At the time of the first fuel protests, Daily Telegraph columnist Sion Simon
called the protesters the scum of the earth. Polly Toynbee in The Guardian described
them as the forces of conservatism and enemies of the people. Cartoonists depicted the
protesters as fat uncouth yobs.
This time around the Guardian says the fuel protesters are 'fomenting anarchy'
while The Times says they are 'drunk on their own self-importance'. Cartoonists depict them
as fat uncouth yobs.
Farmers and hauliers are the backbone of the country. New Labour media lackeys
of the type of Toynbee and Simon are the scum of the earth.
It is quite clear that the government's promise to listen to the fuel protesters
was nothing more than a delaying tactic. They have used the truce simply to
re-arm and prepare for further conflict, a trick they learned from the IRA.
Instead of listening to the protesters' genuine grievances and trying to find some constructive solution, in the two
month interim the government has trained the army to drive tankers, infiltrated Special
Branch into the protest movement (ooh, those dangerous farming lorry-driving subversives), and tried to sway popular opinion against the protests
through the aforesaid media pig-whore-lackey-pigs.
And just last week Blair conveniently had a Damascene conversion to environmentalism,
presumably to allow the government to play the Green card with greater ease. This won't wash.
Those environmentalists who have been showing up on TV and in the press to say that heavy
fuel duty is good for the ecosystem give me a pain. The high fuel tax has nothing to do with
greenness and everything to do with Treasury greed. I am as Green as the next person and
certainly more so than anyone in this bloody government. Fossil fuels may be bad but it is
not possible to do without them at this stage in history. (For one thing, every single
plane flight produces more pollution than 40,000 cars running for a year. Or something. I
am not sure of that statistic, but it was big and had a four in it.) It helps no-one to
make fuel so expensive that only government ministers and corporate expense-account types
can afford to run a car. Besides, what is our alternative to driving? To be killed in a train wreck
or die of despair waiting for one to show up. Blair is a fascist who can't even make the
trains run on time.
People in rural communities need to drive a lot because things like village banks, post
offices and shops are fast becoming unknown outside Agatha Christie, and the occasional appearance of
buses produces as much excitement and fear of the unknown in those places as two-headed calves
or children with birthmarks.
People in small towns need to drive because most
of the town is now out of town.
For farmers and lorry-drivers, the heavy fuel duty threatens their very livelihood. British haulage firms lose
contracts to French rivals who can afford to fill up with cheap fuel. Many self-employed
truckers have to work so hard to make ends meet the choice is practically
between feeding their families and ever seeing their families.
As for farmers, it hardly needs me to point out their plight. The excessive fuel duty
is just one of many things forcing the small family farms out of business. Enlightened
self-interest as well as common humanity demands we help them. The disappearance of moderately sized
farms run by families who take a pride in their work, in favour of vast profit-squeezing
conglomerates, will make another BSE-type horror more not less likely.
If we lose our farmers we lose our independence as a nation. If we can no longer
feed ourselves then we are truly at the mercy of Europe and the rest of the world. In fact,
if I was the sort of person who saw conspiracies everywhere, rather than a huge, frank
corruption of all areas of life that works by depressing and enervating you with its very openness,
I would say that this may well be exactly what our leaders want.
Rather than being the bunch of hairy apes the London government-media elite appear
to see them as, farmers and small businessmen are the Gibraltar Apes of our once so lovely
little island. When they go,
Britain goes too.
I might also add that simply as a matter of general principles it is never wise to fuck around with farmers. They are well-armed
men with a special kinship to death who are perpetually grumpy from getting up early in the
morning. Indeed, I am amazed at their restraint thus far. If I had to get up at 4a.m. to
earn about five fucking pence a day, there would be a lot of politicians and supermarket owners picking shotgun
pellets out of their backsides by now.
The protesters characterized by the New Labour/media elite as the scum of the earth are nothing of the sort, neither are they frothing reactionaries or wild-eyed radicals. They are decent, hard-working people who want nothing more than a future for their families. This unfair tax is crippling them and screwing every one of us.
Anyway, here is my mother's recipe for Halloween Hotpot:
To feed around six people - all ingredients approx - vary as necessary:
5 lb potatoes or more
3 or 4 large onions
1-2 whole turnips to taste
(Whatever left from hollowing out Halloween lanterns -
the more the better)
butter large knob
salt/pepper to taste
1 lb bacon or six bacon chops (pref)
1/2 lb grated cheese
METHOD
Boil potatoes/turnips/onions until cooked
Drain & mash well. Add butter salt and pepper.
Put into suitable casserole dish - a big deep oblong earthenware one for preference
Top with grated cheese, then bacon strips or bacon chops
Sprinkle cheese with salt & pepper
Bake in hot oven until cheese is golden brown and bacon fairly crispy - Delicious!
(2000)