Bishop Hill Overstatement
May 2, 2014 Energy: gas Greens Environmentalists have always been somewhat prone to overstatement, but in recent days they have excelled themselves in their pronouncements on the fracking front.
Take their response to the announcement that West Sussex County Council has given Cuadrilla permission to perform flow testing at its site at Balcombe:
The decision to allow temporary exploratory drilling in Balcombe by the county council is an ‘announcement of war’ according to villagers fighting proposals.
In front of a large crowd at Horsham’s County Hall North, West Sussex County Council’s Planning Committee approved Cuadrilla’s proposal for flow testing at the Lower Stumble Exploration Site off London Road.
War eh? Sounds just a tad hysterical to me. And having war declared on them is not the only ill afflicting our environmentalist friends. Their views on fracking have led to their being imprisoned by the state. Yes siree, the struggle against fracking has given us the UK's first political prisoner:
BARTON MOSS ACTIVIST JAILED FOR SIX MONTHS WITHOUT TRIAL "Unbelievable! Anyone would think he'd committed murder to be treated like this!" Barton Moss protector, Kate McCannn, was remanded in custody for six months by a judge at Manchester Crown Court yesterday until his trial begins on October 9th. With a growing campaign to free him and Bez due to visit him in jail, Kate, has now been dubbed fracking's first political prisoner. Actually, if you read past the opening lines, a somewhat different picture emerges: Originally charged, like many others, with `aggravated trespass' on Barton Moss Road which led to theIGas exploratory drilling site, Kate, like many others, was also bailed not to go back to the site by Greater Manchester Police. Most people who had these conditions attached to their arrest charges broke the bail conditions the next morning, in order to get their cases taken to court and get the conditions lifted. The Salford Star understands that Kate went back to the site on the final week of the Camp to help clear up and was also arrested for breeching [sic] bail conditions – but was remanded in custody, firstly for two and a half weeks, and, yesterday, for over five months, making a total of over six months until his trial on October 9th. You have to wonder if these people think their prospects of success are enhanced by this sort of thing. But in the meantime we should be grateful to them for providing us with such amusement.
Reader Comments (40)
I thought that one of the rules of war was that you could detain enemy combatants until the war was over and hostilities had ceased.
I wouldn't have any problem with this
In principle I don't like the length of time on remand, for anybody. I see no reason why there should not be a speedy trial.
Also there is an entitlement to reasonable protest. Nothing mentioned here justifies six months in jail.
Keep banging them up- there are not many of them.
Also remember that "empty vessels make the most noise".
Presumably the good people of Horsham are oblivious to the fact that the nice Russians may soon be cutting off part of their gas supply. I was amazed at the Gall of BBC's David Shukman having the gall to report from the Baltic states that they were awaiting cheap shale gas for their future fuel security. Wake up greens, we are facing the seeds of a third world war and you worry about a football pitch of ground?
Self-aggrandisement, entitlement, narcissism, all the cherished Green values on show as usual.
The fact their protesting against something the company is not actually doing, not at this stage has plans to , shows far they gone off the edge of reality.
And if the locals where as supportive has the protester claim , why the need for so many of these protesters to come from much further afield ?
I feel a song coming on:-
Busted down in Barton Moss, waitin' for the cranes,
Feelin' nearly faded as my jeans.
The Bobbies came and held me down and then I was arraigned
And taken all the way to Winston Green
rhoda, I agree with you in principle but he's not being charged with possession of politically diverse beliefs, he's been charged with criminal acts on top of criminal acts. Claiming that he breached the conditions of his bail because Gaia told him to do it was never going to work. Clearly the man has a wanton disregard for the rule of law and is a flight risk. Being held until his trial will prevent him from further compounding his transgressions and worsening his situation.
Simon Hopkinson
I'm inclined to agree with rhoda and not just in principle. The saying "justice delayed is justice denied" applies. The English legal system (and the Scots as well, with which I am much more familiar) has become so bureaucratic that it has disappeared up its own fundament. By all means plead not guilty (even where there is little likelihood of an acquittal) but it should not take six months to bring a simple case of aggravated trespass to trial. That remand is almost certainly longer than any sentence a magistrate is likely to impose.
On the other hand if the accused is determined to "make a production number" out of it he gets no sympathy from me. Pity that contempt of court can't be used against those who abuse the system deliberately.
Agreed about the need for speedy trial. I wonder what the delay is?
I think it works for everyone.
Didn't detect that this country and its allies actually declared a war. Just walk in, mess the place/people up and talk about winning hearts and minds. There...fixed it - NOT
So now for Russia..because, cannot be bothered finishing off earlier excursions. Needs time/money/attention.
War in a UK village? There are some indeed, of the not reported variety usually. This particular war (so called) is going to turn bad if the para directly above comes to life. Its all a bit too close to home this time and the windmills are very vulnerable...for target practice anyway. Thats alright, we'll just reverse pump and plug in a bunch of new interconnectors. Start some diesel generators/burn some pulp for a while.
This might be the point where we find out who our friends (half friends) really are? Not necessarily the enemy close within.
Rhoda,
AFAIK they have not been jailed pending trial because of the aggravated trespass.
