: those who are merely opposed to change in any form whatsoever, and those who have been terrorised by the first bunch into believing a pack of lies about windfarms. We should feel sorry for the latter group and do our best to enlighten them with the evidence. The first bunch are the real enemy, for it is they who systematically destroy local democracy and their own communities in order to force others to obey them.

We have a moral duty to oppose these deluded fanatics at every turn. Okay, so we in the pro-wind camp are not afraid of open debate, while our nimby opponents are terrified of open debate. Okay, so we believe in free speech while the nimby nutters in our midst absolutely oppose it. And okay, so we champion democracy while the anti's seek to destroy it, because that's the only way they can force their petty-minded, greedy, stupid, arrogant views on everybody else.

Because they refuse to play by the rules, we have to be ready, willing and able to stand up to their meaningless lies, their bullying tactics, their evil intentions. They demand free speech for themselves and deny it to everyone else. So we must exercise our rights to free speech in order to come down hard on their crazy insinuations, their false evidence, their scaremongering gibberish.

We can't expect them to debate the issues with us. They don't want a debate. It would make them look foolish. They can only prevail if no one gets to hear the genuine facts.

Which is why we must lose no opportunity to expose them as the unprincipled liars they are, again and again and again. Free speech is a precious thing. We mustn't let them abuse it on order to shut down the debate.

BLOWING OUR OWN TRUMPET

They're a very smallscale operation, but the good folks at Yes 2 Wind do a very good job. Their website is improving all the time, and if there is one thing that is definitely needed it is a source of reliable information about windfarms. The only hope is those who seek reliable information can get to it before the fanatical disinformation artists of the anti-renewables fringe get to them.

One of the innovations on the Yes 2 Wind website is their "Windypedia" section - a kind of Wikipedia for windfarm-related issues. And we here at Wind of Change are extremely proud to have been involved with this.

Basically, all that time spent trying to set the record straight, after our local nimbies had poisoned the well of truth by spreading so many hysterical lies about windfarms, has in fact been very useful. While it was all too easy for Big Chief Nookie to spread false information about the impact of a windfarm on local property values, those of us with a working conscience had to put a bit more effort into finding out the facts.

All that hard work and research can now be put to good use, so that - with any luck - not quite so many people will be misled by self-serving propagandists.

This link takes you to the Yes 2 Wind page about house prices, with a major contribution from ourselves on the "Expert" page:

http://www.yes2wind.com/faqs/property-values/do-wind-farms-affect-property-values#

This might not be the last word on the subject. There is a university paper currently being drafted which looks at the issue in detail, and its preliminary findings indicate that any impact on house prices is actually caused by mindless nimby idiots and not by actual windfarms. As the report's author has put it, "they're shooting themselves in the foot".

Interesting, isn't it, that during these times of austerity and economic uncertainty, the money-minded maniacs of the anti-windfarm brigade are harming their own finances, as well as those of their all-too trusting neighbours?