road protests 1997
| road protests (current)
| movement links
Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 13:12:04 +0100
From: Road Alert!
To: roadalert@gn.apc.org
Subject: VEGANS AND VOLVOS
Perhaps the Editor will be locked in a tunnel come the evictions?
The Times (London), Leader, 19 May 97
VEGANS AND VOLVOS
Protesters can be posh too
As connoisseurs of disaster movies know, airports can be the backdrop for
the strangest alliances. Almost as odd as the friendships struck trying to
save one of Arthur Haley's jinxed Jumbos are the new relationships fostered
in the shadow of Manchester Airport. As we report on page 5 a shared
opposition to a second runway for Manchester has created a second political
revolution in Tatton. The Tory ladies who deserted the blackhearted Neil
Hamilton for the white-suited Martin Bell are now walking, gingerly,
arm-in-arm, with the authentically earth-toned Swampy. The middle classes of
Mobberley, who would have imagined Vegans were characters from Star Trek
until they met the eco-warriors, are now cooking macrobiotic picnics. My
enemy's enemy has always been my friend but the anti-airport alliance may
presage something broader: the rediscovery of rebelliousness among Britain's
bourgeoisie.
Middle class has become a metaphor for all that is boring in Britain, but
the privet hedges hide the nation's real rebels. The twentysomething leaders
of the anti-runway protest are, in many cases, the products of middle-class
homes. Their parents may be fighting to control prosperous middle-age
spread, but thirty years ago they let it all hang out. As they moved from
hippy to yuppy to mummy they may have lost their energy but many will have
kept their idealism. Seeing their little darlings pick up the ideas, and
then do something about it will have led many a Home Counties mother to
rifle nostalgically through the record collection for the Joni Mitchell album.
Others, emboldened by their offspring's actions, have had a go at protesting
themselves. Some of those campaigning against live animal exports at
Brightlingsea harbour had accents as cut glass as any at Cowes. Previous
protests against road developments at Twyford Down or Newbury saw the blue
rinse brigade and the no rinse for days division standing together. It would
be too much to suggest that the experience transformed the Berkshire WI into
the military wing of Greenpeace but it did nudge some of the comfortable out
of their complacency.
It helps that the causes today's protesters are championing chime with
middle-class concerns. Greenery is more popular than Greenham Common could
ever be. Cynics may, however, argue that the Cheshire ladies handing buns to
the eco-warriors are really supporting Nimby, not Swampy. Certainly, some of
the Mobberly middle classes will be more agitated by falling house prices
than the fragile ecology. Others, however, will find, as anyone might, that
once you get close to Swampy something rubs off. The all-encompassing
fervour of the eco-warriors' vision is bound to have an impact on Cheshire
ladies who have, hitherto, had more pressing concerns than the future of the
planet to worry about. Permanent protesting can prove wearing but we all
need, occasionally, to be reminded of the importance of being earnest.
road protests 1997
| road protests (current)
| movement links