Where the foxes caper unmolested, the government packs your school lunch and happiness is a confiscated television set;
THE Conservatives will propose banning plasma screens and other energy-guzzling electrical goods in a report to be unveiled next week.
The proposals target white goods like fridges and freezers, as well as TVs, personal computers and DVD players that use too much energy or operate on stand-by.
The ideas come from a Conservative group set up by David Cameron to develop policies to protect the environment and although the measures to make household electrical appliances more energy efficient are not binding on Mr Cameron, they are thought likely to be warmly received by the Tory leader.
The group will also suggest scrapping Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of the nation’s success in favour of a model that measures people’s happiness drawn up up by Friends of the Earth.
God save the Queen.
You’ll get the remote for my flat screen from my cold dead hand, Mr. Cameron.
God save us all.
So freids of teh Earth wil;l now become the government of the UK.
Does the EU know this ?
Taking lessons from Robert Mugabe and Hugo Chavez???
Britain truly is lost to the moonbats………….
I assume they will also issue Happy Pills?
Banning plasma TVs there, banning lightbulbs here, supporting Islamic education in the provinces – where the hell are the real conservatives these days?
What’s happened to their drinking water? Somebody slip Kool-Aid into it?
Don’t measure the amount of food a farmer produces, measure how happy he is. Huh?
Bizarre in the extreme.
Blight in Blighty.
Growing underclass with no attachment to British values. Half the mosques in the country under control of extremists. And moonbat rules and measurements are what pre-occupy the ruling class? Including the so-called Conservative party?
Britain may not be dead yet, but its feet are turning blue and the death watch is well advanced. I won’t be going to the funeral, but I will mourn in private.
The really terrifying thing to me is that this suggestion/promise comes from a party trying to WIN an election, not lose one.
Never mind God save the Queen, God HELP the Queen.
Liz, if you’re out there reading this you can kip at my place.
Cameron is as big an idiot as the governing lefties, the Brits have no election choices. The Conservatives are dead.
I guess the Greens will eventually rule the place, why bother with half-measures.
Kill the high carbon maintenance monarchy, ban perishables, blow up the power grids, ration candles and let the new order begin. It’s too painful watching this utter lunacy in installments.
The group will also suggest scrapping Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of the nation’s success in favour of a model that measures people’s happiness drawn up up by Friends of the Earth.
William F. Buckley, Jr., once observed that he would rather be governed by those whose names are the first fifty in the Boston telephone booth than by the Harvard faculty. I’d certainly rather be governed by the market than by Friends of the Earth.
Oh dear. I’ve wanted to visit England for years, to check out all that history and explore the country whose legacy left her colonies and ex-colonies as the best places to live on the planet. Canada, U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand, India — we all owe her a lot.
I’d better go soon, while she’s still England.
That should have been “telephone book”, not “telephone booth”.
David Cameron is so god-awful, he makes Gordon Brown look like Winston Churchill in comparison.
All British true-blue conservatives should vote either BNP or UKIP, whichever party is stronger in their riding. And make sure that David Cameron’s “Conservatives” are absolutely wiped out at the next election. Maybe then they’ll elect a staunch right-wing Thatcherite as their leader instead of a dhimmified envirocultist.
If you could objectively measure “Happiness” it wouldn’t (necessarily) be that bad of a statistic to track and attempt to maximize …
The unfortunate reality is that “Happiness” is highly subjective and what is likely going to be measured is a series of metrics which encourage the current government’s agenda. I expect that they are moving away from GDP (and moving towards a measure that includes “Recreational Hours Per Capita) because it will allow the government to effectively spin the loss of employment due to environmental regulation.
“I’d better go soon, while she’s still England.”
These stories notwithstanding, as the saying goes, there will always be an England. The UK I wouldn’t bet so much on, though. The English people are notoriously difficult to rouse–they are the last refuge of “mustn’t grumble” muddling-through deference–but when finally roused can be a fury to behold. Such rumblings, I suspect, are finally beginning to happen. Watch this space.
banning flat screen TVs makes as much sense as banning incandecent bulbs in a climate that goes to 30 below. or in the case of the NWT and Nunuvat 40 below. they can light up their little flourescent bulbs in the summer and keep them on for the rest of the year because they wont be able to relight them after october. its too bad when this whole climate think blows over and the MSM has a new focus in a few years that the remininants of policy will cost us billions. anyone care to predict the scare of 2010? we have had global cooling, Y2K, native rights, womens rights. midwifery, chinese paint, asteroids, so those are off the list,
…stand before the screen Mr. Winston Smith.
