Where the wind blows

Britain has the world's fiercest anti-wind farm protesters. Much good may it do them

East of the M6 at Killington, a line of smooth Cumbrian hills rises from the limestone floor of the Lune valley. They are the Howgill Fells, "a herd of sleeping elephants" in the words of the famous hiker Alfred Wainwright, which form the western mantle of the Yorkshire Dales. Farther west lie the Lakeland Fells, sacred to Wordsworth-snow-covered and glinting in the late winter sunshine. It is a heavenly spot, which may soon be occupied by three of the biggest wind turbines ever built on British soil.

Standing 132m high to catch the sou'westers blowing in from the Irish Sea, the turbines could provide electricity for 8,000 houses, according to their would-be developer, Banks Renewables. It also considers the Lune valley an ideal location. The spot is windy, thinly-inhabited and between the Lake District and Dales national parks, where wind turbines are not permitted. But that cuts no ice with Bagehot's companion, Mike Hall, a retired biochemist and campaigner against wind farms. "I don't believe in industrialising this landscape," he says balefully, as fluffy clouds race overhead. "The turbines proposed here would be out of scale with the landscape."

Mr Hall says this often. It indicates his Wordsworthian reverence for the unmarred Cumbrian uplands and, in his understated way, the rage he feels for the government's ambitions to plant concrete and steel on them. He also disapproves of wind turbines generally, saying they are inefficient and will not do much to mitigate global warming. "We mostly agree that the global temperature is going up," says Mr Hall, speaking for the protest group he co-founded, Friends of Eden, Lakeland and Lunesdale Scenery (FELLS). "But we think the driving effect of carbon dioxide is minor compared to some other drivers."

Though he lives near Killington, Mr Hall is no NIMBY. He has been fighting wind farms across Cumbria for over a decade, with considerable success. FELLS' 15 or so core members have an impressive grip on the planning process and are expert at mobilising outraged locals anywhere a wind farm is proposed. With over 20 now planned for Cumbria, the letter pages of the Westmorland Gazette are seething with complaints, typically written by high-powered settlers-"off-comers", in Westmorland dialect. Among a small group of protesters against the Killington proposal, introduced to Bagehot by Mr Hall, were another scientist, a university lecturer, a retired surgeon, a jet-setting agriculture consultant, a wealthy friend to royalty and a former employee of The Economist. Though they denied it fiercely, they are NIMBYS, at least broadly defined. "The problem is global warming, not Killington warming," one lamented. Yet they can marshal detailed scientific and economic arguments; it would be a brave district planning committee that ignored them.

As European countries pile into renewable energy, to fulfil quotas levied by the European Union, many are seeing similar protests. But in Britain, a crowded and windy island with high rates of home ownership and an appealingly romantic view of its landscape, the conflict is exceptionally rancorous. It has also, unusually, become a national issue. Last year over 100 Conservative MPs wrote to the Tory prime minister, David Cameron, to protest against the spread of wind farms in their constituencies.

This escalation reflects the weakness of Britain's local government, which ensures that MPs bear the brunt of the complaints. But it is also because the issue has become a proxy for bigger arguments within the Tory party-including a mutually reinforcing scepticism about both climate change and the EU. Growing antipathy towards Mr Cameron, whose erstwhile enthusiasm for greenery helped persuade Britain to embrace the EU targets, adds to the furore. So does the resentment many Tory MPs feel towards their Liberal Democrat coalition partners, who are greener still. The Tory energy minister, John Hayes, is openly at war with his Lib Dem boss. "I can't single-handedly build a new Jerusalem," he declared. "But I can protect our green and pleasant land."

Space invaders

Yet the turbines appear unstoppable. They represent Britain's cheapest source of untapped renewable energy, and the EU targets-which stipulate that 15% of the country's energy must come from renewables by 2020-appear inescapable. In national polling, moreover, wind energy is popular. Even in Cumbria, there is a more phlegmatic view of it. A recent plebiscite by the parish council of Killington, which Banks has wooed hard with promises of compensation, came out narrowly in favour of the proposed wind farm. "It's the people who come here because it's a ‘beautiful place' who object," said Andy Newbold, a businessman of the parish. "Anyone working, busy with kids, is very ‘live and let live' about the issue."

The main achievement of Tory fulminating against wind turbines is to make the parliamentary party look even more unruly than usual. It is also not placating the protesters, who take a dim view of politicians. Those at Killington were especially scornful of the local Lib Dem MP, Tim Farron. He claims to oppose developing Cumbrian wind energy at least partly on the nonsensical basis that the county has more potential for hydro-power. But they suspect his heart is not in it.

Meeting in a cottage with a glorious view of the fells, the protesters were similarly disdainful of the planning process, which they consider rigged in favour of rich corporations. They have a point. If Banks has its application turned down, it can appeal; if it is upheld, they will have no such right. It was impossible not to sympathise with them: if Bagehot had a view of the Howgill Fells from his house, he would guard it jealously. But as he does not, it was easy to conclude that such feelings have little place in making crucial national policy. Reflecting on this, your columnist also noted a steady hum of traffic-from the deep and permanent scar on the landscape that is the M6.