Hands over our Forth

Public rally and joining of hands across the Forth

Bridge against unconventional gas extraction in the
Forth Estuary and Forth Valley, 11 October 2015

Post-rally Talks at Queensferry Fife Hotel, North

Queensferry
Speech by John Ashton1
1. Have we just seen some people power today?
2. Have we just seen some people power?
3. What weve just seen is amazing. At short notice,
organized by a handful of people, everybody has
come together. Before I say anything else I just
want to show my appreciation to all the brilliant
people who made it happen.
4. To Maria and Jit, to Fae, to Audrey, to Callum, to
Rhona, to Neil, to Juliana and to all the Scottish
groups. Youve done something wonderful today.
Lets say thank you now to every one of them!
5. This is getting to be a bit of a habit. Wherever I go I
see the Nanas in front of me. Whenever I see the
Nanas I feel at home. I always feel safe when I see
the Nanas. I think the Nanas are wonderful, lets
hear it for the Nanas!
1 This is an as delivered text. A video of the entire event, including all
presentations, is available at: http://bambuser.com/v/5847170?more-userfilters-device=webcam. John Ashtons speech begins 13 minutes 15 seconds
into the recording.

6. Thank you for being here today, everybody.

7. Something incredible did happen today. But
something pretty amazing also happened last
Thursday. Can anybody remember what happened
last Thursday? Can anybody remember?
8. Youve all forgotten what happened on Thursday,
its just like the sixties every day in Scotland.
9. What happened on Thursday was that Nicola
Sturgeon listened to the people. On Thursday
Nicola Sturgeon listened to you.
10. Algy Cluff - have you heard of a gentleman called
Algy Cluff? - Algy Cluff wants to set fire to the coal
under your Forth, under our Forth, and he wants to
do it now.
11. Last Thursday Nicola Sturgeon poured cold water
over Algy Cluff. Last Thursday Nicola Sturgeon told
Algy Cluff to put away his matches. Nicola Sturgeon
said that Scotland could smell a rat, Scotland wants
to think about it first.
12. And Nicola Sturgeon was right. But why did she
do it?
13. She did it because Scotland found its voice. You
found your voice. The people of Scotland found
their voice and Nicola Sturgeon listened to the
people.
14. And for that decision I think we should all show
our appreciation to Nicola Sturgeon because it was
the right decision in the circumstances, it takes us
on to the next stage of this struggle.

15. Everybody everywhere who wants clean energy

not dirty energy is proud today of what has
happened over these last few days in Scotland,
proud of all of you.
16. But friends weve just won a battle, weve won a
very early battle. But the war - and this is a war, it is
a struggle - the war has just begun. And what we
need to focus on now is how to win the war.
17. Im from England, in case you cant tell from my
voice. Im from Tyneside, some of you may know it,
its two rivers down the North Sea, after the Tweed.
Gosh, I hadnt realized there were so many of you
here. Lets make a noise for Tyneside.
18. Brilliant..thats just brilliant.
19. I love the Tyne, and I love the people who live by
the Tyne. Its where I grew up, its where my heart is.
20. Thats what this is about. Do you love where you
live? Do you have the right to love where you live?
21. Today we joined hands across that bridge, across
the Forth, against dirty energy.
22. But on these islands, on these small islands that
we live on, whether we live in Scotland, in England,
in Wales, in Northern Ireland, were all peoples of
the sea, were all peoples of the same sea.
23. And when we join hands across one of our rivers,
were all joining hands together. Were showing our
love of all our rivers and streams and valleys, of our

hills and mountains, of our fields and meadows, of

our villages, towns and cities, and of our people.
24. Thats what were showing when we join hands.
We join hands because we the people love our land,
and we join hands because we the people love each
other.
25. And if we stay together, joining hands through
this struggle, we can win any battle, we can win any
war, and we will win this war if we keep our hands
joined.
26. I may have grown up on Tyneside but today I live
in London. And today Ive got news to bring you
from London. Im afraid its not good news.
27. Is anyone else here from London before I go
much further? Am I the only one here from London?
[One hand raised]. Good heavens. Only one more,
only two of us.
28. Its not good news. But understanding the true
meaning of this news is the key to winning our war.
29. The news Im going to give you is, in its way, so
awful that you may not believe it at first.
30. The news Im going to give you is so awful that
when you do believe it - and I know you are all mildmannered people, and people who look on the
bright side of life - but even so its so awful it may
make you a little angry.
31. The news Im going to tell you is so awful that
when you hear it, it will light a fire in your hearts
that will burn until we have won this war.

