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Third World jibe way off the mark
• WHAT planet does Islington Tory leader Margaret Reese live on? (£3m green fund ‘symbolic stunt’, March 16).
I don’t know if she lives in Highbury as I do and walks past the site she was referring to on a daily basis as I do taking my daughter to school. It may help her if she got her facts right before mouthing off in the press.
Until two weeks ago the site she was referring to did have a hoarding around it, a hoarding that was graffiti-free and not really that much of an eyesore compared with some sites in the borough, a hoarding that was blown down by the wind.
This was not an act of the council, but maybe an act of God, but Ms Reese seems to think the council should be blamed for everything. Shame really.
I understand she is right in saying that the council is not responsible for the site. However, the council has been lobbying Network Rail to do something about the site. If she had asked the council they would have told her this.
The site is to be cleared and a new hoarding erected – one my daughter along with other schoolchildren have been working on with a local artist and which looks great from what I have seen.
Ms Reese compares Highbury and Islington to a “Third World country”. I spent five years working in Bangladesh. If she thinks this is the Third World, she needs to get out more.
We live in a great borough and my children and I are honoured to live in a neighbourhood like Highbury. I really wish people would stop bashing the council at every opportunity. It is not perfect, but it is trying to improve the borough.
SANDRA LAING
Gardener Court, N5
• GIVEN their new green image nationally, why are local Conservatives attacking Islington Council’s Climate Change Fund?
It’s crazy to say we can’t take local action on climate change. It has to be tackled at all levels and we should support efforts to do so.
Energy efficiency can save people money on fuel bills and reduces the need to rely on energy from unstable countries. The Lib Dem council may not be perfect but it is taking a lead on the environment and that has earned my respect.
OLIVER REICHARDT
Huddleston Road, N7
• IT is always good to hear from the conscientious councillor, John Gilbert (Green excuse to curb our liberty, March 23). He is one of our few Lib Dem councillors who genuinely listens to residents and acts on their interests.
However, I was shocked to be accused by him of being an environmental flat-earther. Twenty years ago, I was reading James Lovelock and, like him, I appreciate the earth is a far more powerful organism than humanity realises. It is not easily adjusted by putting a wind turbine on our Town Hall.
In fact, if we really want to cut carbon emissions we should embrace nuclear energy. As Lovelock argues, this is by far the most environmentally-friendly energy source.
But, of course, this would not appeal to fashionable environmentalists who would prefer to plunge us back into the Middle Ages. Most important, however, are the inconvenient questions I raised countering the link between carbon emissions and rising global temperatures. Can Cllr Gilbert answer these?
He is right to cite the example of Copernicus because many scientists today questioning climate change orthodoxy find they are facing a brick wall of ideology and political self-interest that seems based more on faith than reality.
Also, is it just me, but as a Briton I do have a tremendous problem with basing our lives on notoriously unpredictable long-term weather forecasts.
Last year, the Royal Horticultural Society spent thousands drilling a borehole to water the Chelsea Flower Show because it was told there was going to be a drought. In fact, it turned out to be the wettest May for some time. Is Islington going to make similar costly mistakes?
TIM NEWARK
Highbury, N5 |
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