 There
is something wryly amusing, and rather 1960s, about the raggle-taggle
‘Climate Camp’ currently protesting against the two new coal-fired
power stations planned by E.ON for Kingsnorth in north Kent [see: ‘Coal Surfaces Again In The UK’,
January 3]. Last year, the ‘Camp’ pitted its organic tent pegs against
the might of Heathrow airport; this year’s jamboree seems a tad less
ambitious, and, with between a mere 500 to a 1,000 souls, it is hardly
Glastonbury.
Nevertheless, some of the locals appear to be less than enamoured with their temporary incomers [‘Kingsnorth “is part of our lives”’, BBC Online England News, August 4]:
“Villagers
living within two miles of the Climate Camp in Kent are asking why
protesters are objecting to the power station that is part of their
lives.
Sheila Mudge said many people moved to north Kent’s remote Hoo peninsula to work for Kingsnorth power station.
‘People are asking why they are coming - it’s our power station,’ she said.”
Now, the police claim to have uncovered a “stash of knives and weapons” near to the ‘Climate Camp’ [‘“Weapons stash” near Climate Camp’, BBC Online England News, August 5], while:
“Earlier
police and protesters clashed at the site ... Twelve people were
arrested and seven face charges in connection with the disturbance.”
Hm,
sounds fun! Well, be honest, would you want to spend your summer by a
‘Climate Camp’, or under canvass, with all the usual suspects? I gather
these include none other than Good Old George Monbiot
himself [“For it is he!”], who hot-tracked it on the train to distant
Kent (“The climate camp must succeed”); the dread, and somewhat,
hysterical, Johann Hari
(“The WMD that really should be worrying us” - “It is called global
warming - and we are our own Bin Laden”); and, that inexorable Green
Party MEP, Caroline Lucas [“I am shocked by the violent and excessive attack on civil liberties meted out by the police here”].
Grief! One loses the will to live! Give me a police bust with the blonde and bouncy ‘Babs’ (Barbara Windsor), anytime - or, even Dave and Samantha, for that matter.
Sadly,
these summer frolics are no longer quite so amusing. The UK is facing a
40% to 50% gap in its ability to generate electricity; energy prices
are bearing down on both industry and on the poorer in society; and the
lights are starting to go out. We need the new Kingsnorth, and fast.
The self-indulgent ‘Greens’, coupled with the EU climate nonsense, well
represented, I might add, by Caroline Lucas MEP, are becoming the real
dangers to our future and to our society.
I fear this particular ‘Carry on Camping’ has dated; the joke is over.
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