Green Hypocrites?
On a number of occasions, I have pointed out that the elitists who are pushing the biggest "environmentalist" agendas like global warming have no intention of living with the limits they plan on imposing on the less-than-elite. The phrase I use for that is that they will wave from the limousine as they pass the shivering masses. I expect a rousing chorus of "told ya so."
Ministers are using a secret limousine service to ferry them around the country, a Mail on Sunday investigation has discovered.
Senior Labour figures are quietly using £60,000 gas-guzzlers to whisk them around in comfort – despite claims that politicians have switched to smaller, cheaper models that are less damaging to the environment.
Among the prominent politicians using the secret luxury car service is the Speaker Michael Martin and his wife Mary, who travel regularly in top-ofthe- range Mercedes and Jaguars.
This newspaper has established that a fleet of expensive cars operates discreetly from South London, away from the Westminster base of the official Government Car Service.
Kelly Executive earns £500,000 a year carrying out up to 50 journeys a day for politicians, including the Speaker, from its fleet of 30 chauffeur-driven limos.
The Government also uses a number of similar private companies in other cities. Ministers and Labour MPs such as Mr Martin frequently use the firms to pick them up from the airport and take them home.
Significantly, none of the limousines appears on the public list of cars in the official Government car pool, which handles the transport arrangements for Ministers and civil servants.
Last year the Government announced it had spent £900,000 buying 110 hybrid-engined cars for the Government Car and Despatch Agency to cut down on carbon-dioxide emissions, to show voters that it was doing its bit to save the planet.
However, it is an open secret that many Ministers do not like the Toyota Prius – of which 98 were bought.
It has been nicknamed "the milk float" by Government drivers who say the car is slow and has a "tinny rattle".
Ministers privately complain that they miss the comfort of the executive cars that the Prius replaced.
Kelly Executive has 20 S-class Mercedes, which emit up to 355g of CO2 per kilometre – well above the 226g level at which London Mayor Ken Livingstone has levied a new environment-driven congestion charge of £25 a day.
The Speaker uses Kelly Executive in London, but when travelling to his constituency home in Glasgow he favours local company Little's Chauffeur Drive, which boasts of "utmost discretion and an impeccable chauffeuring service" used by "the world's most important people".
Yes, indeed. They will tout their carbon-neutrality while riding in the finest - and least eco-friendly - cars. No worries. They'll wave if you can see them through the blackout windows. Meanwhile, in other "eco-friendly" news, the Telegraph points out that "fair trade" coffee is anything but.
“Fairtrade purports to work within the market economy but its rise has been largely based on marketing subsidies and public-sector procurement,” says Tom Clougherty, policy director of the Adam Smith Institute. Despite huge pressures on the public purse, local councils are squandering large sums becoming Fairtrade towns and cities, distributing posters and leaflets to nanny people into only buying Fairtrade. Meanwhile, the Fairtrade Foundation has received over £1.5m from the Department for International Development. It wants more. In December, reminiscent of 1970s-style industrial policy, it called for £50m of development aid to be spent as “strategic investment” on Fairtrade.
Monday sees the start of Fairtrade Fortnight, the time each year when we are hectored into paying more for a cup of coffee. Charities, politicians and primary school teachers will deliver the scheme as an undisputed good. With all this effort, it is a pity Fairtrade does not work.
Fairtrade’s supporters blame the plight of coffee farmers on world prices and ruthless multinational companies. But supporters ignore the real causes of poverty among growers. Farmers I interviewed in Kenya told me that the problems they face are not caused by global influences but their own government’s interference. They are forced to use milling companies granted regional monopolies, who fleece them. They want to boost productivity by using fertiliser, but they cannot afford the inflated prices demanded by the government fertiliser monopoly. Imported tools and machinery would transform their output but are subject to punitive tariffs. Police roadblocks slow their goods and involve money exchanging hands.
On top of that, the growers selling to fair trade programs are also selling on the free market. The free market pays premium for high quality so the best beans are sent to the free market. The leftovers are sent to the "fair trade" market to garner the guaranteed higher-than-market value prices.
It has never been easier - or more lucrative - to rape the planet.
Environment | Gaius Saturday, 23 February , 2008
By Mwalimu Daudi, Saturday, 23 February , 2008 @ 9:04 pm
I wonder if this is the same organization the the <b><a href="http://www.elca.org/advocacy/issues/fairtrade/coffeecrisis.html">Evangelical Church in America</a></b> is involved with? The whole "fair trade" shtick has been pretty seedy.
A brief aside. I was an ELCA missionary in Tanzania for almost six years (it was where I met my wife). The hard-Left political activism of the ELCA forced me to leave. Much of what the ELCA does in its "advocacy" seems to be an effort to push a politically-motivated narrow-minded brand of Christianity that considers disagreement with leftist orthodoxy as apostasy.
By terrence, Saturday, 23 February , 2008 @ 9:05 pm
We can hardly expect "the world’s most important people" to drive a Pius (aka Prius). After all, the car is uncomfortable!
This whole global warming and carbon/greenhouse gas movement is a complete farce. As H.L. Mencken said, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed and hence, clamorous to be led to safety - by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblin, all of them imaginary.”
BTW, a year or so ago, I saw an article awhile ago that trashed “Fair Trade” coffee. It included interviews with coffee growers. They said if they used new tools (like long handled hoes), “Fair Trade” would not buy their coffee beans. Too bad, if the old tools caused extreme back problems and permanent stooping, it was done for “pure” coffee.
By Quilly Mammoth, Saturday, 23 February , 2008 @ 11:01 pm
Some pigs are more equal than others. Still true today.
By syn, Sunday, 24 February , 2008 @ 5:50 am
Fair Trade=Eco-imperialism.
By OBloody Hell, Monday, 25 February , 2008 @ 11:14 am
I’m put in mind of India’s Vandana Shiva, who, while obviously never short a few meals herself (see picture), carries out a pogrom against technologies which would feed starving people:
http://www.fumento.com/shiva.html