Monday, August 11, 2008

Eco-Warriors, Please Don't Represent Me

This weekend (9th – 10th August 2008) has been marked by reports in the newspapers (Sky News, The Guardian, The Telegraph, etc.) of a mass protest at Kingsnorth Power Station in Kent. Apparently these “pals of the planet” are trying to stop the building of a new, coal powered generation facility on the site.

When will this bunch of Eco-Wallies realise that they do not represent the vast majority of the rest of us? No one voted for them, no one asked them, so why do they think they are empowered to represent "The People". They have obviously been deluded into thinking, just like our current excuse for a government, that they are our nanny and that nanny knows best. Now I know that the average member of the Great British Unwashed is barely capable of coherent speech let alone a cogent thought process, however they are I strongly suspect, happily content to be cocooned in the warmth, luxury and convenience of the benefits of twenty first century living. They don't need a bunch of alternative lifestyle extremists telling them how they should live their lives and frankly neither do I.

Ask any typical member of the common heard if they want to be Green and Eco-Friendly and they will probably answer in the affirmative. This is I suspect only because they have been brainwashed by our Big Brother “Central Soviet” government and their media spin doctors into accepting the “green – good, carbon –bad” doctrine. The government really doesn’t give a toss about saving the world, a superhero team Gordon Brown (PrattMan) and Alistair Darling (Dobbin) they certainly are not. What they and their leftie lackies are really concerned with is what label or cause can they use to introduce a whole range of new taxes and other revenue raising measures. What the underclass don’t of course realise is the actual cost to them of adopting the policies of the Gaia Fathers and Earth Mothers.

Leaving aside the direct and indirect tax burden for a moment (after all if you are on benefit you're not paying taxes anyway and the black market economy of illegally imported tobacco, alcohol and drugs are largely exempt) most people want to be able to switch on the light and the TV whenever they want. They want to turn up the central heating when it gets cold and the air conditioning when it’s too hot, they want chillies from India to make their curries and cheap designer trainers and hoodies from China. Taking on the doctrines of the Eco protesters would, for most of them, mean having to give up most of the supporting pillars of their sink estate lifestyle. Now ask the question if they want to be green or not – I suspect you’ll get a very different answer. It’s not just the lower orders either. The middle classes are also starting to count the cost of going green. Rising fuel costs, higher motoring taxes, the cost of air travel, are starting to make going green look a little like appearing sickly bilious. Just like the lower orders these parvenu's want things only a power and fuel rich economy can provide; strawberries for their dinner party in November, a skiing holiday in July and while hybrid cars many be the fashion accessory of the moment imagine dear Amanda telling Justin and Jocasta that they may have to swap their Range Rover Sport for a Toyota Prius for the school run. No; ask most non-involved, non-activists to pay the real cost of adopting the green agenda and any change to their lifestyle that would impose and support for it would evaporate even faster than a labour government can tax and spend.

I for one don’t want to live in a felt tepee in the middle of a muddy field subsisting on a diet of roots and berries which is what the adoption of the so called green agenda would ultimately mean. Personally I want it hot, air conditioned, microwaved, broadband, gas powered and preferably delivered in a 4X4 supercharged hummvee.

No; the shiftless, whining, pewling Eco warriors don’t represent the majority of us, they have just conned us into believing that they do by only telling us half the story. We should stand up and tell these weirdo members of a minority group to go back to their lentil stew and get back to knitting a bicycle from their beards. We do want an answer to the energy crisis, most of us however I suspect want that answer to involve us producing more energy not less.