One of many senseless and potentially very dangerous decisions by the new UK government has been to give the go-ahead to companies to explore sites around the UK for possible fracking. It makes no sense as it will have no short-term impact on energy supply and takes us entirely in the wrong direction so far as our stated aim towards net-zero carbon emissions. And it would almost certainly result in considerable earthquake damage.
On Tuesday 27th September 2016, Lancashire’s famous anti-fracking Nanas – the Nanas from Nanashire – came to Buckingham Palace in a protest with tiaras and tabards as well as tea and scones to present a detailed report by Anna Szolucha on ‘The Human Dimension of Shale Gas Developments, and to call on Her Majesty as the most powerful grandmother in the land to stop fracking for the sake of future generations.
Of course they were not allowed into the palace but protested on the Queen Victoria Memorial fountain opposite the front of the palace, where police made clear to them that they were not allowed to display their banners. They were accompanied there by Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley. The Nanas came to petition the Queen as they say they have exhausted all other democratic openings.
Some, including leading campaigner Tina Louise Rothery put on tiaras for the protest, and after most of the police had left some did get out their banners and display them briefly before getting down to the serious business with tea and scones.
As well as banners they had come with umbrellas and posters, which had not been proscribed by the police. Though perhaps these were too small to be read by the Queen, though being a horse-racing owner she doubtless has a very good pair of binoculars and was possibly peering out through the curtains from one of the seventy or more windows across the front of the palace.
I stayed around for an hour or two talking with the protesters and photographing. Apparently shortly after I left a man arrived and tried to serve a court order on Tina Louise Rothery who is being pursued over a huge legal bill claim against her by fracking company Cuadrilla who took a case against her for “for camping in a field, doing no damage and exercising a right to protest peacefully“.
She was the only named defendant in the case which appears to have been taken in an attempt to prevent further protests, grossly inflating the costs of a called eviction carried out when the protesters had already left. She has consistently refused to cooperate with the court over payment, saying that the costs are totally illegitimate, and if Cuadrilla persist risked being sent to prison for contempt of court.
The Nanas kept up their protest in front of the palace for around 24 hours before going back to Lancashire. Perhaps King Charles will have greater sympathy with the aims of their protest.
More pictures at Nanas call on Queen to stop Fracking.