Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
joining us today is Dennis Campbell he's editor in chief UK progressive magazine
also the whole host of world view with Dennis Campbell
on YouTube it YouTube dot com slash world view show
and book view on YouTube YouTube dot com slash book you TV
Dennis there's a huge anti-fracking protest that is developing over on your
side of the Atlantic Ocean
let's talk first about the details where is this happening who is protesting
well we farm had a situation going on
in the community I'll balcom thats balc onde and that's located
in the county of West Sussex West Sussex is in the south
Eastern England it's all the way down near Hastings where the Battle of
Hastings was formed 1066
and the oil giant Cuadrilla has been granted permission
to begin exploratory drilling drilling rig for fracking
which is hydraulic fracturing and there's a group of protesters and the
it's it's really been pretty much countrywide but over the last several
days they've gained national attention
for their efforts to stop the Quattro trucks from actually entering the sites
they formed human chains
blockades everything you can think up we talked
I think it was a couple two or three weeks ago I think two weeks ago
actually maybe it was three what with my vacation the middle
about fracking and we talked a little bit about potential differ differences
in awareness
above fracking in the US versus in the UK
what's your sense above the kinda information level or above a lot of
these protesters when it comes to a lot of
ego type protesting in the US anyway there's a pretty broad range of
information levels and how informed people are when they are protesting
have have interviews been givin with the
the protesters what do we know about the individuals well
you know it was interesting because the the the media of course the the
corporate media tried to portray them as the usual cast of characters
but as people began to dig deeper they realize that it was mostly
up residents a the love the area of %uh
Bell command and the nearby towns now that's a largely conservative
or Tory up community in area and people are beginning to start to pay attention
to this issue
it's a sort of thing that nobody really knows much about until it starts to
affect them so yes it's a bit nimby not in my backyard
but people are only made aware when it occurs
near them the interesting thing about what's happened with that we call them
now the balcom 16
the sixteen people were arrested and they were set upon by
a rather thuggish group both police who used
on you know highly-trained pressure release tactics at the base is the
neck and the the bottomless gulf
to get people in excruciating pain to then release and allowed themselves to
be rested
but in true form love both Gandhi and doctor king
nobody thought they were just sitting there peacefully with arms locked in
they had to be dragged away and arrested
this course now is gain the attention to virtually every media outlet here now
that the
Royals have done their job introduced in air and certainly people were beginning
to several witnesses fracking about of
it didn't help that the police to the torture
torturous or move there with the pressure point it didn't help that on
Channel 4
know what a Bombay gin news sources here in the country that
the energy minister went on in response to a question about
earthquakes %uh said well that won't be allowed here in the UK
to let that would sink in for a second yeah and that it didn't help that Lord
Howells who just happens to be the father in law
but the Chancellor of the Exchequer a man by the
but unable to George Osborne who is very decidedly pro fracking
is also very tightly connected to the oil and gas industry
and he's made a right acid himself over the last several days
in the media by basically saying well you know we've got so much desolate
areas up in the northeastern part of England
that it should be no problem you know with the driving up there
and then of course you try to correct and save himself today by saying why
didn't mean the Northeast I'm at the northwest that he's
managed to take off an even broader array of people
and this morning a group up protesters have somehow found an old fire
engine and all that fire engine in front of the gates at the quad reminding site
for
and they've chained themselves to the inside the fire truck so
unless they figure out how they control a fire truck away
nothing's going on to the site today so it's really been quite entertaining
but also very very important because people are beginning to gain awareness
that they would not have gained otherwise right and as we know the
reality with with all these situations is that
if we were to focus from the get-go on
alternative energy rather than playing this game of trying to keep pushing here
in there to do a little bit more
with the with with fossil fuels we could be in a completely different place i
mean George W Bush certainly in the US had the chance to become kind of like
the
the energy president didn't do it president Obama had that renewed
opportunity at the beginning of his first term in really second term there's
really no
true indication there have been some things done tax credits here in there
but there's not really been abroad move
from I mean I have to I have to take exception there when you say that george
bush could become the energy present because vice president used to head up
how the curtain which are the largest manufacturer fracking fluid
so no one is committed to doing anything but drill baby drill
and that's coming home to roost because fully one-third of the British
government's cabinet this is come to light last day or so in the media
are very tightly connected personally they had very strong personal
interest in the oil and gas industry no no question about it and when I said
george bush could have done it
I meant that from a timing standpoint intermodal yeah the technology was
moving ahead
and and certainly in part because because his number two was was
Halliburton
a Halliburton involved that was one of the things that kept it from happening
what's on the horizon quickly to kind of sum up in terms
above more or less fracking frack in going forward or fracking being
prevented in the UK
well I think that the fact that you've got this relatively conservative Tory
community pretty much
up in arms at what this story government is doing
that significant also something is beginning to get some play and I think
I'll get more play over on your side of the pond
is the our recent decision by a local bank
to deny a couple in western Pennsylvania who are on that
armed what the the master shale gas thing they didn't get their phone
mortgage because they were located in a Shell gas area
know that was reported on WTAE television in western Pennsylvania
it's a significant economic bad news because
once you begin to talk to people about the value of their own home I don't care
where you are with your in the West Midlands are on the west coast to the
United States
people will pay attention if they see the value of their property decreased
and they see banks unwilling to lend mortgages to actually
you know help them to to to acquire home so that's
the most significant bad news in last 48 hours this come from over there
plus there's old huge amount of activity going on right now in Australia they've
pretty much destroyed
the province's Queensland and now New South Wales is still have drawn a line
in the sand just as folks have done in Boca manza
not here and I think the more people start to do that the more organized they
become
the less likely you are to see fracking succeed on the scale at which it has a
part to the United States
alright dennis Campbell editor in chief UK progressive magazine check out
YouTube dot com slash world view showing you to either way did we also
we also had an interview with one of the 16 who were arrested
on worldview show so encourage visitors your your %uh viewers to come take a
peek into
alright we'll be taking a look tennis thanks as always we will talk to you
next week
thank you