Nationalise power, water and rail companies!

Meanwhile, plans are ongoing to despoil Lancashire with geological mining and chemicals that may well impact on our water tables and cause not only earth tremors, but long-term ecological problems and hats off to the Church of England for raising the matter as suitable for debate and trust them not to have a strong opinion either way.

If your readers are wondering why central government is deaf to the planning issues, I urge them to consider the comments of Lord Howell, of Guildford, on fracking. It should be carried out in the North East of England where large areas are uninhabited and desolate.

Now before your readers run away with the idea this is just some old buffoon, rambling on in the House of Lords, let me precis his CV. He was a Conservative Minister until last year, he is George Osborne’s father-in-law and, until this gaffe, a current energy adviser to William Hague.

So that is what this Government thinks of the North; incidentally it is rumoured that, in his first attempt at an apology for his comments, he said he had meant the North West. Meanwhile Baroness Verma, Government spokesman in the Lords, said he made some pertinent points.

It was left to Baroness Farrington, Labour peer, to defend the beauty of the Trough of Bowland saying it was just as important as Guildford. Fracking has reduced the cost of energy in the USA by a third – promise that here Mr Cameron and see opposition evaporate.

In England we can rest assured that all it will do is bolster the profits of the energy companies, just as the relaxation of planning laws bolsters the coffers of the land owners and developers, guardians of the countryside when it suits!

I have just spent hours with a slide rule and calculator trying to ascertain which energy supplier will rip me off the least next year and sighing nostalgically for the days when I bought my gas from the gas board and electricity from the electricity board.

Nationalise I say, along with water and railways.

When the next election looms I urge the electorate to ignore the fringe parties, who are only the right wing of the Conservative party at play and hit this Government where it hurts.

Vote Labour!

Sean Gallagher,

Brockhall Village