Extracts from the March-April 2003 edition of Renew
These extracts only represent about 25% of it

10. Wilsons Energy Tour Lib Dems record attacked

During the House of Commons debate on the British Energy crisis last Oct, Energy Minister Brian Wilson to some extent tried to sidestep the issue of the £650m loan to BE by taking MP’s on a tour of what he said ‘Liberal Democrats were doing, as opposed to saying’ in relation to renewables. First he provided the brief orientation comment: ‘Let us remember that they are saying that we must abandon existing sources of energy, drive nuclear companies into bankruptcy and replace them with renewables targets far more ambitious than the wimpish ones that we are striving to achieve’. Then he plunged into the tour: ‘Let us go on a little tour of Liberal Democrat Britain, beginning with the Solway Firth, one of the best areas in the country for developing offshore wind. Only a couple of weeks ago, the rainbow coalition of Dumfries and Galloway turned down the Robin Rigg project, with the Liberal Democrat chairman of the environment committee- yes, folks, the environment committee- leading the opposition. A few years ago in Langholm, it took a public inquiry to overcome Liberal Democrat opposition to a five-turbine wind farm. Let us travel north to Skye, where the leader of the Liberal Democrats is also the local Member of Parliament. One might have thought that that provided an opportunity to show leadership in the movement to triple or quadruple our renewables targets. However, wind farm proposals in Skye have inevitably met with noisy, albeit minority, resistance. The website of the group that opposes wind farms on Skye includes a letter from the leader of the Liberal Democrats. He does not support the opposition, but comes as close as possible to requesting that the application be called in. He writes, "Any proposal will require at the very least the approval of the Highland council and will be closely scrutinised at every stage. I would imagine a proposal of this scale may require the approval of the Scottish Executive. I will certainly be monitoring developments closely". With such leadership, how can the renewables revolution fail?’

He went on ‘Let us go to Hereford. At Prime Minister’s questions last week, the hon. Member for Hereford (Mr. Keetch) famously called for a public inquiry into a wind farm that has not even been proposed. That is spectacular. I often take hon. Members north to Lewis in the Western Isles, but tonight I want to take them down south to Lewes in Sussex, home to a one-man Liberal Democrat wind machine, and a Liberal Democrat-controlled council. Again, we look for leadership and, in that instance, we find it, albeit in unexpected form. The Liberal Democrats have banned solar power because it does not look nice. That is extraordinary but true. They have ordered Lady Wedgwood, a public-spirited individual as far as I can tell, to remove her solar panels because they do not suit the ambience of the area. Moreover, they have introduced a blanket ban on other solar panels in that part of Lewes because it is a conservation area. We now face a new Liberal Democrat pressure group: not NIMBY’s but NIMCA’s- not in my conservation area. [...] I believe that Lady Wedgwood speaks for the nation when she writes, "I am very concerned about saving the environment. It is something everyone should be interested in, especially considering what has happened in Lewes with the flooding. I think the whole thing is ridiculous". So do I.’

This led to some supporting comments from Mark Francois (Rayleigh): ‘I have very much enjoyed the Minister’s tour de force, but I ask him not to omit Wales. The Liberal Democrats often make great play of renewable energy except in the Welsh Assembly, where they consistently oppose applications for wind farms.’

Wilson responded: ‘I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. Doubtless the tour could be extended ad infinitum. I welcome further contributions. However, I am making a serious point. There is no point in standing up in the Chamber and saying that we should get rid of nuclear power, oil, coal and so on without being prepared to will the means for an alternative.

Time and again, local pressure groups, often with support from the precise people who declare most loudly that they favour renewables in principle, but vote against them and block projects so that two thirds are never realised. Then they have the cheek to come here and say that our targets are not sufficiently ambitious’.

Mr. Simon Thomas (Ceredigion) commented: ‘The Minister is making a good cut-out-and-keep speech, which will certainly be in my back pocket the next time the Liberals come round in Ceredigion. He knows that the Liberals opposed the Cefn Croes application, which was for the largest wind farm in both England and Wales. He approved it, though not in the democratic way that I would have liked. Nevertheless, the application was approved with my support and against the opposition of Liberal Democrats in Ceredigion’.

Wilson: ‘I am unlikely to forget Cefn Croes because the Bishop of Hereford, no less- I do not know whether he is a Liberal Democrat’ .

Robert Key (Salisbury): ‘Yes, he is’.

Wilson: ‘He compared me with the Taliban destroying the statues’.