Do We Get the Politicians We Deserve?

Today we got our very own Prime Minister Trump! Brothers by other mothers. Both confirmed liars and sociopaths (that's a psychopath without the axe), they yomp through life believing that everything is there for the taking. And they take it.

And we let them.

Serving the public and being a public servant couldn't be further from their minds. It is all about THEM, not what is best for their country.

But wait. Are we complicit in ending up with them?

Are we so negative and critical and cynical of all politics and politicians that no sane person in their nice mind would now consider putting themselves forward for a lifetime of public scrutiny, criticism, abuse and blame for everything down to the weather?

Has it become a chicken and egg conundrum? What came first the self-serving politician or the cynical voter?

While this particular battle was an internal one inside the Tory party. abstaining from voting seems to be the alarming means of general protest for a growing number of British subjects. But the irony is abstaining is NEVER seen as a protest against whatever array of undazzling potential leaders happen to be on offer. Abstaining from voting is seen as a BIG FAT assumption that you do not care who rules you. Silence should never be mistaken for agreement, but of course it invariably is. And 'don't care got nowhere' as our grandmothers were so fond of telling us.

If we can be exulted to be 'passionate' about a brand of ice cream or a variety of coffee, why so luke warm about the things which should matter most and have the potential to have the biggest effect on our lives? Like our leaders?

Bad things happen when good people do nothing. Whinging about who rules us or Brexit does not count as doing something.

Meanwhile we have open access to all the drugs, booze, porn, gambling, food and online addiction, ie bread and circuses, we could wish for to ensure we remain in our own little bubbles anaesthetised to reality and unlikely to rise up in any meaningful way.

The French Government live in fear of their electorate. We need to follow suit and aim for a bloodless coup or two. When we've all decided what we actually want, that is.

Meanwhile Trump couldn't be happier to have his Little Brit bro' ruling Britain.

Consumerism Will Kill the Earth

Even Extinction Rebellion is conveniently neglecting an inconvenient truth.

We cannot have rampant consumerism driven by limitless economic growth AND save the earth.

They can stop as much traffic as they like, causing as many additional fumes as they like in the gridlock. Here is what ER are NOT campaigning against:

• The betrayal of the Green Belt
• All new buildings (predicted only to last 50 years which doesn't even outlive their carbon construction footprint)
• The demolition of heritage buildings rather than their refurbishment and retro-greening.
• The failure to tackle empty buildings, brownfield sites and non-dom home ownership.
• Air conditioning
• Unnecessary travel, particularly flights
• Multiple holidays per year
• Single season fashions
• Moulded shoes which cannot be repaired
• Food miles
• Food waste
• Computers, tablets and phones having to be regularly disposed of and replaced when their software is 'no longer supported' by manufacturer.
• Smart meters NOT saving either money or the environment and costing energy to run
• The scrapping of all old but reliable energy meters in 'smart meter' favour. Plus the scrapping of smart meters when switching suppliers.
• The 'smarting' of all analogue systems, which then require disposal of analogue systems and have a lot more to go wrong with them thus contributing to their short lives.
• Hot tubs
• Jacuzzi's
• Personal swimming pools
• Banks of lights in every property and premises.
• Built-in obsolescence in manufacturing
• Vehicles written off which are perfectly repairable after accidents but deemed 'economically unrepairable' by insurers who do not wish to pay out for repairs
• Cars which require front moulded units to be replaced every time a headlight needs to be replaced
• Non recyclable 'energy saving' bulbs
• Single use plastics, among other single-use items
• Unnecessary fireworks (ie when it isn't New Year or Bonfire Night)
• Chinese lanterns
• The fall of the school bus and rise of individual journeys to drop children to/from their schools
• Unnecessary commuting to work
• Multiple vehicle ownership per household
• Building new estates where there is no existing infrastructure
• Charges on rubbish dumps, encouraging fly tipping
• Barbecues
• Unnecessary gadgets and other goods.
• Overpopulation
• Lack of cheap, reliable and plentiful public transport.
• 'The Internet of Things' which will encourage unprecedented consumption in getting people to link their every gadget to the internet!

Finally, while there is much each consumer, sorry, individual, can do, it is OUR governments who permit all of the above to be produced and sold and do nothing to discourage overpopulation.

We also need to remember that most people only modify their behaviour when they have to.

Poor people are generally automatically careful in their consumption. Wealthy people have no fear of the bills and will probably carry on wasting as many resources as they can without a second thought.

Limitless economic growth is not sustainable. On any level. Fairer wealth distribution and sensible reproductive levels are what is needed. Along with economic stability worldwide. We give ourselves the right to control animal populations when we deem them to be overbreeding (and by and large animals are far more sensible than we are and will only breed according to what the land can support) but fail to control our own numbers, and at the morally appropriate juncture, creation.