After revisiting this article it makes me think that David Cameron seems to be afflicted with the same infirmity that has John Tory by the b*lls…….
Ban babies, too. Population is bad for the planet. Ban old people, because they no longer contribute. Ban, ban, bad…oops! Sorry, I could not sustain the mindset.
Silly twits.
Let us all do our part in mocking the lunacy. It will either bring dawning comprehension, or push them over the edge.
They will probably be quick to ban washing machines … the English have always been a rather dirty people.
And of course deodorants are BAD ….
I think this may be a good thing because there will be a huge backlash. Up until now, when asked, the average person says they care about the environment, if it means recycling, maybe using less water, etc. However, when you start telling them that they can’t have their TVs and meat anymore, I think that will be the tipping point, and the end of Gore, Suzuki, and the others like them. (One can only hope)
Now they have gone too far. The outrage from the left will be deafening. How will rich british celebrities watch the latest Mike Moore fiction. These TV’s are clearly needed to fight global warming. Carbon credits that’s the answer.
Considering that the Brits already have to get a license to operate a telly, this doesn’t surprise me in the least.
They confused conservatism with conservationism. Sucks to be Brits!
With each passing day I grow increasingly convinced that Britain is simply rudderless and adrift on the liberal sea.
“a model that measures people’s happiness drawn up up [sic] by Friends of the Earth.”
I mean, for the love of Pete….
“The group will also suggest scrapping Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of the nation’s success in favour of a model that measures people’s happiness drawn up up by Friends of the Earth.”
Well, after measuring the people’s level of happiness, the plasma will be brought back pronto.
Step by step the leftist are driving the entire Western World completely insane.
Don’t forward this to John Baird or Green Steve, they get enough bad ideas on their own.
There is an added incentive for Britain….
Big screens make good muslims sad,,,
Actually this plasma ban is just an idle threat.
This proposed ban is intended to get people all worked up and then, under immense pressure from the people, the govt will allow people to buy these handy dandy carbon offsets (say $100 worth)in order to buy or keep their plasmas.
Typical sleazy commie money grab.
Britain, soon to have more TV cameras than TVs
how was George Orwell so right in 1948?
I think Friends of the Earth (FOE) just invented the new model junk science that’s finally going to replace global warming. They won’t be starting from any further off than the GW crowd and good luck to them.
And, in the spirit of science, I’d be happy to volunteer myself as a test subject for their human happiness whatzit; I’d just like to know, that’s all.
Conservatives that don’t act, sound, or in any way don’t look like Conservatives don’t get elected.Period. End of sentence. Game over.
Why is it that so few Conservative politicians realize this?
Happiness? I was happier when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister.
Hard to believe that this is the same country that also gave rise to Adam Smith. It may be that Britain is suffering from the effects of prolonged emigration where anyone with any brains or drive has left for more freedom-loving climes.
I find it very difficult to understand the type of mentality that proposes to ban electronic appliances because they use “too much” energy. Electricity is not a finite resource and nuclear power is a very clean means of producing electricity. Even if electricity cost 10 times as much/KwH, I would probably continue to use the same amount because I happen to like having my electronic devices. Firing up one of my old PDP-11 computers would probably cause widespread apoplexy among the enviroloonies in the British “conservative” party if they knew the power consumption in KwH/Kflop. I will probably never own a plasma TV as I don’t have much interest in wasting my time watching garbage. I don’t, however, see any reason to deny people who want to spend their time watching plasma TV, or air conditioning their home. As long as they pay for their power it is fine by me.
There have been widespread increases in efficiency of electronics over the last 30 years which people are blissfully unaware of. My Palm uses a miniscule amount of power but is an order of magnitude more powerfull than my last 68030 based Mac. Power management is an integral feature of most new processors and a computer that is doing nothing now uses minimal power just doing DRAM refresh. My computers are left on all the time crunching SETI@home data in their spare time, but that is my choice.
One of the targets of the enviroloonies is the “standby” function of electronic devices they believe should be eliminated. These morons seen to value peoples time at $0/hour with their demand that people turn their computers off when one is finished using them. Watching windoze boot up is excruciatingly painfull at the best of times and I do it only when absolutely necessary. My time at work is worth at least $2/minute, or 30 KwH/minute in BC. My office computer dissipates 250W or 6 KwH/day. The math is simple; it stays on all the time. Also neglected is that devices such as hard disk drives don’t like being power cycled. As well as heatsinking my hard drives, I only power them down for computer repairs/cleaning in order to preserve their life. I don’t like the inherent fragility of hard disk drives, but until it becomes more economical to replace them with flash RAM or some other non-mechanical storage medium,they stay powered on permanently.
