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Trump spokesman hits out at charities' ads against golf resort plans

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Published Date: 21 August 2008
By Frank Urquhart
THE Trump Organisation yesterday condemned the decision of two of Scotland's leading wildlife charities to mount a newspaper advertising campaign against Donald Trump's plans for a £1 billion golf resort on a site of special scientific interest.
Full-page adverts calling on members of the public to join the protest campaign were placed by RSPB Scotland and the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

The advertisements urge people who oppose plans to site the main championship course on a protected site on the Menie estate in Aberdeenshire to join an e-mail campaign targeted at John Swinney, the Scottish finance secretary, who will make the final decision on the controversial planning application.

George Sorial, the Trump Organisation executive in charge of the development, said the campaign smacked of desperation.

"It is an unusual move for two highly respected charitable organisations, created to protect wildlife, to spend so much money on a campaign opposing a development that will ultimately benefit wildlife and the environment," he said.

A spokesman for RSPB Scotland defended the campaign and said the adverts had been paid for by Restore UK, a Surrey-based environmental charity, and an anonymous donor.





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  • Last Updated: 20 August 2008 10:06 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Boy Wonder,

21/08/2008 08:37:23
No, Mr Sorial ... it shows how much opposition there is to your boss's proposed development and the harm it will do to Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

Please feel free to tell us exactly how your plans will "ultimately benefit wildlife and the environment"!
2

Slioch,

Scottish Highlands 21/08/2008 08:56:24
George Sorial, claims the Trump development will "benefit wildlife and the environment".

So, Sorial, a corporate lawyer from New York, now knows more about Scottish wildlife and our environment than the combined experience of the RSPB Scotland and Scottish Wildlife Trust?

What neither Trump nor Sorial appear able or willing to understand is that it is the dynamic nature of the sand dunes which is crucial to their environmental significance. The migration of the sand dunes is not only geomorphologically important, but that migration itself creates varied habitats.

Building a golf course on the dunes requires that dynamic nature to be destroyed: the dunes must be stabilised. There is no way around that.

I trust Mr Swinney will approach this proposal without the blinkered arrogance of the applicants.
3

bluehead,

edinburgh 21/08/2008 09:07:27
the charities are right,trump should be told to shove
his golf course where the monkeys stuff their nuts,
Scotland can do well without him and his pile
4

Brian the Barbarian.,

Aberdeen 21/08/2008 10:49:15
i think the golf course is a great idea and if millions and millions of wildlife birds are destroyed allong the way then so much the better. Those disease ridden so called feathered friends have caused thousands of deaths to old people and wee babies over the years and are stopping flats getting built at leith docks which will jepordise the viability of the trams. It's time to make a stand and if burying billions of acres of sand dunes in concrete to make a golf course is the way forward then so be it. Alfred Hitchcock was not so easily fooled as those goody two shoes RSPB surrender monkeys.He knew what viscious beasties birds is.
5

Jacqueline Hyde ,

On the shelf 21/08/2008 10:58:57
When the RSPB first mounted its campaign against the Cairngorm funicular, it canvassed its 1 million+ members with a standard letter of objection to the proposals. Only about 1,300 members bothered to send it in - which suggests that the remaining circa 1 million either supported the project or didn't care one way or the other - but the RSPB continued its campaign against the development. So much for democracy.

There are many thousands of small developments which adversely affect the bird population every year across the country, from building a house in the back garden upwards and the RSPB would be well advised to monitor these more carefully instead of tilting its members' finances at headline projects.

Mr Sorial should be reassured that the RSPB very probably has nothing against the Trump scheme - it's just another excuse for self-promotion and glorification by a small handful of individuals who have huge amounts of membership money to play with.
6

we the people,

21/08/2008 13:03:50
well said bluehead!
we don't need his venal arrogance or his ridiculous barnet
7

Shawl,

Scotland 21/08/2008 14:49:27
Go home trumpy. Can't you get the message. Brian the Barbarian....sigh. I bet you're not really Scottish.
8

Joe Macdelta.,

21/08/2008 16:18:55
Donald Trump thinks he can do as he likes because he has loads-o-money, well things dont always work that way, and this tme he should back down gracefully. He says he wants the project because his mother was scottish, so what, more like the profit he will make from the venture, though the jobs would be welcome it isnt worth the damage to the area.
9

Buchan Wifie,

21/08/2008 18:55:59
The Trump Golf Resort is just the icing on a a very dirty cake.

A "Masterplan for the Future" called Energetica is planned for the North East. If it goes ahead a huge part of Northern Aberdeenshire - from the Bridge of Don to Peterhead and beyond - will become an industrial park. Peterhead residents are campaigning against their share in the "energy corridor" - a rubbish burning dioxin spewing incinerator, that has been attractively named "a green energy plant".

If you're interested in Energetica, google "Energetica Aberdeenshire" All objections to this mega-scheme have to be sent in by mid September. Never heard of this? Nor have most folk in the North East.

Trump is a high-powered salesman.
Mr Sorial is a corporate lawyer.
The RSPB tries to protect birds.

