UK Politics Thread (Part 3)

Fewer people consume fewer things. Some people consume more than others based on where they live and their lifestyle. A doctor who takes 4 foreign holidays a year and drives an Aston Martin consumes more than a goat farmer in Peru. Nobody argues that. But overall, if we were to go full Thanos, the planet would be better off. Less people consume less, simple.

I wouldn’t say that if she was in a marginal seat.

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The Tory gameplan is to make it sound as though every seat is a foregone conclusion, so that people can vote with their conscience and not just against a government that they despise.

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After the last fourteen years I wouldn’t credit them with that level of planning and organisation, but ok, if Maria voting for her mate’s son ushers in another five years of Tory government I’ll eat a humble pie the size of Southall.

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Better be a lamb curry pie.

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I dont think culling all Peruvian goat farmers would achieve anywhere near the same as culling all frequent fliers. Point being you could cull far fewer frequent fliers than goat farmers and see the same impact on total co2 reductions. The figures are stacked that far in one direction.

Thats why im saying you need to target the bigger ticket items or section of the population first.

Edit. Article to prove my point. The difference is three orders of magnitude

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Really? It seems Labour are guaranteed a big majority. Surely it’s better for progressive voters to get some Greens, for example, in to hold Labour to account?

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Unless the greens are actually in with a shout of winning a seat a vote for them suits the Conservatives.

You literally have to vote against the candidate you dont want in your seat i.e. vote for the candidate with the best chance of winning against the person you dislike. The odds and system are heavily stacked in the Tories favour.

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There is also an argument around short money too - the more votes a party get, the more shirt money they can access. It’s something like 50p a vote or something.

But the biggest problem with that approach is that you are basically relying on other people to deliver the outcome you want. You are giving up your own small agency while crossing your fingers and hoping that not too many other people do the same.

I remember my first election in 1997 voting green because we were all at Uni and we thought we were being dead clever and we convinced ourselves that Labour would walk it. In the end it was a closer than we thought it was and we almost got a Tory. Never did that again.

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Haha Sir David Attenborough is a racist and halving population would ‘distract’ us from genuine solutions. Solutions such as… Electric cars? Solar? Tidal power? Better farming practices? Insulating homes?

We have lots of solutions already. The problem is they all hinge on Western governments, corporations and private equity firms who are morally bankrupt and buried the truth about the greenhouse effect back in the 70s. Sure, trust them to solve the problem!

You must be so proud of your years of fruitless campaigning. What a failure!

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But if you take a less extreme version of that then it shows the population reduction argument to be bullshit.

E.g. an American refrigerator uses three and a half times an average African’s total yearly electricity consumption

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Labour has suspended parliamentary candidate Kevin Craig after being told the Gambling Commission has launched an investigation into him, a party spokeswoman says.

Craig is the Labour candidate for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich.

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For what - a win of a couple of k, max. It is the sheer pettiness and childishness that is hard to understand.

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They should all be kicked out of politics asap if they have used their inside knowledge to make financial gains…the whole system is fucking corrupt

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There are two intertwined issues that no Party has the slightest grip on - global warming and pressure on natural resources.

Global warming is driven mainly by developed world greed and is probably best tackled quickly through bad behaviour, like taxing flying.

However nearly every country is also dealing with habitat loss, species loss, loss of groundwater reserves, more waste etc due to increased land being used for farming, housing and industry. That is a bigger problem imo. It often has global drivers caused largely by the West (eg: Ausi Murray basin drainage for cotton production, Borneo rainforest loss for Palm oil production) but a big driver is also an increased human population.

Since antibiotics, all of the worlds children live longer. That causes a problem everywhere as humans have no natural predators and are omnivores. Look out the window wherever you live and you can’t ignore the negative impact humans have on our environment.

Population is already reducing in the West due to birth control. That empowers women, enables longer education, more employment, more informed choices. Its a massive driver behind the post-1960s Western economies. It’s the cause of the massive political issue of having fewer youngsters to look after our ageing babyboomer generation. It is also a very good thing as even with our reducing population, there is massive pressure on our environment. 1 of 6 species in the Uk face extinction and that isn’t just down to global warming.

It isn’t racist at all to suggest that people outside the West might also want to plan their families. You only have to do a bit of family history to see the impact of having no family planning and being trapped in poverty with many children in the Uk 100yrs ago.

Supporting Population Matters is helping on a process that is happening anyway as people in developing economies aspire to the wealth and freedom of the West, where family planning is a fundamental part. Ultimately though, I think it is less about improving the lives of people and more about reducing pressure on resources and giving our planet a fighting chance, like it hopefully it has in the Uk.

Calling it racist is a genuine distraction from a pressing problem! Peace to all!

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Universal access to primary and secondary school (especially for girls) reduces family size in the developing world (and previously in the UK), not ‘family planning’

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Both come under the umbrella of “education”, which is the key factor… and not just in birth rates.

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Strong start to forum life there, from the lad on four posts. :rofl:

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Sexist! It might be a lass! Or something else!

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Definitely a political party plant it would seem…election fastly approaching…and all posts in the UK politics thread for someone who joined a few hours ago

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