Rent-A-Mob Descending On Balcombe Today

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-23732938

So they don't want fracking, wind generators, nuclear or any new power stations apparently. So where is the electricity going to come from in the near future ?

[sandyRoe]

There used to be a slogan current in the early 70s, 'Nuclear Power-No Thanks'. It needs tweaking to, 'Nuclear Power-Yes Please'.

[boxtops]

Bunch of bandwagon-jumpers. There was a great article by Dominic Lawson in the I paper the other day, describing how the High Weald has always supported industry - from iron working to brick working and so on - this is no different, it's not even THEIR back yard it's in, for the rentamob.

Did you know there is an oil pumping site in Poole Harbour? I didn't - heavily disguided, no blot on the landscape at all.

Bunch of berks, IMO

[BlueToffee]

Strikes me that these people just move from protest to protest!

[mikey4444]

Quite agree sandy. I remember going on a science class trip in the early 60's to Hinkley Point nuclear power station near my school in Somerset. stacks. The science master was very enthusiastic about it and he enthused us boys as well. I thought that this was the way to go....very modern and no nasty smokey chimneys.

But they are about to start building another power station at the site, so I expect the rent-a-mob brigade will be making their way along the A38 soon.

[factor-fiction]

I feel a little torn on this one as I suspect that as a 20 year old student I'd have been joining the campaigners.
However every time I hear protesters being interviewed I feel annoyed that they just seen to have an anti government/anti capitalism stand and I wonder how many of them really understand the issues about fracking and how we need to compete with other nations for energy. Yesterday a campaigner was boasting about how the protest were attracting a wide range of groups including 'the Disabled against Benefit Cuts' and Pensioners against something else totally unrelated to fracking.

I think we need a full debate about fracking but I fear we will see other nations take the initiative and we'll pay the price in 5 years time

[boxtops]

IMO, most of the protestors today won't give a monkey's about fracking (although it sounds witty when you use it as a slogan), they're just into a good protest, whatever it is. Dozens of 'em getting off the train at Balcombe yesterday evening.

[mikey4444]

Just found this on the net'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-21774652

These protesters never have an answer for the question..... "if we don't allow this, then where is the electricity going to come from"

We have lots of wind generators here in Wales. I had a picnic lunch under one of them last weekend, when I was out with the dog. There was hardly any noise at all. Again, can't see why people find these sort of things unacceptable. If we had had these protesters around years ago, we wouldn't have any airports, railways, canals, etc whatsoever !

[factor-fiction]

I wonder whether we wouldn't have had the coal mines either.

[factor-fiction]

Whatever you thing of Margarate Thatcher it would have been interesting to see how she would have dealt with this issue

[boxtops]

I can't say I like windfarms, jordy, but I didn't like the march of the pylons either, spoiling the view - but what else are we going to do for electricity? Life stops these days when we have a power cut!

[ummmm]

I think wind farms look quite elegant.

[mikey4444]

Jordyboy9. I don't find wind generators monstrous at all, but everybody has a right to an opinion.

But what is your answer to my original question, if you don't want wind generators ? Should there be a nice smokey, polluting, coal-fired power station up on the hill instead ?

[mikey4444]

Not sure what on earth Thatcher has to do with this discussion ? We are in the situation regarding electricity generation because of every previous governments inaction in the past and its certainly not a party political point.

We are facing very serious problems in the near future unless we act now over power generation. Otherwise we are going to come home from work one day, flip the light switch and nothing will happen.

But I would like to think she would have gone down to Sussex and swung her handbag around a bit.

[mushroom25]

these are the sort of people who'll howl you down for daring to burn a hundred quid or so in motor fuel taking your family to weston-super-merde, but will then happily squander their own carbon footprint flying thousands of miles to some remote spot where they leave their plastic bags full of trash for the local wildlife to choke on. hypocrisy of the highest order.

[boxtops]

... and look at the thousands of tons of waste washed up on our shorelines, too, which is another story....

Interesting that the protesters are arriving at Balcome by car, or by electric train, not by some more sustainable method :-)

[factor-fiction]

I wasn't trying to make a political point about previous government's energy policy- I was just thinking Margaret Thatcher may well have tried to crush the protests today.

[mikey4444]

Regarding pylons...its just not possible to bury high voltage lines. You would need unsightly and expensive cooling stations every couple of miles or so, to get rid of the huge heat build up.

Why are pylons unsightly, when telegraph poles are not ? Pylons are part of modern life. They are as unnatural as any other man-made structure. I'm not sure why some people want to take us back to the middle ages.