Lord Prescott sounded unexpectedly statesmanlike when, speaking from the meeting about global warming which is taking place in South Africa, with scant media attention, he said that if we do not take the health of the planet more seriously we shall, in a few years' time, think of the euro crisis as a pin-prick - or words to that effect, I only heard him on the radio and have not seen what he said in print. But it is what I have been thinking.
No need to go on about wastefulness - we all know its extent - and the government wants us to go out at Christmas and buy more stuff for the sake of "growth" instead of, sensibly, saving for the rainy days which are on the way when the cuts bite more deeply. (By the way, literal rainy days are to be wished for. Is it global warming that is causing us to have a DROUGHT? In England? In winter?)
Well, one little example of daftness has just come home with my husband. He is 79, all male, and not into glamorous underwear, but his last 2 pairs of underpants (£5, "Mega Value") come in a most beautiful box! I am a collector of lovely boxes for re-use, and am grateful for this one. It is made of strong cardboard and has an inner drawer which slides out as smoothly as one in an expensive bit of furniture. But can we really justify cutting down trees to provide this bit of nonsense? We are meant to be the rational beings on the planet, but we aren't thinking.
This blog is a plea for common sense in public policy. Our leaders don't seem to have any. They just make daft rules for us to follow. We need to assert our right to use our own good sense instead of ticking boxes which can only say 'yes' or 'no'.
No comments:
Post a Comment