My finger points at the politicians who are paid to protect the well being of the people of Scotland. Most of our elected officials seem to have become mindless Orks who would sell their Grannies if someone offered enough cash.
10

Jacqueline Hyde ,

On the shelf 21/08/2008 20:55:25
#10
I have a lot of sympathy with your point of view but I would have been very supportive of large-scale industrialisation - where appropriate, of course - in the North East if it had been put on the agenda thirty-odd years ago. The gas from the North Sea could and should have been used to establish massive wealth and prosperity for all the communities in the area instead of being piped south with little or no secondary benefit locally. This would have ensured far longer-term economic stability for the region than the now-ebbing hydrocarbon Klondike.

Exactly the same situation is currently developing in other parts of the Highlands and Islands with alternative energy where, once again, the economic potential is being shipped south to the Central Lowlands and England while Highland Council and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar cheerfully allow the raping of some of Europe's most wonderful countryside for the financial gain of a few boardrooms in London, Germany and Spain.
11

Andrew BOD,

Aberdeen/shire 21/08/2008 22:12:47
Buchanwifie @ 6.32pm

What is your point about Energetica?

Are we to assume, because of your tone, that you disapprove? Otherwise, you have nothing to say of any substance. Except perhaps NIMBY.

Here's what Scottish Enterprise say:
"Energetica is a national project to secure Aberdeen’s position as a global hub for the development of all energy technologies. Over 15 years, a technology corridor will be developed from the Aberdeen Science Parks, on the northern edge of the city, to Peterhead to attract and retain people and businesses involved in all energy research, development and testing. A key element will be the fusion of business spaces, housing and leisure to create a world class lifestyle proposition.

Energetica will be delivered by a range of organisations under the support of the region’s economic development partnership. We will lead on the delivery of a planned programme of projects to stimulate private sector investment in areas like renewables, subsea technology and international energy knowledge services."

Thank god some people are making sure we retain technical expertise in Scotland before it fritters away with the oil. Thank god we are planning to use that expertise to move into the field of renewables. Thank god some people have a great spirit of enterprise to create wealth instead of relying on Government handouts.

And what is bad about incinerating rubbish to make energy with very little waste gas? Have you taken the time to find out about how it works or are you just trying to scaremonger to create mass hysteria? Would you prefer another leaky landfill site just off the road between Aberdeen and Peterhead or is it just another case of NIMBY?

As far as Trump is concerned, the RSPB can waste environmental grants if they like. The Public Inquiry is over. They made their case along with everybody else. Isn't it strange though, that they chose to place their super ad in a Glasgow and Edinburgh paper, and not in an Aberdeen paper?
12

Buchan Wifie,

22/08/2008 00:48:53
Dear Andrew BOD

The RSPB are trying to protect the LAWS that protect wildlife and wilderness.
They may actually respect the miraculous interconnectedness of life on this planet.

"Scaremongering" ? The "industrialists" have been predicting that if Scotland doesn't grab at the offer of this development we are faced with "a bleak, black future, ghost towns, economic dustbowls, closed for business"; general doom, gloom and starvation.

The person who writes this script certainly has a dramatic sense of humour!

13

Andrew BOD,

Aberdeen/shire 22/08/2008 20:34:36
Dear Buchan Wifie

Again you have failed to debate or deal with any issues brought up in my post. Instead you choose to criticize colourful language without citing reference. And you vainly defend an organisation out of touch with it's roots.

Need I say more?

But one more thing.

Please explain the "miraculous interconnectedness" between birdlife and geomorphology, given that the latter was around millions of years before the former.


14

Buchan Wifie,

23/08/2008 03:48:29

Hi Andrew BOD

"colourful language" quoted from the ghost writer of the Press and Journal. : )

A "debate" implies a winner and a loser. Fine in a tennis match, but in deciding the future shape of Aberdeen and the Shire, I'm looking for a win/win situation - swirling dunes And unlimited prosperity...

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines "miraculous" as
'Of the nature of a miracle; supernatural; surprising...'

A rational explanation of how bird life evolved out of the elementary earth is not sufficient. Perhaps "mystery" is the best answer.

In protecting sanctified sites the RSPB is trying to make sure their feathered friends have nesting ground and room for their wild food to grow. Birds don't buy stuff in shops, you know. Wildlife needs wilderness.

Habitat loss and man-made poisons have destroyed so many birds and bees, Chinese fruit growers are already having to pollinate their trees by hand.
Yes - a rock will exist happily for aeons without the companionship of birds.
Birds would survive fine without humans - we are newcomers on the scene - but would WE survive without birds?

Could we make do with few less avian species?

Are rare birds a luxury we can't afford??

Would we miss them if they were gone?

Well, then we could always blame the RSBP for not doing their job properly.
15

Andrew BOD,

Aberdeen/shire 25/08/2008 20:38:07
Hi Buchan Wifie

I think you've missed the point.

At the Scotsman debate on the economy and the environment (the Trump development) in Aberdeen's Townhouse, the RSPB spokeswoman on the panel clarified her organisation's position. She said that the issue was not about birds, it was about the shifting sand. SHE SAID IT.

The RSPB has therefore become an umbrella organisation for all ecological causes and surely betrays it's healthy origins.

And I'm sorry, "miraculous interconnectedness" needs a better explanation than "mystery".
16

Frazier,

Las Vegas 03/10/2008 16:55:32
Donald Trump and his investments are a thing of the past. Consider his luxury condo tower in Las Vegas.... he advertised it was sold out before construction started, built the tower and now it is 85% unsold. His current tenants have lawsuits against him because he keeps increasing fees. This man rapes the system and leaves others to pay for it when he files bankruptcy.

 

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