Guido Blowing In The Wind

There can be no surer sign of the next target of those out there on the right than when the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog home in on it, in the process talking well, but lying badly, if only by omission. So it is that wind power - renewable energy - came under attack yesterday, on the flimsiest of pretexts.

Demonstrating their ability to cut and paste, the Fawkes massive took as their sermon an article in the Murdoch Sun which claimed “Monster £20million wind turbine knocked over by 50mph gusts as Storm Dudley sweeps in”. A wind turbine at the Pant-Y-Wal wind farm near Bridgend had collapsed during the assault of Storm Dudley.

This enabled The Great Guido to lay into wind power and promote something rather more environmentally damaging. “£20 Million UK Wind Turbine Knocked Over By Wind” they proclaimed, adding for good measure “As the UK battles an energy crisis, renewables are once again letting us down. Last night a £20 million wind turbine was felled in South Wales by Storm Dudley’s 50 mile per hour winds. You had one job …”.

Leaving aside that the winds may have been considerably in excess of 50mph, the Fawkes mob had a solution. “Fracking remains the one method of energy sourcing the government believes to be unfeasible”. Because it is unfeasible. But good to know that The Great Guido has signalled he is signed up to the assault on Net Zero.

The piece appears to have been read by the singularly unsavoury Andrew Pierce of the Daily Mail, who duly attempted to muddy the renewable waters. “A £2 million wind turbine was felled in South Wales by ... 50 mph winds. Why didn't we invest more in tidal power, bearing in mind we are an island”. What if he’s got a pointed stick?

What the gofers chez Fawkes, and Pierce, managed to miss is that since last Saturday, wind power has been routinely satisfying between 30% and 45% of UK grid electricity demand. Moreover, as one response to Pierce points out, “How many turbines are there? A: over 11,000 … How many fell down? A: 1 … So they are 99.999% reliable, you're telling us”. Also, high sided vehicles fall over in the wind, but we’re not banning them.

Meanwhile, news reached the Fawkes massive that copying and pasting the Sun claim that the offending wind turbine cost £20 million might have not been their finest hour, and mindful of the inconvenient fact that, as they claim to be journalists (ho ho ho) they should do a little research occasionally, someone discovered that the actual cost of a 2.5MW wind turbine was more in the region of £2 million. Monty Python Buying A Bed strikes again!

The problem is that not only does the post’s URL clearly show the number 20, but that Zelo Street took a screen shot just to be on the safe side. At least this time the Fawkes rabble have owned up: “A previous version of this article reported the wind turbine cost £20 million. We are told the price is more in the range of £2 million”.

Yes, because you’d just been copying and pasting and then calling it journalism. But good of Staines and his gofers to let us know that not only is the attack on Net Zero really happening, but also that they are signed up as full and enthusiastic participants.

So there will be more misinformed drivel in the near future. Another fine mess.

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