Second son of Ralph on Newsnight….

Just watched Ed Miliband on Newsnight regarding wind turbines and Vestas. He’s one plodding pedestrian-style political operator who says sod all. He said it was up to Vestas and not the government… He’s an idea Ed, nationalise Vestas! Ed was matched against Greenpeace and a speaker from an organisation called Stop the Spin that campaigns against turbines in Northamptonshire. Apparently the problem is this: the opposition to wind turbines (which do represent an industrial intrusion into the countryside) means that there is not the market for onshore turbines so the company walks (as it can with Britain’s rubbish employment protection laws).

Dealing with these conflicting pressures will take co-ordination and co-operation: not the cut throat competition that both NL and the tories love so much. At present the wind farm industry is driven by profit: people will feel that they are having their environment wrecked for  others to make a quick buck: that is what neo-liberalism does all the time. The second son of Ralph is not up to providing this kind of leadership and going against the dogmas of neo-liberalism

Blackpool: suspended in another time

Someone recently described to me Las Vegas as Blackpool on acid, or was that Las Vegas on acid…? Either way it was wet, wet wet, windswept and I got soaked in Blackpool.

The hotel room smelled of extreme damp and twas dank, I changed room only to discover the handle on the toilet had fallen off …. with a fantastic puddle on the floor….

Outside hotel window

It didn’t stop raining, grim, depressing and kinda soul destroying. You woulda not been mistaken if you believed this was autumn/winter months as everywhere was deserted and boarded up, the roads around the centre were being dug up, so was part of the beach/pier. I really did feel like suspended in time …. and I had snatches of memories from my childhood of the promenade (it felt like the 1950s then when it was the late 1970s!). Blackpool seems to be pickled in aspic….

Waiting for the train to take me back to the metropolis I was sitting with other people from the conference I attended. One of them said, ‘Don’t you write for Labour Briefing?’

‘Yes I do’…. I replied.

Ahhh the memories

Kinda nice to be recognised, was indeed flattered and uplifted my spirits, it gave a glimmer of light to a rather desolate dismal day.

Vestas: case adjourned until 4 August

Just back from Blackpool…. and heard while on the train back that the judge refused to grant Vestas a possession order.

We live to fight another day – next Tuesday, to be precise. More days to build the solidarity! Send messages to savevestas@gmail.com, sign the petitions on the 10 Downing Street site and the FoE site, visit the plant, organise a protest in your town, follow Miliband!

Oh, and many thanks to tonyb for his report from the Vestas protest yesterday while I was getting soaked in windswept Blackpool….