John Nolan Up-to-DateJohn Nolan and Politics.

Text as before

Politics is about how you are allowed to live.

(Remember to include GM food, wind generation, energy saving. Meat run. LoTech - aim to help people with few resources to help themselves.
(Intention to create solid argument on issues such as GM food, that help the less scientific to understand the issues, so often clouded by disinformation. Active comment and constructive criticism will be welcome. Introduce idea of co-operating with Nature, e.g. the compost heap. Request for other sites to which I can link.)
(Governments should help to ease the pain of transition, not increase it. Take, for example, the beef-on-the-bone fiasco. The farmers were not the cause. It was our Government allied to the big business food manufacturers that were prepared to feed filth, in the form of poultry manure and sawdust, to animals designed to eat and digest grass. The farmers were not even allowed to know what was in these feeds. Yet, Dr. Cunningham slapped a ban just like that when the risk of CJD was estimated at 1:600,000 (later revised to 1:2,000,000), when they did little about smoking risk around 1:30,000. Nor were they worried apparently about suicides amongst farmers. Of course, the poor farmers belong to a class of people called producers, considered low-grade people in a land that worshp the consumer. But which the nobler those who are able to produce or those who simply consume ? I know my answer !! )
Our World is growing smaller relative to Mankind's onslaught of scientific and engineering "cleverness". Our World is fragile and is all we have got. One of the few government spokesmen for whom I retain respect is the Government's chief scientific adviser, Sir Brian May. He seems to be capable of true scientific thought, unbiassed by concerns for pleasing the Establishment of the day.
One of the greatest problems today is a new sort of ignorance. I am scientifically trained, and I know something of this. Some 90% of people live in the cities. Hence, 90% of government thinking is city slanted. Cities are places that are largely man made, Nature intrudes almost by default. City dwellers tend to put man made things, and hence Man - by which I mean Humankind (!) - above natural things, and the wonders of modern science and Man's "cleverness" above the beauty, intricacies, delicacy and vulnerablity of the natural world. But whilst politicians, businessmen and other power brokers may think they know it all, they know practically nothing about co-operating with the natural world. In fact, women are probably better at co-operating than men, who tend to be confrontational. Not so long ago we used to talk of "taming" Nature. Well, I think that it is possible to "tame" Nature so long as the taming is so small as to have little effect on the overall workings of Nature. Let me take two illustrations both to do with something that is a core element of our Western European civilisation - a comfortable dwelling. During the Winter, at any rate, we need to heat our inside space. For centuries, we had little discernible effect, but now everyone knows about global warming. It is not just a scare mongers myth. Then again those comfortable dwellings need to built somewhere. If they are built on river flood plains, problems. It is no good complaining or trying to "tame" the river by building banks to contain the river. All that happens is that the river will flood somewhere else, worse thatn before, or where it hasn't flooded before. If Man is too arrogant and too City or science orientated in the wrong way, e.g. GM food, Nature will hit back in the end and we shall all lose. For those who are interested, I can go into this in more detail, but I shall also be putting views for discussion out on my website. Notes So what price your health ? Both the city and the countryside need each other. In the long term perhaps the city needs the country more for we all need food, and you can't grow it in the city. But if city dwellers allow country dwellers, in particular farmers, to be bashed too far, the farmers will be forced into unhealthy practices, as we have seen, and the dlecate balance of countryside will be destroyed. Break down of lamb prices. Notes highest quality meat backed be the highest quality service. *******