Last week we had Nick Boles extolling the virtues of concreting over what green space we still have in order to tackle an alleged housing shortage. And now, in today’s FT, we have Conservative ‘Climate Change Minister’ Greg Barker claiming that wind farms are not merely ‘wonderful’ and ‘majestic’ but so much so that those near his Sussex constituency have become a ‘tourist attraction.’
What an extraordinary vision of the Conservative future he summons up.
Has Mr Barker ever considered, among other things, the law of diminishing returns? I suppose it is possible that someone might get in their car once in order to gawk at the despoliation of our habitat. But it seems unlikely to me that anyone but a masochist would repeat such a trip.
Does Mr Barker believe in a future where wind farm tourism is a weekly thing, with families setting out each weekend to picnic amid the swooping grandeur of his wind farms? Does he see people, after visiting the wind farms of his own constituency, becoming such aficionados, that they head off to other constituencies to seek out further examples of the art form?
The more you listen to the vision some ‘conservatives’ have of our future, the more you wonder how they do not blush at their misappropriation of the ‘c’ word.
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