They have been jailed for breaking bail conditions. Bail is an agreement not to do certain things in exchange for not being locked up pending trial. They entered into a contract with the legal system as a condition of being out on bail and they will have been fully warned that there are severe penalties for treating that system with contempt.
They are in jail pending trial for their contempt of the legal system by breaching their bail conditions, not for the aggravated trespass. Judges take a dim view of that sort of behaviour, and quite rightly - where we would we be if anyone could just ignore their bail conditions with impunity?
Well we had a Wind Farm War, courtesy of the BBC. NIMBYs, that's what people who object to planning proposals are always called.
I wouldn't be surprised if he is released soon. Not as a result of protest or application, but simply because the Judge wanted to make the point that if you break the rules there are penalties. I knew a judge who used to sentence people with whatever the term was and the prisoner would be "taken down". Then at lunch or in the evening, he would call them back and say he had decided to suspend the sentence. It made the point of what the sentence actually meant.
Perhaps he's not on remand awaiting trial for his activities on-site, but is instead serving a sentence for contempt of court.
Is this "Kate" female or male? The pictures seems to indicate a she as does the name. But all the anti-fracking people seem to call the person him/he (though not consistently).
But as to why Kate is locked up - because of breaching bail. You don't ignore the courts or take the piss out of them. See what happened to Constance Briscoe.
They may need to watch out for swampy jumping down the hole.
Now the good news. The BBC has managed to write a whole article about Russian gas supplies without mentioning global warming or climate change or "controversial". They restricted themselves to mentioning "environmental fears" about fracking being responsible for its slow progress.
However, they didn't mention that the BBC has been in the vanguard of those promoting fear, loathing, and no small amount of ignorance about fracking.
Could the Bish's point about overstatement itself possibly be an overstatement?!
Note the words "somewhat prone", so no, I don't think it is an overstatement. They have certainly been prone to it all of my life.
Balcombe isn't even going to be fracked.
http://www.cuadrillaresources.com/our-sites/locations/balcombe/
"Kate, like many others, was also bailed not to go back to the site"
So she was quite able to preserve her freedom, which she chose not to do. Martyrs are us.
Without knowing all the details, it's hard to be certain but...
It sounds to me that 'Kate' is locked up as a result of breaching bail conditions, not for allegedly trespassing.
If so, what were the magistrates to do? Say "OK you breached your bail conditions, but we are going to let you out on bail again. But please don't breach your bail conditions again or it will make us look really stupid".
(I too wonder why the six-month delay.)
No wonder this poor guy is confused. Fancy giving yur boy a girls name. Boy named Sue / Kate.
That must be it - identity crisis. I'd say send in the social workers, but they'd only give him/her the Grauniad to read...
They have been locked up for these long periods because they have manipulated the legal system to achieve exactly that in order to get exactly the sort of publicity they are now getting.
Their shadowy well funded backers have decided this is more effective than having them sitting in a field where nobody other than the field owner really knows or cares and the media have long since got bored and gone on to something more interesting like z list celebrities OD'ing. The longer they are there the more sympathy they lose from locals exposed to the reality of their mess and general fecklessness.
From their own point of view they are living their pointless lives indoors with free accommodation and food rather than in a cheap tent in a muddy field begging for food and fuel, surviving on their wits and being half successful.
A bloke who's a member of a radical group, and wants to be known as Kate? Surely they must be the People's Front of Judea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBOQzSk14c
At last, a workable carbon capture and storage solution
2 wrongs don't make a right
- It's wrong the judicial process is too slow
- It's wrong for someone to mock the law, by breaching bail conditions
...these 2 wrongs do not cancel each other out
What are the chances this scheme was hatched by some character who saw the publicity generated by the Greenpeace idiots getting locked up by the Russians and thought "We'll have some of that"?
Of course inside their bubble public reaction was "Oh how terrible", they are unaware that the general reaction elsewhere was "Good. keep them there."
To deal with Kate, we need to send in Petruccio.
Might as well get a rattling good play out of all this nonsense, at least!
"Kate. Isn't that a bit of a... girl's name?"
Perhaps we should call him Bob, for short.
Here in Australia we've been at war since St George's Day.
We're in the phoney war phase at present, presumably Margo is massing her forces somewhere in the desert before raising her standard outside one of evil Gina Rinehart's mines.
@EternalOptimist
"At last, a workable carbon capture and storage solution"
Coffee on keyboard. Brilliant, thank you.
If environmentalists were reduced to not over stating risks and impacts they would be reduced to near silence.
The antis tend to be very loud. Many more are undecided and many on average and below average salaries are supportive. Basically wealthy greens and the idle are against, most others neutral to supportive.
Re mention of Russia, my networks in distant Oz tend to think the the EU is way out of line trying to get people who want to be Russian turned into people who must speak German, to be done by bully-boy administraative fiat.
What the heck has it to do with USA?
Is this thinking minor, moderate or main in UK?
Geoff, I think the framing of the issue would be better:
Why should Russia, after killing one Ukrainian President. buying off a corrupt Ukranian President, messing up their economy, threatening, the nation itself, reneging on its word to not invade Ukraine, and bullying much of Europe be given a free pass to do more of the same?
Hunter,
Thanks for the comment. I think I'll cease here as I've gone OT. Sorry Bish, my bad..