Tuesday 14 April 2009

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.




10 comments:

BTS said...

On the plus side, I've just saved myself 600 quid on a plane ticket by just buying a knife instead. Two weeks of stabbing people on the street here I come..

Mark Wadsworth said...

people who have second homes abroad.Cue Richard Littlejohn/Polly Toynbee spat, how we laughed.

The answer of Britain to the EU and greenwash is No! said...

Then she is a disgusting, dangerous, disingenuous little oik. And it is also why I would never, never, never vote Green.

If no-one ever travelled we'd be a much poorer nation for it. I don't want to live in the dark ages, thank you very much. You cow.

This is why I consider myself a UK unionist with strong hints of nationalism (which lefties would see as Empire nostalgia; we can be great again if we leave the EU) and a bent towards libertarianism.

Unknown said...

Now, if we really want to stop the alleged global warming, perhaps these odious little turds could stop farting out of their gobs. Imagine the reduction in methane emissions!

banned said...

I will enjoy driving around tomorrow in the knowledge that it is akin to driving a spark plug into Caroline Lucas' eyesocket.
I may even go for a 'binge drive' after work. Silly cow.

Unknown said...

Hang on, I didn't realise we got to pick the victims. I am on 4 flights (2 long ones) in the next couple of weeks.

Excuse me while I just go make my list...

Roger Thornhill said...

Caroline Lucas is a stranger to reason. All the more dangerous in that she is not entirely TV-unfriendly.

Her stance, as Tim Worstall has pointed out, is not based in fact.


One day the "man can reverse climate change" meme will be exposed for the vile conceit that it is.

The Filthy Smoker said...

Absolutely spot on.

Unknown said...

It's alright for you bastards who have a 'carbon footprint' but the likes of me have no passport!' Does that mean I'm a non person? Oh fuckit, i guess I'll just stay here in dear old blighty and breath in the fumes of other peoples carbon footprint, a marter to the last, that's me!

Alex Cull said...

Bloody hell - John Vidal, who is Environment Editor of the Guardian, no less, has flown to the following destinations over the last 12 months, I'm told - Abu Dhabi, Germany, Ghana, Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, and Senegal (his last two trips financed by Oxfam and Greenpeace). 

In Caroline Lucas's terms, he's a one-man crime wave!