32. And this is my news.

33. Believe it or not, and I know its hard to believe, in
Westminster, in Whitehall, in the City of London,
there are people who say - there really are - they
say: weve just got to drill. They say: the United
Kingdom needs fracking, it needs underground coal
gasification, it needs coal bed methane.
34. But then they say: not everybody in the UK needs
to have dirty energy on their doorstep. They say:
here in the leafy, crowded south of England, our
hills are too green, our views are too beautiful, our
lives are too precious, to be contaminated by the
dirty energy that we nevertheless need in the UK.
35. The place to have dirty energy is in the North,
they say. The North is desolate anyway, they say. In
the North, they do not love where they live as much
as we do. In the North, their hills are not so green.
Their views are not so beautiful. Their lives are not
so precious. Thats what they say.
36. [Audience voice: theyve never been here!] Thats
exactly right. There are only two of us from London
today.
37. So they say: the North is the place. So lets frack
the life out of the Central Belt of Scotland, and out
of Lancashire, and out of North Yorkshire, and
across the North of England, and Wales, and
Northern Ireland.
38. They say: lets get our coal bed methane from
places like Letham Moss that I visited on Friday.
Lets burn the coal under the Forth, and under the

Solway, and under the Dee, and under the North Sea
from Tynemouth down to Hartlepool.
39. I say to them: shame.
40. What do we say? [Audience: shame].
41. On Friday I also visited Grangemouth, and Im
going to take the news from Grangemouth and
Letham Moss back to London. The news from
Grangemouth and Letham Moss and the Central
Belt of Scotland and the Forth and everywhere else
thats under threat, the news is this.
42. Dont tell us, dont tell us that our land is not
beautiful. Our Forth is beautiful beyond compare, it
really is. Our hills, our hills to the North and our
hills to the South, our Ochils and our Pentlands,
they are beautiful beyond compare.
43. And the Kelpies, have you seen the Kelpies in
Falkirk? You dont put up statues like that if you
dont love your land. The Kelpies are going to get
Algy Cluff and Jim Ratcliffe if they are not careful.
They are the spirits of our land and they will smite
our enemies.
44. Our people are beautiful beyond compare. And
their lives are precious. And they do love their land.
Thats the news Im going to take back to London.
Shall I take that news back Ladies and Gentlemen?
[Audience: yes].
45. [Voice from audience: Nanas say frack off!]
Nanas say frack off. Ill take that message too. Youll
have to teach me how to pronounce it. I dont want

to be misunderstood. I might get myself into trouble

if I say it wrong.
46. Our war, our struggle is not a new struggle. This
struggle is as old as history itself. Because, when
you dont learn the lessons of history, you end up in
the same struggle again and again.
47. And in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
there was a struggle up and down our country,
when landowners closed off the land, they took the
common land from the people, and they said: let us
close it off, and we will farm it with the most modern
and efficient methods of technology and
economics. And by doing that we will get more
wealth off the land and we will all be wealthier.
48. Back then it was the Enclosures. But Its just the
same old argument.
49. [Audience voice: what about the Clearances?].
Im going to come to the Clearances, because the
Clearances were even worse. But lets start with the
Enclosures. You know what they used to say? In
Lancashire they used to say this about the
Enclosures:
The law locks up the man or woman
That steals the goose from off the common
But lets the greater villain loose
That steals the common from the goose.
50. And Im afraid the greater villains are still around
today. They closed off the land, they stole the land
from the people, they farmed it, they made
themselves more wealthy, but they didnt make the
people wealthy.