If electricity consumption habits of people should be changed, I think it should be in the direction of decentralizing power generation to make society less vulnerable to power disruptions. This could take the form of government subsidies to cover ones roof with solar panels or in-home fuel cells. If the enviroloonies were capable of any rational thought, they would be demanding that many electric appliances be supplied with personal generators to power them. This would attack the problem of generalized obesity and lack of fitness in the population by making people pedal hard in order to watch their soaps.
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blpic-princeharrynazi.htm
Yes of course God Save The Queen.
But it might be useful if Harry didn’t don the Nazi uniform as it is confusing the terrorists.
And where in God’s name is Winston Churchill when you need him?
Aldous Huxley was right. Given the current trend, expect to see “soma” on your grocery store shelves in the near future.
Aldous Huxley was right. Given the current trend, expect to see “soma” on your grocery store shelves in the near future.
My “Nut-root” alarm is going off after reading this one !
Welcome Britons! We’re sorry to hear about the death of your country. We have space for you. Just leave your spy cameras and your dentists behind and come on over. Northerners may be required to pass an ESL test before obtaining citizenship.
MY Plasma TV>>> “From my dead cold hands, tyrants!”
😀
Bay any chance has Monty Python taken over the Brit parliament…perhaps the can call their party the “silly party”.
BTW: Politicans using the scare of limited energy in a world where clean renewable electrical generation is a long standing fact, has all the mire of machiavellian statecraft on it.
I would tell Mr. Cameron if he has a hardon to save power, turn off the 14 million CCTV cameras he uses to spy on citizens with…or better yet sell off their electronic civilian surveillance grid to the Chinese and buy some high output nuclear generating plants with the money…that would free up enough electricity for people to live normal lives without Orwellian government intrusion.
WTF are you folks feeling so high and mighty about? The same thing ISN”T happening in this country? Harper is making Joe Clark look right wing. Sprinkling the East with cash and Quebec with cash and trash. Government inexorably intrudes on our lives in this country. And no one, NO one seems to be able to do anything about it. The sad part is, you guys are what passes for Conservatives in this country and what effect are you having? Kate testifies and you’re the amen chorus. The Conservatives are about whatever it takes for political success. Apparently the mutual masturbation here fulfils the remaining conservative void.
Well gd, I joined the CPC and the Ontario PC parties shortly after I returned from the Land of the Free, because the taxes and regulations here disgust me.
I call people in the party and tell them stuff. Stuff like “more tax cut now please!” and “how about dumping that damn gun registry?” and “faster please!” They know their continuing contribution base is dependent on keeping the likes of me happy, because the likes of me is what got them this far. Thousands of me. We won’t take no for an answer.
However, socialism didn’t screw us up this bad in an afternoon. You’re looking at the results of 35 years of continuous rat-nibbling, in which I include the Mulroney PCs, incidentally.
We are not going to fix all that in an afternoon either. Its going to be a long slog with plenty of pauses for major ass kickings in the CPC and the other parties too.
So jd, what have -you- been doing about it? Other than offering hit-and-run insults that is.
To those wishing to visit England while it is still England – better hurry up:
Senior judge wants everyone’s DNA
“The entire population of Britain — and every visitor — should be added to the national DNA database, a senior judge has argued.”
“Appeal Court judge, Lord Justice Stephen Sedley, said the database, which holds the DNA from millions of suspects and crime scenes, should be extended to all residents and even tourists, in the interests of fairness and crime prevention.”
Apparently blacks and South Asians (religion?) are vastly overrepresented in the existing DNA database. CBC’s The Current had good coverage of this last week in case anyone wants to check the archives.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070905/tuk-uk-britain-database-fa6b408_1.html
…i wanna be the “Minister of Silly Walks”
interesting that asians and blacks are over represented?
right now they only DNA test people convicted or charged with a crime, the DNA base should be proportional to that.
I’d say that the fascists (BNP?) will do well this time. This is a problem for both the electorate and the elites.
I believe it was Steyn who said if the mainstream parties refuse to debate issues that are important to the voters the fringe parties will.
If the damn fools over there in the governing elite don’t give the people some real choice and real change, I forsee a very large problem arising.
Fascism looks good to a lot of people when compared to Theocracy – whether Muslim, Dogmatic Secular-humanist-socialism or Environmental. Time for the mainstream to head that off before it’s too late.