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James Delingpole running as an anti-wind farm candidate in constituency with no wind farms

Corby might have five wind turbines in the future though.

Wind turbines. Photograph: Getty Images
Wind turbines. Photograph: Getty Images

James Delingpole, scourge of renewables everywhere, has announced his candidacy for the Corby by-election in this week's Spectator, writing, seemingly in all seriousness, that:

The stench from the wind industry and its many leech-like hangers-on is overpowering and it's a disgrace that so few people are speaking up for the thousands of victims affected by it. But I am. I hereby announce my intention to stand in the Corby by-election as the anti-wind farm candidate. Not in my back yard. And not in yours either!

Yes, Delingpole is seriously attempting to reclaim the phrase "NIMBY". Good luck to him with that; currently, Ladbrokes has the odds at 8/11 for him to lose his deposit, so he's got an uphill battle ahead of him.

But if he's running as a single-issue candidate, then surely he has latched on to a massive local issue, right? Richard Taylor, for example, famously won two straight terms as an independent candidate running against the closure of Kidderminster Hospital in his constituency of Wyre Forest. Delingpole presumably has realised that the scourge of wind farms in Corby is at least that bad.

Corby Borough Council tell me there are zero (0) wind farms in the borough of Corby, which holds three quarters of the population of the constituency. East Northants county council tell me that there are zero (0) wind farms in the electoral wards of East Northants which comprise the rest of the constituency. And an ordnance survey map of the constituency confirms there are zero (0) wind farms in the overall parliamentary constituency of Corby. There is one nearby – it's marked on the map as the little windmill to the easy of Burton Latimer – but that's actually in the neighbouring constituency of Kettering.

There is, however, one planning application for a wind farm in the rural part of Corby constituency, midway between Corby and Oundle, outside the village of Brigstock. Well, I say wind farm; it's more like a wind paddock, with five 125m turbines being proposed on land currently held by the Duke of Gloucester.

Dellingpole dismisses anyone who supports the development as "in the pay of Big Wind", so by that definition he presumably sees 100 per cent opposition; but the electoral commission works on different rules. We shall see how successful Delingpole is, but hopefully he hasn't quit his gig at the Telegraph too hastily.

Updated 8:10pm with confirmation from East Northants county council

21 comments

New statesmanlike's picture

I have to confess I'd not really picked up on the Big Nimby and his quest to show how little sensible people actually care about windfarms but I saw an hilarious twitter exchange in which he showed himself up as an inordinately rude and ignorant sort of person. Even if windfarms were the bane of one's existence one couldn't, in all conscience, possibly vote for such an assinine berk.

Tomsk's picture

Ladbrokes have Delingpole at 11-10 favourite - in the Upper Class Twit of the Year Competition, that is. A pretty sure bet, barring a doping inquiry.

swissmiss's picture

Delingpole clearly has time on his hands or he's planning a book else he wouldn't waste his time standing in the by-election. Regardless of his stance on wind farms, he's surely the rudest candidate ever to press electoral flesh. I doubt he'll end up with a single vote.

Steven Simpson's picture

Good morning

very nice blog !

Keep up with The excellent posts.

regards,

fenbeagle's picture

Nobody has ever died from radiation from wind farms....It's true. They die in Britain from fuel poverty, the highest in the developed world, made worse by the green taxes levied on fuel which mostly impact on the poor. As the government sponsored John Hills report stated. In order to pay for intermittent and insignificant energy providing systems, with excessive land use, built too close to peoples homes.

...Subsidy....A dirty and unsustainable fuel.

Matt W's picture

>Well, I say wind farm; it's more like a wind paddock, with five 125m turbines being proposed on land currently held by the Duke of Gloucester.

Five turbines.

Each 30% taller than Big Ben.

Obviously a very small paddock.

Jenny Keal's picture

You people hiding behind pseudonyms make me sick. You think you can demonize someone from behind the safety of your laughable nicknames. Well to me you are just cowards.

GOOD LUCK JAMES, I HOPE YOU WIN!

James Delingpole is one of the few people with the courage to speak out about the wind farm scam. And huge south sea bubble type scam is certainly is.

Without full time back up from conventional power stations, coal, gas or nuclear we would be sitting in the dark right now with a high pressure system sitting over the UK and virtually no wind at all. SO how is that saving CO2? In fact it is probably increasing it because in order to accommodate these bird chopping, infra-sound emitting machines, sat in tons of polluting concrete we have to build more 'spinning reserve' than we actually need to back up the useless turbines which are sat quietly doing nothing.

