My Story
My Story - one woman’s battle against the environmental army is out now and costs £6.50 including postage and packing.
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My book is not about telling you what to think, but asking you to think.
The first chapter takes you from my family’s humble beginnings. How watching my mother having to lead a very oppressed existence, completely dominated by my father, affected how I wanted to live my life. I did not want the same existence for myself. I had a desire for myself, and other women, to have the ability to enjoy the freedom of not living in a patriarchal society, as my mother had endured.
Even though society was progressing, where my mother lived, it was something akin to the dark ages. There was no electric, running water or home comforts. Wives were at the behest of their husbands and were not allowed any independence or freedoms.
Around the world one billion people live without electricity and that usually means the burden of having to cook on wood or dung fires, carrying water and household chores are mainly undertaken by women. These are very time consuming tasks which leave those undertaking them very little time for anything else.
Cheap, plentiful and reliable energy brings women a better life. They have more time to have choices, they can enjoy the benefits of an education, to be able to work and earn money, and to be independent.
In an affluent society, many people seem to forget that basic right, the freedom to make choices for ourselves.
“My Story, one woman’s battle against the environmental army” is my personal account of what happened when a shale gas company came to the peaceful Vale of Pickering in North Yorkshire where I live. They were followed by an activist army that destroyed the peace of our idyllic rural district for years because they claimed fracking, a process for recovering shale gas from a mile below the surface would destroy our area. Whereas I saw our need for cheap, reliable and plentiful gas as a necessity.
Thirty years ago, I had heard the same apocalyptic warnings about sickness, danger and the industrialisation of the countryside when a gas power station was mooted for Knapton close to my home. Despite passionate opposition, the development went ahead and none – not one – of the proclaimed disasters came about. Instead, the power station brought jobs and prosperity to the area.
After living through that previous campaign and knowing the propaganda used is aimed at frightening locals and playing on their vulnerability, I decided I would not sit back and be silent. The anti-fracking movement was being led by outsiders and was funded by big money from environmental groups not only in the UK but from abroad too. Their propaganda was based on scaremongering and creating anxiety amongst the local population, which in turn helped them beg for donations. Why shouldn’t I or anyone else support the shale gas industry and have a voice?
My stance rattled a lot of cages and consequently my life was made a living hell.
The abuse on social media was one thing, the attempts to kill my business were something else. My internet was cut off tom my business and was targeted negatively. I was publicly compared to an ugly slug like creature, called a whore amongst other insults and the protesters repeatedly claimed I was a ‘criminal’ touting a fake crime number. My only crime was daring to stand up for myself against their abusive behaviour.
Anyone who had anything to do with the gas company were targeted. Half a million pounds of damage was done to a rig stored at a Sheffield drilling company and the police took no action.
Instead, the police helped activists take over a local farmer’s field while they staged a 15-month-long sit-in disrupting the lives of the villagers. Shouting, abuse, public defecation, intimidation, hijacking lorries so to stop deliveries, blocking the village street, this was the locals’ daily experience.
None of the institutions, that should protect our rights and freedoms acted to protect any individuals or businesses being targeted. Instead, they turned a blind eye.
The middle-class activists say they are full of love and concern but if you cross them, they are very vindictive, vicious, and full of vitriol.
This book, My Story, is my account of the years of the protests. And it is a timely rallying call for normal, sensible, practical people to stand up against the violence, the intimidation, the lawbreaking of people who believe that they are the sole arbiters of fact and truth.
I came from a childhood so poor that we subsisted for a while on ‘dog-bone dinners’. I know rural poverty and how valuable progress is to the lives of ordinary people.
I give a powerful testimony against the irrationality (some say hysteria) of the present-day environmental activists. It is an unashamed assertion of the values that make a country succeed: work, ambition, inventiveness, reasoned debate, the rule of law, love of family and country.
What is very important to me is how cheap, plentiful, and reliable energy improves the lives of people. It brings them freedom, especially women who without access to reliable electricity their days are filled with menial tasks. Generally, but not always, it is women who are the backbone of the family and if they do not have a ready supply of affordable, reliable, and plentiful energy their lives are all about long hours labouring just to do the basic chores of creating fires for cooking, carrying water, washing, and caring for their families. Freedom allows women to have more opportunities in life.
One billion people in the world have no electricity.
My own family background and childhood was vastly different to how we live in the present. My family have known what it is like to live in poverty, to have no running water or electricity and that is one reason why I took on the campaign in favour of a domestic shale gas industry. The others being energy security, why would any country wish to rely on the likes of Russia and the whims of Putin who has been known to turn off the gas tap previously on a whim. Importing any products is far worse for the planet due to shipping emissions, the best outcome for the planet is producing locally.
Book reviews:
Matt Ridley, author and journalist, said of the book:
“'Tell the truth' and 'Be kind' are two of Extinction Rebellion’s aims, according to their literature. Lorraine Allanson’s horrific experiences in North Yorkshire reveals just how unkind environmentalists were when she told the truth. It’s an extraordinary story and deserves to be widely known."
Dr Graham Marshall, PhD, M.Psych wrote:
"I've read with interest "My Story"; the new book by Lorraine Allanson; and I can recommend the book strongly for its narrative on the injustice inflicted on individuals and the local Yorkshire community in Ryedale. Lorraine is a feisty Yorkshire Women who speaks truth to the idiocy, evil and criminality of the extremist Environment Movement. The book will serve as a powerful social history on the opening salvo of a battle to secure the UKs energy future. Such a great read!"
