A tale of two issues - by Richard... Monday, November 02, 2009

A tale of two issues - by Richard... Monday, November 02, 2009

Just fifteen percent of people in Britainworry about climate change and how the world responds to the problem - down from 26 percent last year. It scores less than Gordon Brown

By contrast, in a Guardian/ICM poll in May, 22 percent indicated that "Europe" was the chief concern.

In other words, despite the global hype and their best efforts to ramp up the fear, stretching back two decades, the warmists and the politicians have failed to covert us to their bullshit religion.

How interesting then it is that the politicians tell us that the EU is not an issue, because it consistently features low in the list of voters concerns. And that is with them after doing their best to keep it on the back-burner. Yet, despite the low ranking of global warming, they rush around like headless chickens, ordering us to change our life-styles, give them lots of money, fill our gardens and streets with recycling bins ... etc., etc.

This has to tell you something about politicians. And we are not alone. Worldwide, the number of people "worrying" about global warming has fallen by eight percent to just over a third in the last year. The figure in the US is only 18 percent. In Australia it is 22 percent.

For the UK though, nothing better illustrates the disconnect between the people and the politicians. Their concerns are not our concerns. Our concerns are not their concern. And that is why so many people are not concerned about them. 

Soon enough, that lack of concern will express itself as something more tangible than a low turnout in elections. The political system is living on borrowed time.

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He doth squirm too much - by Richard...

Note the penultimate item ... no mention of ratification there (click the pic to enlarge). And then there was the speech by Dave on 26 May 2009, under the title: "Fixing Broken Politics".

"A progressive reform agenda," Dave said, "demands that we redistribute power from the EU to Britain and from judges to the people." He went on:

We will therefore hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, pass a law requiring a referendum to approve any further transfers of power to the EU, negotiate the return of powers, and require far more detailed scrutiny in Parliament of EU legislation, regulation and spending.

Once again, there is no mention of the referendum being conditional on the treaty not being ratified. Methinks little Tim Montgomerie doth squirm too much.

The fact is that Dave promised a referendum ... not once, but several times. There was no mention of that being conditional on the treaty not being ratified.

And those sages who bleat that a referendum would be closing the door after the horse has bolted are missing the point. Politics is as much about symbolism as it is practicalities. The "folk" memory is that Dave promised a referendum. The Sun readers didn't look at the small print. Now, "Tory Toff Dave" will be seen as just another slimy politician who doesn't keep his word - which is exactly what he is. 

The point here is that, even if the merits of a referendum are entirely symbolic, that does not make them unimportant. Apart from lodging Dave in the public mind as a man who kept his word, a strong "no" result would strengthen his hand with the "colleagues" who would find it harder to reject an IGC when there was a referendum "mandate".

A mere manifesto commitment, buried in the welter of general election promises – which seems to be the new offer - does not have the same strength. This will undoubtedly cost Dave votes, although he thinks he can do without us. That is the bottom line, but – of course – we will not leave it there.