I heard a debate today based around the ruling by the House of Lords (the UK’s version of a Supreme Court) that the UK government had racially discriminated against Czeck Romanies by their policy of having a vetting procedure at Prague airport.

The twat from Migrationwatch, who I have heard before and I apologise for my singular lack of balanced reporting but the guy makes me fecking livid, said that the government policy was perfectly justified and they had a similar one in France which had resulted in a drop in the number of asylum claims to the UK that had come from France and a rise in the number of claims that the French were now dealing with. I couldn’t believe that he said this with sure assuredness and failure to even see that the principle point was that there were still the same number of asylum claims he was simply applauding a government initiative to keep it somebody else’s problem. He banged on about how the population was going to rise by 2 million within 10 years as a result of immigration etc. etc. I have to say at this point I’d dispute some of the facts, we’ve had immigration here for a long time and yet population is if anything on the decline in the EU and certainly the younger sections are proportionally down which is exacerbating the pensions crisis. This is the same guy who was talking about the flodgates opening when the expansion of the EU allowed free movement of Eastern Europeans, this mass immigration did not happen.

The Migration Watch representative did not give any info regarding emigration from the UK, he did not put forward any plan to stop immigration by rebuilding infrastructures in the countries these people are coming from. He did not propose any solution about putting international pressure on countries that persecute and hound out minorities. No, quite the contrary this guy wants more British Immigration officials installed in African countries to stem the asylum seekers from there. Presumably these officials will take on the mantra of the French or German tourist board and suggest that asylum seekers would much rather go somewhere else. At the moment Britain allows proportionally less immigrants than either France or even Luxembourg amongst others. When asylum seekers are processed here they are not allowed to work, they are dispersed around the country and if their application is rejected they must return to their home country to launch an appeal from there.

This is a national and should be an international disgrace. I am embarrassed to be living here, I am ashamed that people in this country care so little about the rest of the worl that they would rather palm the disenfranchised off on someone else than even seek to help.

These reactionary idiots are NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard) they are something which I see as being the real product of Thatcherism in this country. Now I know most countries have them and I am sure since the individualism of the 80s and beyond that they are on the rise but nowhere does the Nimby seem more entrenched at at home than Middle England. It runs to so many facets of life but there are some I want to address with particular vitriol as well as the immigration which I have just covered.

Firstly energy: Now is there anyone out there who still isn’t sure about whether or not we have an impending problem regarding how we are going to power everything? Anyone with a brain that is, or is it just the US establishment that chooses the revisionist guide to the environment? Let’s presume then that we have accepted the need to change thigs to avoid the environmental consequences of running out of a major fuel source be it oil or coal it doesn’t actually matter.

There are basically 2 ways to provide this energy. We can go down the route of extraction or harnessing. By that I mean we can use something that has to be extracted and then used, or we can use something where we are in fact only harnessing an existing form of energy. The former is anything like coal, gas, oil and I would contend nuclear as well as it too requires raw materials. The latter is renewable energy, here we are not actually using anything up as there is a relative infinite capacity. After all if the sun stops giving off energy then we aren’t going to be in much of a position to worry about how we power our digital watches. From a purely economic situation it seems clear to me that if you are generating a product from an inexhaustible supply of raw materials like solar rays, water or wind then you are in a better position than if a large part of your setup has to include the extrapalation of the raw materials such as oil rigs, gas platforms and coal mines.

Now the Nimbys are the people who object to wind farms because they deem them unsightly, whether they would feel that a nuclear power station was any more aesthetic I do not know but I’m sure there again if they firmly believed nuclear was the only option they would still complain about the dangers of radiation if the power station was built anywhere near them. Thanks to Big John we have the proof, as if it were really needed, that the Right Tosser DisHonourable Tony Bliar is amongst the Nimby numbers the story is here. To illustrate the paradoxical nature of the Nimby arguments take the airport expansions, Nimbys are almost always opposed to airport expansions etc. on environmental groungs, this is because generally the Nimbys live in nice rural areas and suddenly they become aware of the views. I would not be against this in itself but it is precisely the Nimbys who tend to have the money to use the airports as their preferred mode of transport.

It is not just in this sphere that the Nimbys feel they may excercise their powers, take prisons, waste recycling centres, mobile phone masts, sex offender rehabilitation centres, these are all things that you can raise an objection against and few of us would question that there are usually strong merits to the arguments against. Some of us may feel if we’re being honest that there may be the element of the Nimby in us on certain fronts, most of us use mobile phones and are therefore sanctioning the technology not to mention having a bit of a moan when we lose signal, but how many would want a mobile phone mast next door? Despite at the moment there being no clinically-proven medical evidence to suggest any ill-effects. In addition I freely admit that I am for the rehabilitation of offenders and I believe that paedophilia is a mental imbalance and should be treated as such and examined carefully so as to understand it but I as a parent would be dismayed if such a centre were to be anywhere near my kids no matter how secure it was even tho’ the likelyhood may be that if someone were to escape and re-offend they’d be unlikely to do so right on the doorstep of the institution they were fleeing from. Likewise with waste management few would argue that at the rate we are going we are going to drown in our own rubbish the way we are going and yet we are not necessarily ammenable to land-fill alternatives near us. The list goes on.

Now my view on this is that the phenomenon comes from a lack of social conscience. More of that later.

Song Of The Day – The Smiths – Sheila Take A Bow

Original Comments:


Rachel made this comment,
I can certainly see where you’re coming from. The arrogance of some can make others sick, but they’ll stay oblivious until it affects them personally. Don’t know how you’re staying there, since you loathe it so much, but, then again, I’m not terribly fond of where I live, and you don’t see me doing anything in particular about it. I just keep getting angry.
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

comment added :: 22nd December 2004, 03:35 GMT+01
Diogenes made this comment,
Well, at least it’s not like here in Australia when a group of refugees were rescued at sea by a freighter but the govt refused to let them be brought ashore. Men, women and children were living on the deck till the govt arranged to have them imprisoned on the devastated island of Nauru.
Visit me @ http://diogenes.blog-city.com

comment added :: 22nd December 2004, 05:22 GMT+01
佛山google排名 made this comment,
佛山GOOGLE排名
你好,
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comment added :: 22nd December 2004, 15:24 GMT+01
Kitty made this comment,
I really feel for you. Some people just don’t get it, do they?
Visit me @ http://facts.blog-city.com

comment added :: 22nd December 2004, 15:47 GMT+01
A visitor made this comment,
Hey ! Your NIMBY is bigger than my one 😉
John

comment added :: 22nd December 2004, 16:41 GMT+01
A visitor made this comment,
Beautiful post, Baron. I look forward to the sequel, as I think you’re right. Everyone wants everything always right now, unless it inconveniences them in some way. I live in a place where solar power would (one would think) be a no-brainer, but its still so expensive that no one who didn’t put the panels in in the 1970s is doing so now. There’s no help, no public impetus, to make the move to renewable energy, although it’s plentiful.
I wasn’t aware the sun shone in England…;o)

Kristie [kristiesgu@gmail.com]

comment added :: 23rd December 2004, 00:14 GMT+01