The rejection last week of plans for a giant wind farm in Cumbria has provoked predictably angry reactions. A public inquiry had already turned down the proposed farm, consisting of 27 wind turbines, each 12ft higher than St Paul’s Cathedral. The question was whether the government would endorse that rejection or force the plan through against local objections, led by luminaries such as Sir Chris Bonington and Lord Bragg.

Thankfully ministers did the right thing, and the Whinash wind farm has rightly been left on the drawing board. As we warned in April last year, “wind farms are the electricity pylons or open-cast mining of the 21st century”. To plonk them in the middle of the countryside, visible for miles around, would have been an act of vandalism.

Not that the odd collection of backers for the project saw it that way. Friends of the Earth, who might be expected to have regard for preserving beautiful landscapes and unspoilt countryside, said it was “appalled by the decision”. Stephen Tindale, executive director of Greenpeace, another who should fall into the “green and pleasant land” camp, gave us a peculiar conspiracy theory. “Any government that wants to expand airports and turn down wind farms is simply not fit to govern,” he said. “It’s hard to believe that the nuclear industry has not played some role in this. Climate change will ravage beautiful areas like the Lake District. I hope those responsible will be willing to explain to future generations how they played their part in allowing the savage grip of global warming to trash the countryside.”

The BBC Today programme has been running a poetry competition in praise of wind farms; so far it has not been convincing. It is true that alternative energy sources such as wind power have a limited role to play in meeting Britain’s energy needs. But they will only ever have a small role, and if the cost is scarring the increasingly threatened landscape, they should be rejected and other green and more efficient forms, including nuclear power, should prevail.