38 2GM Saturday April 9 2022 | the times
News
Voters overwhelmingly support wind
farms near their homes and would back
nuclear power plants to beat President
Putin, polling for The Times shows.
Conservative voters are just as likely
to back wind farms, despite ministers’
fears about local opposition which led
to the dropping of targets for new on-
shore wind turbines in this week’s
energy security strategy.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secre-
tary, was forced to back away from a
goal to more than double onshore wind
capacity after a revolt from cabinet col-
leagues against technology dubbed an
“eyesore” by Grant Shapps, the trans-
port secretary. Instead the strategy
promised consultations on “a limited
number” of local onshore wind devel-
opments, in exchange for lower bills.
However, 72 per cent of voters say
they would support the building of a
wind farm in their local area, with only
17 per cent opposed. This includes 71 per
cent of Tory voters backing the idea,
with only 23 per cent opposed.
Wind farms are strongly backed by
all ages and areas of the country and,
although leave voters are less keen, still
66 per cent support them. The figure is
84 per cent for remainers.
Voters’ support for wind farms rose to
81 per cent if it meant less dependence
on Russian energy, a key goal of the
strategy, rising to 86 per cent among
Tories. Backing is 83 per cent if cheaper
bills result, a finding which government
sources suggested would mean more
projects getting the go-ahead as the
plan aims to offer local communities
discounts of 20 to 50 per cent when tur-
bines are built.
Michael Grubb, professor of energy
and climate change at University Col-
lege London, said that “the narrativeThree quarters of
Britons would back
a local wind farm
about people not liking wind farms al-
ways was overdone. The public are not
stupid and clearly, most people appreci-
ate the benefits of clean energy.”
He called the retreat on wind “a polit-
ical sop to a group of out-of-date and
out-of-touch Conservatives”, saying
onshore wind was the fastest way to ex-
pand green energy and could have low-
ered bills significantly this winter.
But John Constable, director of the
Renewable Energy Foundation, said:
“Polls are one thing, reality is another;
when people learn the truth about the
environmental and economic costs of
wind farms they turn up in droves to
oppose them.”
The poll of 1,826 adults on Wednes-
day and Thursday also found that
voters were more sceptical about
nuclear power, with 50 per cent op-
posed to a plant in their area and 34 per
cent in favour. However, backing dou-
bled to 61 per cent if it meant less de-
pendence on Russian energy and to
67 per cent if it meant cheaper bills.
Tom Fyans, of the countryside char-
ity CPRE, said: “‘The lukewarm re-
sponse to a new generation of nuclear
power stations suggests people are fully
aware there’s no way they could come
online fast enough to help in the imme-
diate energy crisis, or to get us to net
zero in time.”
However, he said that “what this poll-
ing shows is that renewables done well
can command the support of rural
communities”, saying that “appropri-
ately located” wind farms should go
ahead. “Onshore wind, as one of the
cheapest and quickest sources of
energy, must be in the mix,” he said.
“Developers need to bring forward well
thought-through schemes in collabo-
ration with the communities who will
host them.”
Energy strategy, letters, page 30Chris Smyth Whitehall EditorTheatre Clive Davis
The 47th
Old Vic, SE1
HHHIITamara Tunie stars as Kamala Harris opposite Bertie Carvel
as Donald Trump, right, complete with gravity-defying hairMARC BRENNER
King Lear. Lydia Wilson’s ice-cool
Ivanka emerges as his favourite, and
not just because she is steelier than
her brothers: “Don’t get me wrong,”
Trump tells her, “your ass is
something else.” A scene that shows a
troubled, sleepwalking Joe Biden
mirrors the Scottish play.
In this presidential chronicle,
played out on Miriam Buether’s
minimalist set, the frail Biden (Simon
Williams) abruptly hands over power
to Tamara Tunie’s ever-loyal Kamala
Harris. (The scene where she is sworn
in evokes memories of LBJ on Air
Force One after John
Kennedy’s assassination.)
Trump, meanwhile,
steals the Republican
nomination from
Ted Cruz (James
Garnon). A right-
wing insurrection
erupts,
symbolised by
Joss Carter’s
shaman —
familiar from the
attack on the Capitol
— storming around.
Director Rupert
Goold works hard to keep
the piece aloft, but the second
half starts to meander, even if the
sight of The Donald in battle fatigues
is worth a giggle. At the end the mood
turns sinister as we realise Ivanka has
her own ambitions. Bartlett has left
room for a sequel but let’s hope, for
America’s sake, he doesn’t need one.
To May 28, oldvictheatre.comgravity-defying
Trumpian
hairstyle has
captured all his
mannerisms and
tics. As in real life,
this anti-hero is too
much of a comic figure
to lift the play to the level
of tragedy. It’s often closer to
Spitting Image than The West Wing.
Bartlett again uses Shakespearean
blank verse to give his real-life
characters a patina of classical poise.
Trump soliloquises like a latter-day
Richard III, and when he summons
his children to discuss his legacy it’s
impossible to miss the parallel withmembers of the literati stayed sane
enough to do justice to those weird
times.
Now along comes that prolific
British playwright Mike Bartlett, the
man responsible for the constitutional
melodrama King Charles III, with a
fantasy about what might happen if
the arch-populist were to have
another shot at the White House.
It’s an entertaining but uneven
pageant held together by a
barnstorming performance by Bertie
Carvel, who as well as sporting aDonald Trump performed a rare feat
when he was in office: he lobotomised
most of the writers in the United
States, not to mention those in the
rest of the western world. Not many
Echoes of Shakespeare as
Trump makes comeback
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