‘I don’t want my life interrupted by misguided idiots...’

GEOFFREY HILL, Roehampton Rise, Ardsley

I write in response to your story in last week’s Chronicle – ‘Climate Protester Vows He’ll Fight On’ – and I have to agree with your editorial comment in that his actions just alienate him from the people that he disrupts.

I find his views and actions totally flawed and would like to ask if he is so opposed to the granting of new oil licences, what does he actually propose as an alternative?

If the answer is renewable energy – wind turbines and solar – may I ask what happens when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine?

I certainly don’t believe that chopping down trees in Canada and chipping them and transporting them to be burned at Drax is the answer and is in fact very ‘ungreen’.

It has been alleged that the green lobby is, in some cases, financed by Russia.

I would have thought that this would make extremely good business sense if one was selling and exporting a billion-a-day of gas and oil, mainly to Europe.

Surely it is essential that the government of the day has a responsibility to its people to ensure energy security.

I believe that governments over the last 40 years have been totally negligent in this area.

Firstly, with the total destruction of the coal industry, the reduction of gas storage facilities and the dependence on other countries for energy, including electricity, and politicians of all colours have been party to this.

I would like to ask how David manages to get to all these places to demonstrate – even if he goes by train it is either electric or diesel.

Also, is not the obsession with going green and the dependence on other countries part of the reason why mine and everyone else’s electricity/gas bills have risen in two-and-a-half years from 13p to 48.45p a unit for electricity, from 2.62p to 13.97p a unit for gas, and the standing charge from 18p a day to 45.62p a day for both gas and electricity.

I do not doubt that the planet is facing serious problems and that the climate is becoming warmer but David’s actions are not helping.

Finally, I am now in my 70s and my own green credentials are as follows: in my lifetime I have grown over 30,000 trees, planted well over a thousand, have not been abroad for over eight years (by choice) and I have a 14-year-old car that does not exceed 4,000 miles a year.

I think I’m doing my bit, but I would not want my life to be disrupted by a misguided group of idiots.