Home > Essays > All

Sunday 27 May 2012

Meet the new eco-toffs: Champagne Swampies

21 January 2009

/article_images/articledir_6552/3276151/1_listing.jpg

Olivia Cole says that the row over Heathrow’s third runway has revealed that despite the credit crunch there is a resilient class of celebrities and toffs with expensive green tastes

Do you remember Champagne Socialists? Well, there’s a new version of that old clique, with the same curious mix of self-importance and self-indulgence but with a 21st-century green agenda. I call them Champagne Swampies. Swampy was the environmental protestor who became a cult figure in the mid-1990s, huddled in a tunnel by the proposed Newbury bypass, never washing his hair. His 2009 variants, the Champagne Swampies, share his concern for the environment, and they’re out in force at the moment protesting about the proposal for a third runway at Heathrow. But they’re more likely to have shelves of expensive carbon-neutral conditioner than dirty dreadlocks.

Chief among the Champagne Swampies is Tamsin Omond (Westminster, Cambridge, daughter of a baronet), the Heathrow protest pin-up and founder of Plane Stupid. In her wake follow other equally glamorous Swampies: actresses like Miranda Richardson and Emma Thompson; then the pop-star contingent headed by Chrissie Hynde.

They’re the rich, often famous or aristocratic eco-activists who found a purpose in life saving the world from global warming, and as the recession eats away at less affluent people’s green resolutions, they’re becoming ever more noticeable.

At drinks parties they have freshly potted orchids blooming left, right and centre — so much kinder than cut flowers. And they talk earnestly about the great ecological benefits of Private Jet Share, a scheme which allows the girl-or-boy-about-the-planet to save a few thousand by buying up empty seats on other people’s private jets. A Private Jet Share seat is not a bargain of the Ryanair/easyJet variety but what an idea… and so ‘good’ for the environment. They buy organic cashmere from Daylesford & Co, order organic veg in boxes and nibble on Duchy Originals cookies as they discuss the plight of battery chickens en route to Ibiza. Welcome to the high-octane world of the Champagne Swampy.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Next page

More articles from: Olivia Cole | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (13)

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Post comment

cuffleyburgers

January 22nd, 2009 8:50am Report this comment

I'm as wary of the Champagne Swampy as the next man, however, they are right to oppose the third runway at LHR and they are right to push for investment in high speed rail services.

The LHR decision is a notably bad decision from a govt addicted to bad decisions; both upgrading Gatwick or building a completely new hub as proposed by the Mayor would be better solutions.

Ray

January 22nd, 2009 1:43pm Report this comment

Gesture politics, I believe they call it.

Mark Solomon

January 22nd, 2009 10:12pm Report this comment

I can't stand these people, a bunch of insincere hypocrites. I wish the Conservative party would have nothing to do with them, Heathrow expansion is necessary, it is one of the few sectors where Britain is still a world leader.

Edward Wallis

January 23rd, 2009 9:31am Report this comment

I LOVE this article - Champagne Swampies!! Checked out PrivateJetShare.com - what a great idea!!

BigBoaby

January 23rd, 2009 9:31am Report this comment

By the looks of PrivateJetShare.com I don't think they're trying to fool anyone about being 'green' - I think they're more about reducing the costs of private jets. Now the rich will have to 'share' - poor them!

Bill Corr

January 23rd, 2009 1:44pm Report this comment

There is little in the current news to please or tickle or amuse, but the printed 'Spectator' report - although distressingly short - that Swampy has retired to a yurt - although disappointingly curt - a yurt moreover amid rainy days and freezing gales in the savage marches of North Wales provoked me to laugh like a drain and I will continue to do so again and again.
[written with the assistance of William McGonagall Esq., of Dundee]

Forlornehope

January 23rd, 2009 3:43pm Report this comment

It would be interesting to have a register of "closet aristos", Harperson, Jonathon Porritt etc., who present themselves as ordinary types while concealing their background.

Bill Corr

January 24th, 2009 4:45am Report this comment

Swampy and his yurt are actually reported by Wikipedia to be in Wales alright at some distance from North Wales. Of course. the resourceful and resolute Swampy may well have tunneled between several localities in Wales by now. One immediately thinks of the subterranean access to Toad Hall.

albert hall

January 24th, 2009 8:28am Report this comment

Upgrading Gatwick is not the answer. It is a dump prone to fog and ice due to its position. Heathrow is not the answer either as the surrounding areas are too built up. The real answer is to replace plane journeys over land with high-speed Magna-style trains.

Marc O'Polo

January 24th, 2009 9:22am Report this comment

I remember back in the seventies when I first got into environmental concerns - as a teenager - all the toffs would treat you with utter contempt, as some kind of upstart oik, that has the naive temerity to think he can make any kind of difference. "Toff Default Position", after all. Now you can't move for the blighters proclaiming their O'-so-Green credentials. What's up: daddy not got any positions in the Merchant bank; Guards to scarey?

David Short

January 24th, 2009 3:00pm Report this comment

albert hall, trains can't be the answer in Britain as we are an island. In Europe, I have no problem using trains for long-distances. They are quick, reliable, reasonably-prices, serve decent food and drink, and don't have surly staff; none of which applies anyway to British trains.

If you're travelling within the UK, then trains are the best choice. It's only if you are going to Scotland does it sometimes make sense to fly, but nobody (in the sense of regular, frequent, high-volume business traffic) needs to go to Scotland much anyway. The Scottish may have to come down here often, but national policy should not be dictated by a low-population, small part of the UK, especially one whose political masters want to leave anyway.

Eurostar is OK for Paris and Brussels, but anywhere beyond, you have to fly.

Minnie

January 26th, 2009 11:46am Report this comment

Ooooh, you are terrible.

E Prankhurst

February 5th, 2009 11:14am Report this comment

What an ill researched poorly written pile of dross, pandering to readers' predjudices and failing to shed any light on anything other than the preferences of a champagne poet (that's you Ms Cole).

Yes wealthy creative types do understand the need to "do something." And they'll do it in their own style.

However a growing number - let's call it a movement - of normal people have also seen the light.

People like Ms Omond, who contrary to your report, is v poor, borrowing bus fares etc to get to meetings, living on chocolate bars and lentils to get by. AS DO MANY OTHERS.

You'd be better off warning Specator readers that a lack of money isn't stopping people. Indeed the lack of money is what is galvanising.

In many circles now the word is of revolution, not going green.

By revolution yes people mean, an end to this regime which has given us the two-fold horror of economic and environmental meltdown.

If you want to call yourself a journalist, get with the zeitgeist and stop peddling your sweet alliterations for your own sweet wage packet, Ms Oxford educated got there with nepotism Cole.

Post comment