Wind power: video reveals Tory MP's contradictory views

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Source: Guardian

Undercover footage shows Chris Heaton-Harris admitting to having seen no research to support his anti-wind criticisms

Conservative MP Chris Heaton-Harris suffered fresh embarrassment on Thursday as undercover footage revealed stark differences between his public and private criticisms of wind power.

Heaton-Harris, who in February organised a letter signed by 101 Tory MPs calling on David Cameron to end onshore wind subsidies, states in a public video that turbines harm birds, despite having admitted in private to seeing no research on this.

Heaton-Harris was the campaign manager for the Conservative candidate in the Corby by election but the Guardian and Greenpeace exposed him on Wednesday as apparently backing a rival, anti-wind candidate. The MP will meet the party's whips next week for a dressing down over his "professionalism".

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In the newly released film, Heaton-Harris told the undercover reporter, who posed as a campaigner from a fictitious anti-windfarm group called Windefensible: "The 'bird blending' phrase really hurts (the RSPB). How true or not, I've got no idea because I've not seen any half-decent research about this." But when talking in an anti-wind video that would be shown to the public, Heaton-Harris said: "Certainly [wind turbines] have a very bad interaction with bats and a number of species of birds … there really is the evidence out there and there are now international studies pointing at this." He also described as "crap" the windfarm policy of the RSPB, a group with 1 million members.

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Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/15/wind-power-video-tory-mp

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How to tell someone is a conservative shill: they use the phrase "bird blender" when talking about wind farms.

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1. Story from two days ago: Tory MP running Corby campaign 'backed rival in anti-windfarm plot'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/nov/13/tory-mp-corby-anti-windfarm-film

Tory MP running Corby campaign 'backed rival in anti-windfarm plot'

• Covert footage reveals MP's links to independent candidate
• Energy minister denies collusion with anti-wind campaigner

Paul Lewis and Rob Evans
The Guardian, Tuesday 13 November 2012 16.18 EST

The Conservative MP running the party's byelection bid in Corby has been secretly filmed apparently supporting the campaign of a rival candidate.

Chris Heaton-Harris, who is campaign manager for the Tories in Corby, was recorded saying he encouraged an anti-wind farm candidate to join the election race against the Tories, adding: "Please don't tell anybody ever."

The footage, covertly recorded by the environmental group Greenpeace, captures the MP saying the independent anti-wind farm candidate, James Delingpole, had announced his candidacy as part of a "plan" to "cause some hassle" and drive the wind issue up the political agenda.

He is also filmed claiming he helped Delingpole by providing him with "a handful of people who will sort him out", including the deputy chairman of his own constituency party, who had stood down and then became the anti-wind candidate's campaign agent.

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The video is on the Guardian website at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2012/nov/13/chris-heaton-harris-mp-conservative-party-conference-video