SO come on all you detractors, tell me that we can't go on burning fossil fuels! Wind turbines are increasing our use of fossil fuels!

James you would get my vote if I live in your constituency.

Jenny Keal
Mid Wales

Mike Barnard's picture

Yes, wind farms stink.

Especially compared to coal plants, which as we all know waft essence of juniper and sage across the landscape, and ionize the air to boot, making it a rejuvenating tonic. And natural gas plants, whose emissions increase brain power and moderate the climate nearby, making every day a balmy spring day.

Oh, wait.

Karl Hungus's picture

Delingpole is a genius masquerading an imbecile.

I don't think that he really believes the absolute drivel that he writes but he's spotted, in climate change, a gap in the market.

There are enough swivel-eyed wingnuts, whose rabid each-man-for himself capitalism is irreconcilable with science, and wind farm NIMBYS (slightly more excusable, although if you go to Germany where they have far more of the things than we do, they complement the landscape, particularly when situated next to motorways or on the outskirts of towns) to justify a newspaper column, book or two and frequent TV appearances confirming their prejudices.

Intelligent people should let Delingpole get on with the moderately successful career he's developed as a result of being the first mid-ranking right wing commentator to work this out . Don't add to his pulling power by getting worked up over his obviously provocative behaviour. His rubbish hasn't converted anyone to the anti-science position on climate change or renewable energy, and even on the barking mad fringes of the Conservative Party (eg the Departments for Justice, the Environment and Education, god help us) he isn't taken remotely seriously.

davelong's picture

Spot-on - he doesn't give a monkey's what scientists say, not least because he probably gets paid far more for parading his obvious ignorance than they do for acquiring their hard-won knowledge.

David J's picture

Karl Hungus,

You have it absolutely right: Delingpole is not so much a 'climate-sceptic' as a 'climate-cynic'.

He really doesn't seem to care if he's right or wrong about any of it.

jankaas's picture

similar to previous post downthread;

my local MP Caroline Lucas is vehemently anti nuclear power stations despite no-one wanting to build one in the area.
though it is clear which is nuttier it is only by degree.

Rebellionkid's picture

If anything being anti-nuclear is far nuttier. A UK energy grid without a single windfarm would need re-adjustment but could be done really easily. Without nuclear we'd be in trouble fairly quickly, you need something to give that constant supply and the alternative at the moment is fossil fuels.

Anthony (Little Englander and Proud)'s picture

Well done James and all the best, hope you come second just behind ukip !

matthew fox's picture

Considering all the coal this country imports, you would think the Right would want to cut down imports.

I suppose the Right prefer subsidising nuclear, because they never talk about all the public money it gets.

Plashing Vole's picture

I plan to run as an anti-Delingpole candidate and speak up for the thousands of victims of Delingpole Madness. There are no actual James Delingpoles in the constituency as yet, but one is threatened. Anyone pro-Delingpole is in the pay of Big Delingpole, and quite frankly the stench of the Delingpole Lobby is nauseating. The people of Corby have suffered enough! Isn't one absent single-issue (herself) MP enough?

My campaign slogan: 'Deling. On a Pole'.

fearless fred's picture

The constituency is Corby & EAST NORTHANTS. Two other wind farms are at different stages of planning. Chelveston has planning permission and Molesworth is at a less advanced stage. (just out of the constituency, but would have a significant impact on a particularly beautiful corner of East Northants) There areothers in the 'offing', they are apparently waiting for the outcome of the Judicial Review into the Duke of Gloucester's Barnwell Manor Wind Farm near Grade 1 Listed Lyveden New Bield.

Colin Billett's picture

The constituency is Corby, just Corby, although the previous two members liked to refer to it by a longer name, just to show the country bumpkins, ie the tories, that they care about them. Check it on the HM government websites - CORBY.

Paul Danon's picture

You could run as a nuclear-free candidate with a view to keeping nukes out of the constituency.

Dark Heart of Toryland's picture

Remind me, how many people have ever died as a result of radiation leaks from wind farms?

Rebellionkid's picture

Very very few people die from radiation by any source. As it happens nuclear power plants are safer by twh of energy produced than wind farms are.

Source: nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/deaths-per-twh-by-energy-source.html

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