• HAVE you ever seen a river literally on fire?

Well that is what happens in the USA, where they are buying land on the cheap from the poor, for fracking, leading to the chemicals used for this insidious practice seeping into the earth, then into the rivers.

Not only are the soil and the rivers poisoned but minor earthquakes occur. And the poor people who have sold their land, and are living on it, are made extremely sick and ill.

Now even the ex-boss of the fracking company Quadrilla is saying that Britain is too small for fracking to be viable. So are the government totally mad, plain stupid, or just overcome yet again, with greed by lifting the fracking ban?

And as for the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, who was quite believable as a near-to-tears and disappointed environmentalist at Cop26, being in favour of it, he would now seem to be backtracking on those ideals. So were they only crocodile tears?

This government clearly has no compassion or love for the people of this country who they are supposed to serve, as long as they can profit from them as cash cows (and I bet they and their children aren’t going without food or heating either!).

The hypocrisy extends to the white elephant in the room – HS2 – robbing from the people’s tax money to give to the filthy rich, when the government themselves don’t even believe that HS2 should go ahead.

For instance, Jacob Rees-Mogg would scrap HS2 immediately, saying it’s a complete waste of money; Andrew Stephenson admits concerns about the rising costs of HS2 (especially with a cost of living crisis); and Oliver Dowden – among many other Tory MPs – says that it must be scrapped, along with over half the country in agreement.

HS2 is one of the most expensive tax-funded projects ever. So why can’t this government show a little kindness and thought, and do what’s best for the people? Ban fracking and scrap HS2.

MIMI ROMILLY
Address supplied