After visiting Northallerton on Friday and giving Nana support to our Yorkshire friends as did many others from the campaign, I was shocked  but not surprised to hear that the Conservative majority councillors on the planning committee gave permission to frack at Kirby Misperton. I listened to the livestreaming from the Council chamber and heard the PR coming from the companies involved in the oil and gas industry which made it seem like there was no problem at all! I find that hard to believe unless the technocrats here are much better than in the U.S which I very much doubt, as there is no safe way with this process. There is no guarantee otherwise insurance would be there to support people in their environment! It is shambolic the way our so called elected representatives are sacrificing people’s lives, when they could have used precautionary principle – for which they need to be accountable. The fact that Barclays Bank owns most of Third Energy and the Conservatives want to push #fracking onto us shows the money and power behind this decision. Thank goodness there are still people of integrity like the four councillors who voted against it. This will not be the end of it as there is much at stake here.