Friday, January 12, 2007
Air Travel and the Blair Insurgency
In the course of an interview intended to outgreen David Cameron, Gordon Brown said, 'I don't do actually at the moment very much international travel for leisure.' This is an important remark for two reasons. First, yet again it reveals Brown's complete inability to resist an opportunity to stab Blair in the back. Blair had just said he wouldn't be giving up his long haul holidays for the sake of the environment. When - if - Blair stands down and when - if - Brown succeeds, I forecast British politics will mirror Iraq's. The Shias - Brownists - having gained power, they will do all they can to suppress the Sunnis - Blairists. The Sunnis, meanwhile, will launch a fantastically brutal insurgency, the main weapon of which will be Blair's insistence that the entire New Labour projected was, from its inception, crippled by Brown's vengeful bitterness. Shia death squads will then be sent in and US troops will ... well, perhaps not. The second reason Brown's aside is interesting is that it raises the question of whether giving up air travel is entirely rational. Anatole Kaletsky thinks not, primarily because it accounts for only a very small proportion of global emissions and we have no viable substitute for kerosene, whereas we do for the petrol, coal and gas used in cars and power stations and we can, conceivably, stop the Brazilians and Indonesians tearing down the rainforests. Al Gore, on the other hand, takes the Tesco line - 'Every little helps.' I don't know the answer to this, but since global warming is real and since green credentials are now a serious force in politics, I do know it matters.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Perhaps Americans should use air travel far more. It might be helpful for them, in choosing their politicians, to know for certain that some of the places they are bombing are real and not mere abstractions. Of course, package deals to Saddam's Iraq or walking holidays in Afghanistan were never on the cards, but I just wonder sometimes what the average voter really thinks when he or she contemplates what Mr. Bush is doing on their behalf. Is US imperialism connected in some way to a widespread cultural insularity or is that just cliched nonsense (of the kind that most American's can't find Iraq on the map)?
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Loner: Have you ever visited the United States?
ReplyDeleteBryan, so good to see those words: Global warming is real. I thought I was going crazy with all these supposedly top bloggers saying it's a myth. Over here, the roads are snowless and awash with rain. No one in living memory can recall such a situation.
ReplyDeleteFrank, I take it from the tone of your question that you are not happy about what I had to say. No, I have not visited the United States. Does that disqualify me from thinking out loud about what's going on there? I am not trying to be insulting, I was merely asking a question or two and being a bit glib about it. Of course, the US is culturally and ethnically diverse, but it seems to be also, perhaps paradoxically, conservative, nationalistic and, yes, insular in many ways. Shit, I knew I was in trouble with the "Dear Mr."
ReplyDelete