Bloody Environmentalists

For no reason other than I've just re-read it and felt it deserved another outing, here's an old editorial from The Sleaze which, for various reasons, I never got around to archiving:

We now turn our attention to another group of dangerous subversives - the environmental lobby. Oh yes, I know that they come on about wanting to protect the environment for future generations, but it is quite clear that they have a far more sinister secret agenda. Particularly disturbing are their constant calls for the curbing of the use of personal vehicles, despite the fact that public transport remains totally inadequate. Could it be that what they are really trying to do is restrict the free movement (and by extension the personal liberty) of the ordinary working man? After all, it is the average worker who has no choice but to use his car to get to and from work, who will suffer most from increased fuel charges, road pricing and restrictions on car use in town centres. The fact is that the advent of affordable cars in the post-war period allowed the working classes of this country an unprecedented degree of personal freedom. No longer subject to the vagaries of public transport, workers could travel further afield in order to sell their labour for a reasonable wage, they were no longer forced to live within reasonable distance of their workplace in some damp-ridden inner-city council house or tied cottage. They were even - horror of horrors - able to get out of the towns and cities and enjoy the countryside, the traditional preserve of the landed classes. And this brings us to the biggest flaw in the environmentalist argument; they want to save the environment and countryside so that it can continue to be enjoyed by everyone - but how do most people access the countryside? By car, of course. So if personal car use is restricted in the way they are calling for, who will be able to access this natural environment they've saved for us? Answer: the only people who can still afford to own and run their own cars - the BMW and Range Rover driving middle and upper classes.

Clearly, the environmental lobby's prime objective is to force the working classes back into the cities and preserve the countryside as a playground for the privileged. Who has been one of Britain's most prominent environmentalists in recent years? Lord Jonathan Porrit. The environmentalists are just another front for the deadly countryside alliance/landowners lobby - lackeys and lickspittles of the establishment. But if the green lobby was to succeed in restricting private car use, what would the result be? More working people attempting to use so-called public transport, which is, in reality, now mainly in the hands of private capitalist asset strippers, who will charge extortionate fares and still demand exorbitant public subsidies when their under-invested infrastructure proves inadequate to meet the increased demand. Once again, the tree-huggers are simply helping to line the pockets of their bloodsucking capitalist compatriots.

But should we be surprised by any of this? After all, those sons of fun the Nazis were renowned for their love of forests and were highly enthusiastic about the concept of preserving the natural environment. Its not that I'm against the concept of preserving the environment by lowering emissions, etc., but the fact is that cars are getting cleaner by the day, manufacturers have responded to the challenge. The fact is that alternatives to the use of fossil fuels for vehicle propulsion are being actively pursued. However, not only is the car a convenient scapegoat for the ills of the world, but, as we have seen, conservation is not the environmentalists true goal. So, I say we should tell these damned vegan, wispy bearded, tree huggers to take their addled visions of a nice middle-class pastoral paradise free of smelly industry and those nasty working classes, and shove it up their jacksies. What we want is a new, socialist, environmentalism which seeks to properly balance the needs of all social classes and the environment.