Monday
Oct262015
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Wake me up when it's over
Oct 26, 2015 Greens Matt Ridley ;)
The news on Twitter this morning is that a small group of greens have tied themselves to machinery at the Banks Mining opencast site in Matt Ridley's back garden.
Yawn.
Update on Oct 26, 2015 by
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill
It's over. Nine arrests.
See you in the morning.
Reader Comments (22)
Have you seen this one? http://www.digitaltrends.com/business/worlds-largest-solar-farm-oil-oman-renewable-energy/#ixzz3pf6gGBk1
Leave them there for a few weeks.
I notice the Grauniad write-up didn't mention Matt Ridley's views on replacing coal with shale gas...
Add a few more chains and locks and throw away the keys. Then we'll see how they like a winter without heat.
If they are actually in Matt's "back garden" then they are safely on private property. (It sounds as if they are on some sort of private property anyway).
Make sure that the place where they are is not visible from a public highway.
Take the necessary steps to prevent access by anyone without any legitimate business on the property (starting with the Guardian and the BBC).
Go away and ignore them.
And I ain't joking, chaps. The only reason these clowns get away with what they do is because they get publicity. If the media can't get at them then they very quickly start to look like what they are — a bunch of infantile pillocks.
Since the machinery isn't working at the moment this would be a good time to wash it down with a pressure washer - preventative maintenance you know.
Couldn't some one chain the supporters vehicles together (along with those of journalists), and just wait to see whether such a pointless gesture in support of those dying through starvation and malaria has any relevance?
Obviously if they decide to take the law into their own hands, and cut the chains off, it would set an interesting precedent for the law to interpret.
Cut the chains once they have turned green.
Is there scope for affected employees, and their employers, suppliers, and customers, to take legal action to recover their losses?
Climate Otter
Now that strikes me as an intelligent and extremely sensible use of solar power, always assuming that the cost of installation doesn't mean that the cost of oil recovery is at a net loss.
Where the sun shines and a constant and reliable supply of electricity is not needed then why not make use of the power of the sun?
And the same applies to wind. Just stop covering the countryside with 100-metre+ colossi and pretending that they can ever make a realistic contribution to keeping the lights on 24/7
If any of them are on Benefits, are they making themselves unavailable to work? If so, for how long? Have they told anyone?
Will the drivers notice the thumping sound?
Pity it's not a large group, or even all of them.
Has anyone thought to provide a steady supply of rotten apples for interested passers-by?
I suggest Matt asks a neighbouring farmer to do some muck spreading on the fields around the protesters. This method proved very successful when paparazzi laid siege to a famous author's house (which is not so far from my hovel). The paps were gone within minutes.
Climate Otter wrote
"Where the sun shines and a constant and reliable supply of electricity is not needed then why not make use of the power of the sun? "
Why not indeed but do remember that even in Oman the sun doesn't shine at night so your cost analysis must include the money needed to generate the power you need at night. Note also that Oman is prone to pretty big sandstorms and I do wonder how well solar installations will coped with that. There have been reports of 10% loss of efficiency from large sandstorms on installations in North Africa.
Seems like a good opportunity to turn up with a megaphone to tell the greenies the truth. Go for it Matt, please!
You could mount a large poster on a tractor trailer, and park it behing the protesters, to make a good photo opportunity. Obviously the protesters would have no control over the wording on the posters, but it would offer the protesters a choice, about their immediate options in life, something protesters don't like to offer other people.
"A spokesman for Matt Ridley’s Conscience said the protesters handed themselves in peacefully."
I didn't know Matt needed a spokesman for his "conscience", he seems to handle it very well on his own. ;-)
The Chronicle, announcing the demise of the protesters, failed to give the last word in their article to Greenpeace/WWF or FoE.. Is there not a law about that in today's MSM or are local papers permitted to state the truth at the end of an article?
Suggested punishment for each of the nine, light because of no physical violence or permanent damage: one day in jail, plus more time until they pay a fine of one ninth of the average daily profit from the mine, plus one more day in jail. I'm from USA where we don't know enough to call it gaol..
Niels is on to an interesting idea:
"Seems like a good opportunity to turn up with a megaphone to tell the greenies the truth. Go for it Matt, please!"
Most of these self chaining type protests are done by tiny groups of people relying on compliant ignorance in the media to leverage their trivial numbers to national prominence.
Why not have a tiny group show up with megaphones so loud the putzes are drowned out and no one would want to stand in the noise radius?