Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

I suspect Seacat that it all comes down to people protesting in their own areas and fighting the battles on home ground! You would think the Fukishama disaster in Japan would have driven it home how dangerous nuclear energy can become should a disaster befall a nuclear plant. But do we have relevant footage on the BBC? media coverage?
The answer is no, the old adage 'bread and circuses' or Strictly Come Dancing maybe, is of more importance to most people - apathy and a rotten government to lead that apathy and renege on 'green promises' yet on the other hand make it easier for the 'big fellows' to get their way through messing around with planning laws, or at least adjusting them to serve the big corporations - sweet...

That is sad news about you leaving the area. Could be worse you could live in a country that almost wiped out the LibCons yet we still have to put up with their crap. We never wanted, voted for any nuclear stuff yet we still have it, Faslane included. At least down in England the majority, of those who voted, seem to want it. Maybe it is those who don't vote who are the real allies of the idiots in charge.

I'm not bored with this thread Seacat - everyone who has posted here has been marching to the same drumbeat (East Coker is also in the heart of Thomas Hardy country).

I've mentioned before the ongoing campaign by developers (and by local people to stop them) to build on land adjacent to Coate Water Country Park on the outskirts of Swindon, the land has a partially buried stone circle and is overlooked by ancient Liddington Hill. The land also has very strong connections with the writer Richard Jefferies who was brought up there. Unlike East Coker, however, Swindon is not a beautiful or tranquil place - it started as a small insignificant market town; Brunel built his Railway Factory there and it grew into a railway town; then it became an over-spill town to accommodate bombed-out Londoners and Polish refugees after WW2; finally the M4 was driven through, very close to Coate Water as it happens - destroying all in its path, woodland and archaeology. So why should anyone care about a few more green fields on the edge of a town described by many as a shite-hole. I care because Richard Jefferies is part of Swindon's heritage as are what's left of the streams and meadows that used to surround the town - its a town about people, working (or not) people, sometimes poor people. And they have said they've had enough.

This is a circular debate though as it comes back to a ever expanding population who need houses, services, energy, water and jobs - it is that expanding population needs to be addressed. I don't know how that can be done humanely - should old people be pressurised to commit suicide when they reach a certain age, should younger people be told they can only have one child (as in China), should immigration laws be very much more stringent. There are no easy solutions.