Starmer accused of ‘pathetic bullying’ by environmental campaigner after NIMBY article
Keir Starmer has been accused of “pathetic bullying” by a Norfolk environmental campaigner who was singled out and ridiculed by the prime minister in an article in the Daily Mail.
Sir Keir heaped scorn on Andrew Boswell across the first five paragraphs of an article in the tabloid, headlined “We’ll stop the time-wasting NIMBYs and zealots from holding the country to ransom”.
Dr Boswell, a computer scientist, now brands himself an environmental consultant and challenges road and other projects in the courts which he argues break environment, nature and habitat laws.
Speaking to Sky News this afternoon, Dr Boswell said: “I think it’s disgraceful that he called out an individual in this way. And someone who is not able to protect themselves easily.
“I think it’s a very dangerous thing for the prime minister to do, and he shouldn’t have approached it this way.”
Asked why he thought it was dangerous, Dr Boswell replied: “Well, he has named me. I’m just an ordinary person, a member of the public. I go about my life on that basis. I don’t have a vast media team to protect me. I don’t have other protections. It’s a very dangerous thing to do to an individual.”
Dr Boswell said, following the attack, that Keir Starmer should understand the government is failing to uphold its climate ambitions and that he wants to discuss this with the PM.
“Keir Starmer ought to actually meet me, and I’d like to talk to him about the climate emergency and the fact that you can’t just dismiss carbon emissions as Rachel Reeves did yesterday at Davos. We can’t do that.
“And the simple fact of the matter is that the planning system in this country does not secure the climate ambitions that the government has.
“So the reason I went into the planning system and the legal system was to try to shore that up. Until that is shored up, people are going to continue taking legal actions against the government and government decisions which do not protect our climate ambitions.”
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NIMBYs v YIMBYs
In the Daily Mail comment piece, Sir Keir identifies Dr Boswell by describing his work, but does not name him.
The accompanying article in the Mail does identify him, however.
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In the article, Sir Keir writes: “A former Green Party councillor spent years trying to block vital safety upgrades to the A47. The case reached the Supreme Court last year, which dismissed it for having ‘no logical basis’.
The A47 east of Norwich, Norfolk, which prompted campaigners to go to the Supreme Court in order to stop a government improvement plan. Pic: Google Street View
“A top judge even said it had ‘an air of complete unreality’. So why was he able to waste years of the court’s time and squander tens of millions of pounds of taxpayer money?
“There are countless more examples of NIMBYs and zealots gumming up the legal system often for their own ideological blind spots to stop the government building the infrastructure the country needs.
“They know they have no chance of winning, they just want to drag it out in hope that the government or industry give up. They want to win for themselves, not for the country.”
Asked whether the PM was correct to write this, Dr Boswell told Sky News: “No, he’s absolutely not, in several respects there.
“First of all, on the court, when we went to the high court, the high court judge actually said that my case had helped highlight issues in the way environmental impact assessments were done.
“And on the safety issue, actually, what these road schemes are doing is spending £500m on short stretches of road when there’s much more dangerous black spots in Norfolk.
“I’ve always said we do need to improve safety on the roads in Norfolk, we need to target the black spots, and not spend huge amounts of money digging roads, which doesn’t actually make a big safety improvement.”
Sky News has contacted Number 10 for a response.
A workman saved a seven-year-old boy from a burning car in the aftermath of a deadly crash caused by a suicidal ex-pilot, an inquest has heard.
The schoolboy’s rescue came following the collision on the M6, which killed former RAF man Richard Woods and four others, in October last year.
Last week a coroner ruled that Woods, 40, took his own life by deliberately driving his Skoda the wrong way down the motorway while drunk and hitting a Toyota Yaris head-on.
The driver of the Toyota, Jaroslaw Rossa, 42, was also killed, along with his two sons, Filip, 15, and Dominic, seven, and his partner Jade McEnroe, 33.
Cockermouth Coroner’s Court heard on Thursday that Ms McEnroe’s son was also in the car but survived after workman Gavin Walsh came to his rescue at the scene, which was near Tebay services in Cumbria.
In a statement to the inquest, Mr Walsh said he was a passenger in a transit van travelling to Scotland when he witnessed the crash.
He jumped out of the vehicle and used a jack to smash the rear windscreen of the Toyota and pulled the boy out of the burning vehicle.
Mr Walsh said: “We really did try, I can assure everyone we did our best. We only had minimal time.
“I saved a life that day and I hope never to witness anything like that again.”
He added that he has never stopped thinking about the boy, and said: “I hope we will meet again one day and I will give you a massive hug.”
At the time, the family were returning to Glasgow from a trip to Legoland in Windsor, Berkshire.
The inquest heard that Wood, who was travelling at a speed of at least 65mph, would have been charged with manslaughter had he survived.
Recording conclusions of unlawful killing, Cumbria assistant coroner Margaret Taylor said: “I found that Jaroslaw, Jade, Filip and Dominic died as a consequence of the unlawful acts of another driver.”
The inquest heard how Mr Woods, from Cambridgeshire, had served a distinguished 14-year career in the RAF and was a flight instructor for BAE Systems at the time of his death.
Jade McEnroe. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
Dominic and Filip. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
In Ms Taylor’s record of inquest, Mr Woods was said to have been experiencing “a number of stressors in his life” and had a “history of harmful use of alcohol”.
Following the crash, he was found to be nearly four times over the legal drink-drive limit and a two-thirds empty bottle of gin was found in his car.
On the day of his death, concerns had been raised over his behaviour at a work conference near Preston in Lancashire.
Mr Woods failed to return to his seat after lunch and was later spotted driving erratically and swerving across three northbound carriageway lanes on the M6.
After pulling onto the hard shoulder, he then proceeded to U-turn and drove southward on lane three.
Filip, Dominic and Jaroslaw Rossa. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
Detective Sergeant Deborah Story, from Cumbria Police, told the inquest that Mr Woods would have been prosecuted on four counts of manslaughter had he lived.
She said hypothetical charges of murder were considered by detectives but not thought appropriate because of a lack of information that Mr Woods knew the family or anything that provided a link between them.
Ms McEnroe’s parents, Marie McEnroe and George McNellis, told the coroner they thought it was “murder”.
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A statement from the mother of Filip and Dominic, and the ex-wife of Mr Rossa, Kamila, was read out at the inquest.
She said Mr Rossa, known as Jarek, was born in Poland where they became a couple and went on to have three boys.
He loved playing computer games and had “lots of friends”, she said, and worked at the Wagamama restaurant in Silverburn, Glasgow.
She said she was “devastated” over the deaths, adding: “Our lives will never be the same.
“I am heartbroken at the passing of my beloved angels Filip and Dominic.”
Marie McEnroe said her daughter, a spa therapist, had been in a relationship with Mr Rossa for about two-and-a-half years.
She said Jade had been a “brilliant mother” to her only child, was “really happy” with Mr Rossa and it was “lovely chaos” when all the boys were playing together.
Ms McEnroe added: “Life changed forever that day”.
Ms Taylor praised the “selfless acts of bravery” from those in the aftermath of the collision, including Mr Walsh, who she said went towards the burning car “without hesitation for his own safety”.
The coroner added: “Without his swift response, Jade’s child would also have perished.”
Addressing the bereaved family members, she said: “Your loss is unimaginable but you have conducted yourself with dignity and I thank you for that. I wish you strength for the future.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
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