What would you do Ma’am?
The nanas headed by Tina Rothery have written to the queen asking here to intervene over the dangers of fracking. Clearly the nanas are very worried about the health threat of fracking as this photo shows. I have to say I am mystified why so many anti-frackers smoke which is terrible for your health.
Dear Editors,
Please find below, an open letter to Her Majesty, The Queen, as the latest press release from Lancashire Nanas and residents against fracking, from Lancashire. The letter has also been sent by post to Buckingham Palace. This press release is part one of a two-part action that will culminate in a peaceful presence at Buckingham Palace on 27th September 2016.
PRESS RELEASE 19th September 2016
Your Royal Highness,
An important note before you read on: I am writing this as a fellow grandmother and would ask that you consider my question from your obligation to defend your young and with your heart, rather than your crown.
We are a group of UK citizens who feel increasingly shut out of the decision that is soon to be made on shale gas extraction in Lancashire. It is a basic tenet of democracy that power should remain as close as possible to the people and not be concentrated in the hands of a few.
We have seen democracy in action in Lancashire, where the people said ‘No’ to fracking and both their borough and county councils agreed with them, and in their turn said ‘No’ to Cuadrilla’s planning applications to frack two sites in rural Fylde, Lancashire [1].
Cuadrilla appealed and a public inquiry was held earlier this year at which we – the residents – spent three weeks giving evidence. The planning inspector’s report has subsequently been submitted to Sajid Javid MP, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, who will make a decision at the beginning of October.
The decision to refuse planning permission for fracking in Lancashire was local democracy in action. However, the government’s support for shale means that the power has been passed from Lancashire’s elected representatives to the hands of a few, who are interested in aiding the interests of big business, rather than the interests and health of the residents of Lancashire [2].
This is not democracy.
During the last five years we have spent a considerable amount of time, energy and money pursuing every democratic opening available to us. We have:
- Held public meetings to gauge opinion & share information ☑
- Like this one?
- https://michaelroberts4004.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/the-fracking-fylde-fracking-comes-to-lancashire-march-2014/
- The information shared was inaccurate as one nana handed out Shale Gas;the facts https://michaelroberts4004.wordpress.com/2014/08/19/complaint-to-asa-against-raff-residents-action-on-fracking-fylde-for-gross-errors/ . It was more to form opinion than to gauge opinion. It was also inaccurate.
- This meme from talkfracking sums up the usual guff
- Helped create groups to discuss the hundreds of peer-reviewed studies ☑
- Really ? Which were these studies. I suppose all of Tothill’s signs are based on pee reviewed papers https://michaelroberts4004.wordpress.com/2014/11/24/has-the-fylde-gone-fcking-bonker
- and maybe like the Medact report https://michaelroberts4004.wordpress.com/2015/04/03/medacts-madact-on-fracking/
- Provided residents’ feedback to councillors☑
- After they had been misinformed
- Engaged with and provided MPs with feedback on residents’ concerns about the effects of fracking so close to residential areas ☑
- Engaged with government ministers over residents’ concerns ☑
- Attended industry information events in order to discover/understand their plans and what they might mean for residents ☑
- How often? They usually stood outside protesting!
- Created petitions and obtained thousands of signatures which were delivered to County Halls and Downing Street☑
- People were suggested to use a pro-forma and many signatures came form outside Lancashire https://michaelroberts4004.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/25000-letters-of-objection-to-fracking-in-lancashire/
- Organised and attended peaceful demonstrations locally and nationally ☑
- The demonstration in june 2015 needed a heavy police presence and problems were avoided by allowing those in favour of fracking to enter County Hall by a different entrance to avoid problems caused by protestors. At the initial hearing in Jan 2015 a member of the public was harassed and intimidated close to County Hall. a similar incident occured when the nanas were there earlier in June 2015
- Took peaceful, direct and non-violent direct action ☑
- Not so. The nanas took over a field illegally in August 2014 forcing the farmer to remove his cattle. Others were welcomed, including some who broke into premises in Liverpool
- Co-operated with NGOs to put pressure on central government ☑
- Like Greenpeace https://michaelroberts4004.wordpress.com/2014/06/09/not-for-shale/
- and Friends of the Earth https://michaelroberts4004.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/how-fiendish-is-friends-of-the-earth/
- with their programmes of misinformation https://michaelroberts4004.wordpress.com/2015/10/14/dont-let-fracking-destroy-all-of-this/
- Given evidence at the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee on the Economic Impact on UK Energy Policy of Shale Gas and Oil ☑
- Why was this “evidence” ignored?
- Attended and gave evidence at Lancashire County Council Development and Control meetings on planning ☑
- Sadly the “evidence” they gave was not evidence but misinformation
- Attended and gave evidence at the three-week long Public Inquiry ☑
- ditto
- Contacted Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with an invitation to visit proposed sites and meet residents (not accepted) ☑
- I wonder why
- Sought help from our Monarch (this action)☑
- If Her Majesty supports the nanas I shall become a republican
We have exhausted every democratic channel. We are desperate.
They seem to follow a different kind of democracy ………………
What would you do, Ma’am? [I suggest asking Prince Phillip what to do]
Yours sincerely,
Nanas & Residents
ENDS
For immediate release.
Notes to Editors:
What a complete and utter joke from the ‘Queen of Occupy’. Try reading the Royal Academy of Engineering report 2012.
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Fracking has about a 0.04 in a million according to UC. Unfortunately they originally got it very wrong and made errors in their spreadsheet that put the cancer risk as higher than the EA safety level. The global anti fracking movement didn’t remain very objective about the study, as many health professionals did who questioned why it was so high when multiple other studies did not find the same. So the anti frackers used it in planning meetings as ‘evidence’ that fracking posed a high cancer risk. It is a classic example of bad science being jumped on by those with strong biases desperately seeking anything that might prove them right. Fortunately it is now corrected.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.6b02762
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Never start a comment and then get pulled away to work, and then come back to it again.. Fracking has a 0.04 in 1,000,000 chance of causing cancer according to the UC study. Smoking has around a 30% chance of causing a cancer over a lifetime.
It is completely valid to note that these anti frackers are not representing science accurately (i.e., since they have been informed about the real science and have even seen regulators report it during planning meetings and they still choose to ignore it – lying) and they are lying to the public about a 0.04 in a million chance and saying they are really worried about that while maintaining personal drug addictions that have risks orders of magnitude higher and that (as per recent law changes to protect children in cars) if they are not very careful about how they go about these drug habits they will be personally putting people at much higher risk through secondary smoking and all of the very real dangers that some with this.
Since these people have put themselves into the public sphere and are engaged in political activity it is very relevant to point out this hypocrisy, especially, as it is, based on pernicious misuse of bad science used to scare innocent people.
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It would be interesting to compare proposed fracking in Lancashire with actual fracking in Oklahoma. Although I have not finished studying the chemicals In fracking, my presentations do establish the following facts, based on data: (1) The fracs do NOT grow up into and contaminate aquifers.(2) the fracs do NOT cause the earthquakes. The earthquakes ARE caused by injecting wastewater too fast into disposal wells. Most of the wastewater is water produced along with oil or gas from shale wells. I am open to a factual discussion, based on data, with the Nana group. You can read more in my website http://www.IanDexterPalmer.com
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