The New Luddites
Environmentalists are the new Luddites. There, I’ve said it. There is no concensus, amongst those who truly understand these things, that any climate change is taking place that we have any power to influence.
And yet we allow ourselves to be constantly hectored by all manner of groups seeking to modify our behaviour in order to conform with their particular views of the way that life should be lived. Our freedoms are anathema to them, and their biggest disappointment is that we are permitted the most important freedom of all - the freedom to travel.
I will return to this issue frequently, but the relevant news today is the purchase, by Greenpeace, of a piece of land which would be needed for the building of Heathrow’s third runway, effectively given the go-ahead by the government yesterday. They have sold parcels of this land to various people, including well known aviation experts Emma Thompson and Alastair McGowan, believing that this will make the compulsory purchase of the necessary land more difficult when the time comes.
Mr McGowan destroyed the case for a third runway with his perceptive and incisive analysis - ‘Heathrow already has a decent sized airport, so why do we need another runway?’
Fortunately, the latest planning laws mean that the pathetic efforts of those who would hold back progress are doomed to failure.