Get Off Of My Cloud!

Clouds are beautiful - I keep meaning to learn all the proper names, beyond cumulus, cirrus and stratus. I love looking at them - and the wide East Anglian skies are a wonderful place to do that [the WEAS are also brilliant at night, with less light pollution, for watching stars and meteor showers] I look up to the skies to see the wonders of nature - clouds, rainbows, stars, eclipses, skeins of geese, flocks of starlings etc.Not smoke clouds advertising or political slogans or religious messages.

Skywriting - using one or more aeroplanes to write messages with puffs of smoke - is very popular in the USA*. In this country it has been illegal since 1960. Until now. 

Kezzie has just alerted me to the fact that under cover of the covid19 pandemic, the Government has slipped through a piece of legislation making it no longer illegal in the UK.

Why? Living near Bournemouth Airport, I have so appreciated recently the massive drop in airplane noise, contrails in the sky and all the associated pollution. Who in their right mind thinks that allowing people to fill the skies with graffiti-producing air traffic is a good idea? Surely the incident in Manchester last weekend with an aeroplane banner ought to make people wary of enabling this sort of declaration in the sky.

*The Hooters sign was produced by Flysigns ,the USA leaders in this sort of thing. I despise Hooters - but I struggled to find any clear picture online which was not offensive in some way.

The Cloud Appreciation Society have set up a petition to reverse this change in our legislation [details here] I get the impression that this law was made with inadequate public consultation, allowing only TWO WEEKS for anyone to make any comment - March 14th--29th. Just when much of the nation was panic buying loo rolls, self isolating, and worrying about homeschooling [Bob and I were too ill with covid19]

The government minister concerned spoke about the need to revoke the 'antiquated law' and allow skywriting. Who exactly needs it? Not me...