At Full Chat

My original intention was NOT to name the organisation which committed a criminal act by entering Land Rover and shutting down production. Sadly, I'm forced to give it a free plug because the very name of the outfit needs to be seriously questioned. Greenpeace, it ironically calls itself. It may claim 4x4s are polluting, but how green are the aeroplanes and ships it uses?

Auto Express Car Reviews

By Mike Rutherford

01st June 2005

Also, what's peaceful about breaking into a private, multi-million-pound site and causing mayhem? And what about jeopardising the jobs and possibly the safety of hard-working Land Rover employees? After all, these people are only trying to do their best for themselves, their families and their country in already volatile conditions.

Greenpeace can loosely be described as an 'environmental group'. Unless I misunderstand, that word means EVERYTHING that surrounds us. So what has its illegal entry, occupation and sabotage got to do with making a positive environmental contribution? Do ordinary, modestly paid factory workers really deserve to be subjected to the ugly, intimidating face of Greenpeace's odious brand of environmentalism?

What's more, it rattles on about "environmental damage" caused by employers producing all-wheel-drive vehicles. Yet it fails to acknowledge the harm it is inflicting on the working environment of Land Rover staff. Although Greenpeace suggests the Midlands' company, its vehicles and, by implication, its employees, are "criminals", it forgets the police and courts aren't interested in the firm or its workers. In fact, it was only the organisation's own environmental activists who were arrested at the Solihull factory that day.

Anyway, if Greenpeace really is concerned about polluting gas-guzzling machines, it should forget state-of-the-art off-roaders and target the all too common ageing buses on our roads. I'm sure these are equally, if not more dangerous, take up valuable road space, produce too much noise and, considering the actual numbers of people they carry, are far more harmful to the environment per passenger-mile travelled. How its 35 activists got to Land Rover's Solihull factory in time to incapacitate the production line at 7am on a Monday, I'm not sure. At such an early hour, politically correct but notoriously inefficient train and bus travel would have been difficult, if not impossible. For geographical reasons, it's safe to assume that Greenpeace's armada of fuel-burning ships and boats were not the chosen mode of transport.

Clearly, cars would have been the most effective and discreet way for the group's trespassers to arrive at the Solihull factory battle scene, ready to wage war. Did Greenpeace generals and troops use Land Rover-badged vehicles on the day? Or have they ever travelled, anywhere on the planet, in these or similar all-wheel-drive models? I'm sure they must have. Really, the hypocrisy of these so-called do-gooders makes me sick. As far as I'm concerned, they can Greenpeace off!