I do wonder if this is another case of the deliberate targeted militancy by groups with agendas….

I do hope so!

Bile perhaps?

Greenpeace could have used photoshop. As something of an environmentalist I tend to view this organisation as more interested in selling the sizzle over the steak; self promotion being the most important aspect of their work. I understand they go way back to the early ‘deep ecology’ movement, who seem like a pack of dangerous nutters in the modern age.

I dare say Nigel is holding his own very well on Question Time. I’ve not watched QT for a few years, and it seems that either the audience is well oiled or left over from the filming of an episode of the Jeremy Kyle show earlier today. Some rotund ****-er-knee woman is calling for the vetting of immigrants based on ‘talent’. Yet, she can barely string a sentence together. Russell Brand is excitable, incoherent and visibly nervous. The audience appears to be composed of drunk cockneys, teenage trots and loud disabled men. The female panelists are clearly intelligent, but sound far to staid and boring (and dangerously feminist in some instances) and therefore get talked over constantly, both by the other panelists and Dimbleby, who seems a bit too old and tired for this sort of frivolity. Nigel appears like the calm in the midst of the storm here.

“…he is a nostalgic spasm for a Britain that never was…”

Not sure ‘spasm’ is the correct word here. Having said that, I would tend to agree with Brand’s views on Farage in this instance.

I was never under the impression that ‘environmentalist’ was a term of contempt. I think there are those within the environmentalist sphere that are worthy of contempt, but to tar the whole movement is about as illogical as suggesting all engineers are worthy of contempt. Using the term ‘liberal’ as a pejorative only works if you can guarantee your target audience have the same world view as yourself. I think it is thrown around a lot more by Americans than the British, though I’m sure that will change (we’ve already imported Black Friday and Trick-or-treat after all). I trust the original poster intends the word to conjur up an image of the dreadlock’d idealogue aged somewhere from 18 – 25 who has ‘never done an honest day’s work’ ad nauseum.

As I said before, I wouldn’t class Greenpeace as real environmentalists as their crass PR tactics far outweigh their contribution to the dull and dirty end of environmentalism; setting emissions targets, programming habitat creation or restoration, informing policy making decisions etc. Environmentalism is actually fairly boring when you get into it, and everything takes a while to get ratified, passed, monitored etc. If you study it academically, as I did, you either end up pigeonholed into a small subject area or you go into another discipline and work from there, which is what I did. The Greenpeace chuggers in the street, and the slacktivists that tracked footprints over the Nazca lines, probably wouldn’t know a Ramsar site from a SSSI. However their insidious game is to go for the absolutes; oh, you don’t care about the environment? You hate this planet then? Interestingly, the last time I saw a Greenpeace chugger on Princes street I was reliably informed by my girlfriend that said individual had been a stripper in a fairly sleazy cabaret bar until recently and had no environmental, earth science or ecological credentials. Make of that what you will.

Re 16

They’re not the sole province of lefties. My concern is drawing attention to the influence of State control.

Absolutely. I was meaning, rather more simply, that ‘libertarian’ is a homophone of liberal, and perhaps somebody could read one as the other.

Sorry Tony, the news in your link looks like a good thing? Could you clarify please?

Any fule kno that eating disorders are a liberal invention that only goes to show what happens if you give kids too much personal freedom. In my day we had porridge 3 times a day and none of us had even heard anorexia, bulimia or binge-eating. I blame the yanks, poofters and women for introducing these ideas to our impressionable kids.

Am I on the right track?