Saving the Environment?

In my youthful days back in the mists of time in the 70s and 80s, my dad was green.

We didn't know it at the time... We just thought he was tight: the product of a poor wartime and post-war upbringing in a house crammed with siblings, a house that was later knocked down in "slum clearances."

Perhaps it was also one period of unemployment - when he and my brother were unfairly dismissed. It took years to get remuneration for those sackings and I daresay in hindsight it was a real uphill struggle to bring up a family, pay a mortgage... not that I realised that as a youngster. Sure we didn't have a lot and looking back some Christmases had fewer toys than friends in school etc. - but we didn't mind and we were generally happy and content.

Anyway, to return to my Dad's "green" criteria. He'd go around the house switching off lights (and anything else!) that weren't being used (you could hear him mumbling something like "it's like Piccadilly Bloody Circus in this house").

He kept everything that "would come in handy one day" and the shed would be full of half-full (never half-empty!) paint tins, pots of nails and screws, ropes, and various odds and ends from previous DIY jobs. He would never buy something new when there was something old that could be used...

We had no idea this was environmentalism... we just thought he was naturally tight as a duck's butt. I once asked him (in the days when Levi jeans cost circa £35 - £50) for some money for a pair of jeans and he gave me a tenner (with a "bring me the change" look in his eye).

Anyway, I digress. Forgive me for painting this picture. I do so for a number of reasons:

# To those of us who weren't born with silver spoons in their mouths, making ends meet and balancing the budget often meant "husbanding resources" like that.

# The politicians who put on a Green persona to win votes and appear cuddly are still well short of the mark because most of them do so for cosmetic reasons.

(Pictured here: Tony Blair and family, plus his mother-in-law, with Romani Prodi, having used an official RAF jet plane in 1998 to go on holiday. Fill yer boots Tony!).

Today, on the day when Tony "Mass Murderer" Blair announced his resignation (why the end of June, why not now?) he did so in Westminster - then was driven to RAF Northolt (just outside London, still in Middlesex) and flew to his constituency in Sedgefield.

He talks about carbon footprints and saving the planet - but rather then be chauffeur driven or go by first class train, this hypocrite chose to fly over such a short distance.

My dad walks an extra 20 minutes to go to his club - out of loyalty, but also because the beer is cheaper! My dad is still greener than Tony Blair!

Yesterday, with talk of the 1/4 percent interest rate rise (which did happen today) by the private usury business The Bank of England, there was footage of Gordon Brown (pictured here with Jewish American bankster boss Greenspan) being driven out of his home (one of many for all I know).

He was in a 4x4. Probably a reinforced bullet-proof 4x4 - all of which will eat up the petrol/diesel. Whilst he tries to tax the poor out of driving such vehicles and goes on (and on and on) about carbon footprints and saving the planet there he was, bold as brass, being driven in one of the "gas-guzzlers."

My dad has always had cars with an engine size of 1 - 1.4 litre, always managing to fill up with petrol when near the cheapest petrol station in the area (I remember queuing for petrol with him the 70s on the day before budget day!). With his small car and his walking to the pub and to get the paper, my dad is still greener than Gordon Brown!

To bring it closer to home, can I say that for all their Green credentials all these Guardianistas (like the recent family on BBC's Newsnight who tried to live without a car etc.) still insist on flying to various foreign holidays, thus in one fell swoop undoing all their Greenery...

The next time Blair (maybe on his lecture circuit) says he's a Green Man remember his RAF Northolt-Sedgefield trip for just a couple of hundred miles.

The next time Brown says his Carbon Footprint is balanced remember his chunky 4x4.

These people always tell us (and tax us!) to live how they see fit, remember that they are churning out "carbon emissions" ten to the dozen... and planting a few trees with taxpayers money doesn't cut the mustard!

It's a con job! We're all bullied and taxed to do as they see fit, whilst they do whatever the Hell they like just because they can afford to pay for tree-planting or whatever other conscience salving B.S. is in vogue at the time.

My dad was turning off lights before these people entered the public arena with their claptrap and their taxes. He'll still be turning off lights as they jet around the world.

He might do it because he remembers what it's like to live in difficult times, and no-one in the wider world knows about it -- but I know who I have more respect for, and it's not the two-faced money-grubbing politicians who tax us to death (and even tax us after death!).

That's what I think every day as I switch off the lights my kids have left on, grumbling to myself "it's like Piccadilly Bloody Circus in this house."