Political Extremism

No, that's not a reference to the BNP or the Anti-Nazi League. We're talking the Green Party here, or specifically, Caroline Lucas, their leader.

Air travel 'as bad as stabbing person in the street', says MEP

Caroline Lucas, the leader of the Green Party, suggested that travellers who regularly jet off to the Costas are threatening the lives of others - and do as much damage as thugs who stab people in the street.

When asked if flying to Spain was as bad as knifing a person in the street, Ms Lucas said: ‘Yes - because they are dying from climate change.’

Ms Lucas, who is also a Member of the European Parliament, made the controversial comment during a televised ITV debate about plans for a proposed third runway at Heathrow. She also hit out ‘binge flying’ and people who have second homes abroad.

All absurd, of course. The swivel-eyed fruitcake is merely taking a mild threat to ridiculous extremes to suit her purpose. It'll never work ... or will it?

The problem is that Lucas is just following the lead of campaigners against lifestyle choices, who have been using wildly exaggerated claims to push their ever-increasing totalitarianism for decades.

We're bombarded by the emotive term 'binge-drinking' from politicians parroting public health lobbyists, and now we have an MEP mirroring that emotion in talking about flying. Cancer Research UK (yes, them again) think it's a good idea too, hence their application of such extremism to the issue of sunbeds last week.

Young people are risking their lives by indulging in "binge tanning", a charity has warned.

That term is one thing, but comparing an everyday activity with stabbing someone is going too far, isn't it? Not for the righteous, it's not. If what they are asking for is quite ridiculous, the claims must be as wild and off-the-scale as possible. Take this example from the spiritual home of puritanism, California, which helped usher in a smoking ban in apartments (coming soon to a country very near you if we don't stand up to these loons).

The mayor who championed the new law declares, “It is our responsibility to take care of everyone!’ and a pro-ban council member who worries about smoke wafting into neighboring units compares smoking in an apartment to shooting a gun through the wall.

I think it is termed 'The Big Lie'. As an infamous European politician once put it:

"... in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods."

I've long argued that if you allow the righteous to get away with outrageous lies merely because you dislike the same things as they do, there is a price to be paid further down the line. Caroline Lucas is proving my point, I'm afraid.

I think it's safe to say that if this is what we are to expect from the Green Party, it would be rather foolish to think of voting for them. In fact, just ask people in Brighton how they enjoy the input of their 12 Green councillors. I've touched on the Soviet republic of Brighton before, and do you know? They are still using the hammer of municipal power to crack a few peanuts.

Anton Cataldo, who specialises in painting pet portraits, decided to put up reward posters on six trees after two of his favourite dog paintings went missing.

But the only person who responded to his plea was a council official who fined him £75 for causing harm to "living trees."

The email [from Brighton & Hove city council] said: "Some of these posters have been stapled to trees. You appear to have little understanding that trees are living things.

It's not the first time they've done it, either.

In reply to Ms Lucas's comments, there was a common sense response offered by the leader of UKIP.

After the exchange David Campbell-Bannerman a prospective MEP candidate for the UK Independence Party, who also attended the debate, said: 'I was shocked.
'There's no excuse for using extremist language to describe ordinary people going by plane to a well-earned holiday. Calling it "binge flying" is absurd.'

Strange that the media tend to paint UKIP as the outrageous party of European politics, and the Greens as somehow respectable. Judging by Caroline Lucas's views, surely her party should be viewed as political extremists.