1. Conor Ryan has a guilty little secret. He drinks mineral water. Whisper it. 2. Norfolk Blogger is getting Eurosceptier by the day. Well done.
3. Rupa Huq rejoices over the death of Respect. Rather than respect. If you see what I mean.
4. Burning our Money's Wat Tyler has dinner with Dr Crippen. No, really.
5. Tartan Hero says the SNP should take heart from Kosovan independence.
6. Rosa Prince reckons The Speaker's coffin has had its final nail banged in.
7. Rupert Read tells us why he is a Green. Too much info?
8. Party Political Animal ruminates over councillors' pay.
9. John Redwood's Top Ten Reasons Northern Rock Should Not Have Been Nationalised.
10. Spin Blog on why Big Brother Government doesn't work.
10. Spin Blog on why Big Brother Government doesn't work.
11. Cranmer has some stark warnings over Kosovan independence.
12. Tracey Crouch goes aaaaaaaaaaargh! And not for the first time.
I think the Greens have got a point, actually. Mankind isn't the be all and end all of the universe, we can't keep on having a soaring population consuming more and more. Don't know why these statements provoke such foam-flecked hostility.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the Greens don't have the best policies ever. But some people are so obsessed with ideology that they can't admit any limits to growth, and they might get a rude awakening if they go on being so irresponsible.
I do my bit for the environment. I'm a vegetarian, and I'm never going to have any children.
Cue the requisite "conservative" and "libertarian" fury.
Asquith, I like to think of myself as a conservative (small c) and a libertarian, and I can find nothing to disagree with in what you say. And am even trying not to wreck the environment any more than I can help (no car, haven't flown since the last millennium). I don't think these views are contradictory.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you don't, but I don't think you can deny that some people have a cavalier attitude towards the environment, and they're more likely to be on your side of the aisle.
ReplyDeleteI regard myself as fairly liberal economically, I'm far from a socialist. I find I can talk to Tories, especially if they're Cameroons. But a lot of people have got a blind spot when it comes to the environment, because their ideology predisposes them to be against environmentalism. I agree with some things the Libertarian Alliance say, but they're far too doctrinaire for me.
Visit any environment-related thread on ConservativeHome. I'm not far from David Cameron's personal views, but I'd never vote for that.
Asquith, fair enough -- as long as one excludes those in the side aisle beyond yours, such as the Chinese.
ReplyDeleteBut it makes me think, once again, that the traditional distinction between left and right is becoming more and more meaningless, and possibly that familiar diamond-shaped chart would be more representative of people's real views if the x-axis were green<-->brown rather than left<-->right, leaving the libertarian<-->authoritarian y-axis as it is.
But what on earth could the word "ecologism" really mean?
ReplyDelete"'Ecologism in one country' is pretty hopeless."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_in_one_country
It's a cliche to slur environmentalism as Soviet-style Marxism in disguise. And in many cases this is no doubt mere paranoia.
But in this case, not only is "green" just a flimsy front for Soviet-style Marxism for this man, but we can even tell precisely which kind of Marxist he is!
Also asquith's comment misses the point. "I do my bit for the environment. I'm a vegetarian, and I'm never going to have any children." Who could complain about that? You haven't said anything to imply that you're a regular reader of Trotsky, or that you want to deliberately destroy the global trade economy and replace it with a global top-down superstate in which all economic freedom has been eliminated. You're relatively okay!
Meant to say thanks for this Iain: the after-effects of increased hits are only wearing off now several days later.
ReplyDelete