Ah, the fervid arrogance of the possessor of the only truth!

Ms Mann professes her love of the 500-foot wind generators and power pylons that are fast spreading across the Highlands because she believes that only renewable sources can provide carbon-free energy both to reduce global warming and keep our sophisticated society functioning in future. In the face of overwhelming evidence that wind, wave and tidal energies are intrinsically unreliable, depend on unproven technologies and are hopelessly uneconomic (without massive subsidies), she clings desperately to the blind faith that they will come to our rescue.

Did she not observe during the recent long spell of cold weather (and peak power demand) how little the wind blew, and how calm were the seas? Wind and wave generators could have made only minimal contributions in such a period, during which the whole UK was utterly dependent on firm sources of electricity generation - such as coal, oil, gas, hydro and nuclear. Without them, we would have frozen in the dark.

This underlines the hard reality that we will always require to have on tap a 100 per cent supply capability from these reliable sources. Countries such as Germany and Denmark which have gone further down the road with renewables are now finding that these undependable supplies destabilise their national grids and are having to curtail their use.

In that context, the policy to encourage and hugely subsidise widespread onshore wind farms and their enabling super-pylon infrastructure can only be seen as an expensive and futile gesture. It will do nothing to save the planet, but it will result in the widespread despoliation of the landscape of the Highlands and Islands.

The tragedy is that our beautiful wild environment is not just our proud inheritance and delight but is also the basis of our largest industry, the tourist trade. Pylons and wind turbines are industrialising our unspoilt land at a faster rate than anything since the industrial revolution.

Meanwhile Ms Mann exults in this desecration and publicly derides those who take a different view.

One-sided tirades, emotional headlines and gratuitous insults do little to advance the important debate regarding our energy future, but do reveal the very biased perspective of your columnist.

David Henderson, 9 Beaufort Road, Inverness.

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