ONE PICTURE IS WORTH 10,000 TURDS

Friday 2 October 2009

THE ELECTION SEASON BEGINS -- SOME CAUTIONARY WORDS

THE ELECTION SEASON BEGINS -- SOME CAUTIONARY WORDS


For at least the next six months and probably longer, we will be bombarded by various kinds of election propaganda from all the expected and usual sources and of course from some less likely ones who have somthing to gain. It is therefore very important that we lobby ALL candidates whether for local elections or for the looming General Election and remind them that the majority of the public in this country and across Europe are opposed to water Fluoridation and will not be voting for or recommending those who say they are in favour of this redundant, wasteful and dangerous practice.


Friends of the Earth are not affilliated with any political party although there are undoubted sympathies with some of the aims of The Green Party and some LIb Dems at the Local Level from some of our members. We cannot as an organisation therfore be seen to be be publicly recommending any political party lest the Government use it as another excuse to saddle charitable groups and organisations with even more draconian controls which limit groups powers to actually be useful. This does not mean that when we see environmental stupidity we should not name and shame the offenders, whosoever they may be. If we did not we would be failing in our aims and duties.

This method was referred to by the late and certainly great Andrew Lees as the "the carrot and stick approach." ie. If someone wishes to or better still actually does, something environmentally usefull like for example standing up against fluoridation we get out the carrots and distribute them, on the other hand of course if we encounter those who seek to defend and continue this barbaric and outmoded practice its clearly stick time.


In the Thatcher era its true that the Tories did pass some useful legislation on water quality for rivers and drinking water etc but usually only after much local and national pressure from a wide range of green groups and also leaving large holes which smart lawyers and polluters could drive a coach and horses through. New Labour made many large promises in the run up to 1997 most notably to be "the Greenest Government ever" but other than joining in the clamour about Global Warming and CO2 emissions has done even less than the Tories did. If the Conservatives "rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic," New Labour "repainted them." Sadly, i dont seem to get many canvassers knocking on my door nowadays, do you think it could have been something that I said?

I will leave you with some wise words in a quotation by Noah Webster of American dictionary fame, sent to me by a campaigner in the USA. "If the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded.": Noah Webster - (1758-1843) American patriot and scholar, author of the 1806 edition of the dictionary that bears his name, the first dictionary of American English usage."

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