Police tactics when dealing with protestors can be appalling, and as a football fan, I can empathise with protestors. That alone however doesn't add nor distract from the arguments over sustainability, ecological impact or implications for local residents.

For many, the opportunity to oppose can overtake the opposition, and I saw a lot of that in 1984. I was at Orgreave. My finest memory? When we got fed up of the political agitators standing at the back shouting "charge!" and turned on them. The reports still show that as police brutality, when it was the poor buggers on strike who were frustrated by being pawns in a bigger game. We turned on the Socialist Workers' Party thugs, not the police.

That was my apprenticeship into cause and effect. We were concerned about jobs, security and energy source, those at the back were concerned with removing a government.

I see far more publicity over who has shares in fracking companies than whether fracking is the answer to a maiden's prayer. That rings alarm bells.