Dorries Desperate Development Spin

Although her novel is now selling for as little as £3.99 a copy, Mid Bedfordshire’s Tory MP (yes, it’s her again) Nadine Dorries is clearly not downhearted, despite the indifferent reviews – those from the Guardian, Staggers and Telegraph, which awarded the book 2, 1 and 1 star ratings respectively, come up at the top of a Google search – and has now taken up arms against wind power.

“Cranfield Residents: Object Now!” proclaims her not-really-a-blog. For why? “The plan to install six wind turbines near the villages of Cranfield, Marston, Brogborough and Lidlington has now been filed and it is vital that residents object ... I’m convinced that in fifty years time our grandchildren will look at these turbines and laugh at our foolishness in allowing such monsters of inefficiency to blight their landscape”.

So that’s a partisan stance and a highly subjective claim just to kick things off, then. But maybe there is some substance to this objection? “My objections to the forcing of wind turbines on communities I represent are legion, but it comes down to the principle that the benefits gained are dwarfed by the distress caused. These things cause serious disturbances in their local areas”. They do? How so?

From Private Eye issue 1364

“Many kinds of background noise are filtered out by the brain but that is not the case with turbines. The non-repetitive nature of the noise, due to changes in the strength of the wind, means that people can’t ‘zone out’ the noise in the same way. It is constantly present”. Do we get a reliable citation for this assertion? And how can something that is “non-repetitive” be “constantly present”?

In fact, there isn’t any citation, because she doesn’t know. “Studies are ongoing into the potential dangers this causes to the health of people living nearby, but having a horror film soundtrack playing in the background of your life is hardly conducive to relaxation and wellbeing!” and there I was thinking that there was a difference between a wind turbine spinning in the breeze and the Psycho shower scene.

So what do we do about our energy needs? “I believe the government should be focused on investing in new nuclear technology, complemented by some renewables such as solar and off-shore wind”. That would be “putting it somewhere else”, then,  which comes from Ms Dorries’ “having stood at the last election on a manifesto committed to the localism agenda”.

And there I was (again) not realising that localism is another word for Nimby. Yes, there are wind turbines near where I live. Meh. Big deal. I’d think more of the fragrant Nadine if she backed this up with some fact-finding, rather than knee-jerk nimbyism. And the press would pay more attention, only she just decided to alienate part of it because they wouldn’t say nice things about her book.

I suspect those wind turbines will be built sooner or later. Just my opinion.