51. And as you say Sir, in the Highlands of Scotland

we had the Clearances. They promised, the
landlords promised better lives to their people just
as they were throwing them out of their crofts, and
burning their crofts, and kicking them out, kicking
them down to Glasgow and kicking them onto ships
to Canada, kicking them anywhere other than the
land where they had lived for centuries.
52. The landowners said: well make your lives
better, just as they were ruining their lives. And they
enriched themselves from the wool of the Cheviot
sheep, and they forgot about the people, their own
people, people who had trusted them, people who
loved the land they lived on, people they were now
kicking off their land.
53. This struggle against dirty energy, its the same
as the struggle against the Enclosures and the
struggle against the Clearances. The difference is:
this one were going to win. Were going to win this
struggle.
54. Because we have the most powerful weapon of
all, and we saw it on the bridge just now.
55. Our weapon, our strength in this struggle, is love.
Our weapon is our love of our land and our love of
each other.
56. I dont think Algy Cluff loves the people.
57. Algy Cluff says this, in his report, his Chairman
and Chief Executives statement to shareholders of
Cluff Natural Resources of 25 August 2015, and I
quote (as they say in Parliament): Planning for

approvals for energy-related projects should be

vested in the control of the central government.
58. What that means is: central government should
force dirty energy down the throats of the people
without the people having a say: no local planning
process.
59. Algy Cluff doesnt love the people. He doesnt
want democracy, he wants to hollow out our
democracy that our ancestors fought for, for
centuries: the blood of our ancestors is what we
stand on now in our democracy.
60. And the point is, money is part of our lives, of
course its part of our lives. But if you start to
worship money, money makes you blind to love.
And Algy Cluff I think is money-blind.
61. Has anybody here heard of a man called Jim
Ratcliffe? One or two of you I can see.
62. Jim Ratcliffe didnt like it when the government
said he had to pay his VAT bill, just like you and I all
pay our VAT. He didnt like that at all. So he said Im
going off to live on my yacht in the Caribbean, and
my house in Switzerland.
63. Jim Ratcliffe is coming back, and he wants to
frack you. Jim Ratcliffe says: if you let me frack
you, Ill give you lots of money. Does Jim Ratcliffe
sound like a man who loves the people? Or does
Jim Ratcliffe sound like a man who is money-blind?
64. Algy Cluff says he knows whats best for
Scotland. Jim Ratcliffe says he knows whats best

for Scotland, and Jim Ratcliffe even wants to give

you carrots to do his bidding.
65. Do we want Jim Ratcliffes carrots? Do we want
those carrots? [Audience: no]. Carrots are for..
[audience: donkeys!] Carrots are for donkeys. I
think thats a bit unkind to donkeys actually.
66. Algy Cluff can keep his money and his
underground coal gasification, and well keep our
Forth and well keep our Scotland.
67. Jim Ratcliffe can keep his carrots and his money
and his coal bed methane and his fracking, and
well keep our Central Belt and well keep our
Scotland. Well keep our Scotland.
68. Friends, theres another Scotland, and another
England and Wales and Northern Ireland.
69. Its a better Scotland and England and Wales and
Northern Ireland. Because its a place we will build
together. And we will open our hearts to our love of
our land and our love of each other as we build it
and well be richer at the end of that than we would
ever be with Algy Cluffs money and Jim Ratcliffes
money. Well be richer than we would ever be.
70. Burns is your Scottish poet. (Even as I say that in
my plummy English voice Im a bit worried about
what Im going to say next.) Hes your poet, but his
poetry, his wonderful poetry, belongs to all of us.
71. Burns wrote his poetry with his love of his people
and his love of his land. Its in every line of his
poetry, it was burning in his heart.

72. And Burns wrote:

The golden age, well then revive, each man will be
a brother
In harmony we all shall live and share the earth
together,
In virtue trained, enlightened youth shall love each
fellow creature,
And time shall surely prove the truth that man is
good by nature.
73. Friends we will win this struggle this time.
74. Hear the people, and we will win this struggle.
75. Heed the people, and we will win this struggle.
76. Trust the people, and we will win this struggle.
77. Love the people, and we will win this struggle.
78. And we will win it friends because: Man is good
by nature.
79. Now, heres our poem, heres our song. Please,
repeat after me:
No drilling
No fracking
No ucg in Scotland
[Audience repeats]

80. Now just me:

Please, Nicola Sturgeon, hear the people.
Please, Nicola Sturgeon, heed the people.
Please Nicola Sturgeon, trust the people.
And now with me again:
Please, Nicola Sturgeon, love the people.
And now, all of together, with Burns:
Man is good by nature
Man is good by nature
Man is good by nature
[Mans voice: aye, and the women are alright too.
Womans voice: people are good by nature.
Laughter.]
81. Thank you.