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.