Renewables Bad For The Environment?

It is being reported that a large windfarm planned for the western Isles may be refused permission by the Scottish Parliament. Reasons given are the environmental impact. First impressions to that news is ehhh?

We are told we need to develop renewable energy sources to save life on this planet and to avoid a collapse of modern civilization due to the oil running out. This being the case it would be reasonable to think that a windfarm was actually a good thing for the environment.

Objections were raised on the basis of irreversable damage to  a wetland area, wildlife and visual impact. All valid arguments but I do wonder just how valid these arguments really are.

If it weren’t for electricity we would still have windmills all over our landscape to produce the flour to make bread just as there was in previous centuries. Would those have been banned in modern times? Probably though what we would have done without bread I have no idea.

Birds and wildlife adapt to things and would no dounbt get used to the windmills and as for the wetlands I can only think that they will be even wetter if climate change continues to cause the melting of the icecaps and the warming of the oceans.

I can understand that people are nervous of change and are not keen on seeing the skyline change so much. It reinforces my view that local people should benefit from local developments. I am sure locals would be more enthusiastic if they were to get cheaper electricity because of the windfarm.

I am sure the same argument might apply to motorways, airports and even factories. If local people felt they benefitted from developments they would be more enthusiastic but it doesn’t currently work this way and locals suffer the consequences and yet gain nothing.

It is such an obvious thing to do. I look forward to a time when government considers people when they try to imose developments on them. We need more windfarms and it is not unreasonable that local people should benefit from their construction.

Peter Hain Resignation

Following the announcement that the electoral commission is to send details to the police of the failure of Peter Hain to declare contributions of £100,000 towards his deputy leader campaign Peter Hain has resigned as work and pensions minister.

Peter Hain has taken his time and resisted resigning but finally he has accepted what the public have thought since the start of these investigations. He had to resign or be sacked.

I have always considered Peter Hain to be a respectable politician. He has always come across very well to me as a decent man. It is unfortunate that it has come to this but he really should have stepped down earlier.

This government has introduced hundreds of laws and regulations. Perhaps they might see that this debacle demonstrates that the introductions of so many rules and regulations leads to possibly innocent people breaking the law unintentionally.

Morally Weak Government

Trust is the very essence of a democracy. The Northern Rock crisis was initially dealt with by the chancellor guaranteeing all savings held by the bank. The public believed what was said and the queues of people waiting to withdraw their money faded away.

What would have happened if people had thought the government could not be trusted?

The police are not able to go on strike. They have an understanding with the government that they will be treated fairly in return. Whether you hold the police in high regard or not we all depend on the fact that they are upholding the laws of the land and will do their best to achieve this.

So the home office Minister Jackie Smith deciding that they should be unfairly treated and that the government does not need to keep its moral obligation is very significant.

It is easy to become cynical about MPs and government these days. MPs of all parties are always going on about what a terrible thing it is that the public are so cynical about MPs, Ministers and government. It is hardly any great surprise when a minister shows such stupidity as this. It is obvious to anyone that a government that can be so deceiptful and dishonest as this cannot be trusted in any other way.

We have had years of ‘spin’, countless announcements of money that is being made available for some purpose where the truth is that the money had already been included in other figures made available previously. We had a similar example in the announcement of troop withdrawals from Iraq madeby the prime minister a few months back when many of those troops had previously been announced.

If it looks like shit, smells like shit and tastes like shit there is a good chance that it is in fact, shit.

When goverment ministers show a complete disregard for what is morally right that too is shit. Perhaps it is time we had a new political party who could be trusted to be honest because they would publicly commit suicide if they were found to have been dishonest or morally empty. If the current British Goverment followed this approach there wouldn’t be many of them left.