Should we protest against Luddites?

Loughton_Monkey

Up to 1,000 extra anti-fracking activists are expected to join existing protests in West Sussex this weekend, according to police.

No Dash For Gas campaigners plan to hold a six-day "action camp" near Cuadrilla's oil exploration site at Balcombe from Friday.

.......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-23716838

Despite all the recent good news, our recovery remains fragile.

But just imagine how poor we would all be today if (say) coal extraction had been prevented by a load of smelly luddite protesters thereby preventing the Industrial Revolution that made us (for a while anyway) very rich?

Surely there are enough educated unemployed in that part of the world, who are desperate for the economy to recover, to create a 10,000-strong protest force who could surround the so-called 'action camp' in an attempt attempt to 'explain the error of their ways' to these anti-frackers.

At the same time, another group could lobby the local community for a fall-back position of installing 250,000 wind farms in the area - which would no doubt convince the local residents that fracking might not be a bad idea after all.....

.... just asking.

Graham_Devon

You'd most likely turn into a "luddite" if it happened at the end of your road. Or drive, as you'd probably call it.

Thrugelmir

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

.... just asking.

When the lights start going out. There's bound to be an outcry. How will people recharge their IPhones........

Loughton_Monkey

Graham_Devon wrote: »

You'd most likely turn into a "luddite" if it happened at the end of your road. Or drive, as you'd probably call it.

No. The end of my drive is so far away, it wouldn't bother me.

chewmylegoff

No doubt the protestors are hoping the frackers give in soon so they can go back to their day job of moaning about their energy bills and railing against power companies' fat cat directors

chewmylegoff

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

No. The end of my drive is so far away, it wouldn't bother me.

Drives have two ends. You better hope they choose the right one.

ukcarper

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

No. The end of my drive is so far away, it wouldn't bother me.

How would you feel if it could be shown that it could effect the quality of your G&T

vivatifosi

The problem with fracking is we need to be able to have an honest debate about it, not dissimilar to immigration; where to build much needed housing, and any other issues that people take two very opposing sides on.

I can see that a lot of people are anti-fracking, but few people I meet can articulate what it is, how it is different and what the benefits are. Many however are fearful of earthquakes, not being able to drink their local water or setting fire to water as it comes out of the tap. It's about time we had clear access to both sides of the fracking issue so that we can make our minds up with greater clarity.

bugslet

I don't have a problem with fracking and I live in an area that is already under license.

I also didn't have a problem with the waste transfer station they built about half a mile away, though the way some people were twittering on, you would have thought it was the end of the world.

If you want modern life, there are downsides.

As viva said, there needs to be more discussion, people invariably parrot those who shout loudest and once they have heard someone say that the water is going to be contaminated and there will be earthquakes, that's all they hear, they fail to investigate further.

Rotor

I've decided that it has become a reliable indicator of whether i am for or against something by looking at who is protesting against it.

When the 'usual suspects' arrive from outside the local area to protest i'm confident i support it.

Be it GM crop trials, animal testing, traveller eviction, fracking , badger culling pilots , nuclear power, nuclear weapons......... the list goes on!

N1AK

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

At the same time, another group could lobby the local community for a fall-back position of installing 250,000 wind farms in the area - which would no doubt convince the local residents that fracking might not be a bad idea after all.....

There are two different groups involved here. Firstly there are environmental activists and secondly there are opposing locals. Each has a different motivation, but as you focused on locals I'll stick to them.

A large proportion, likely the majority, of the population do not want anything near them (except new hospitals, police stations etc). The hypocrisy is that even if you could find 1,000s of people to protest against the 'luddite' protest, many of them would be against fracking near their own home which makes them no better.

It's pointless to blame individual communities who are protesting fracking, house building, wind farms etc when the same views are shared by so many.

Personally I think it would be more productive to use financial incentives to motivate people. For example if Northamptonshire nears two new recycling centres then the council tax for everyone goes up by £20, however the two areas that they get built in get a £50 discount. It's typically the wealthy who can most effectively stop things being built or developed near them, it wouldn't change if you did this but at least they'd be paying for it by higher tax and the poorer people living near fracking etc get some compensation.