The birds and the bees.

Chinese recycler

Europe talks of the environment and waste management but manages to either dump considerable amounts of waste in the seas or export it to poor countries where we see pictures of grubby children in dirty, dusty settings surrounded by waste electronic goods, setting fire to components and touching and breathing in toxins. There are innumerable EU directives detailing what should happen to waste and countries are fined for improper disposal, hence some formerly sensible methods of disposal have been replaced by allegedly environmentally pure methods. This is well meaning but counter-productive.

'Correct' waste disposal is too expensive, too much hassle and, to the surprise of our bureaucrats/politicians, these methods are often avoided and corrupt businessmen make mutually beneficial deals. We have weak or no border or custom controls and, no doubt, corrupt officials who have allowed this trade.

The EU talks of the environmental high ground but allows enormous leeway for corruption as it cannot control its enormous budget. The Daily Mail article tells us that the price of recycled goods has collapsed, yet we will have to pay EU fines if we exceed landfill quotas. As a result it may be cheaper to pay the fines, bury the waste and pay all the extra costs of collection.

We could of course give aid to British businesses to recycle, this would be more expensive than recycled products from the developing world but would reduce contractors dumping waste at sea or in other countries and save on sea miles. This could be sold to British manufacturers cheaply to make things here. Waste cardboard and paper could be used as compost or landfill as it does no harm. However, the elephant in the room is the EU. The box tickers in Brussels couldn't allow this as this would be unfair competition. We pay over £58 billion a year in direct and indirect costs in order to belong to the EU and have such decisions taken away from our government.
waste paper mountain
A vast expanse of debris – in effect the world's largest rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan. Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" , believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region. This has received barely a mention yet we are told we must pay billions in green taxes to save the planet: put biofuel in our tanks, pollute our countryside with windturbines and destroy fishing grounds of Africa. All this, ostensibly, to preserve the environment.

Now we have the economic crisis and all that is talked about is growth. Give the poorer sections of society more money because they are likely to spend it! Throw away those old white goods and computers, buy new. This means that yet more electronic waste pollutes areas of China and Africa .....

The fact that bees and even sparrow numbers have shown a drastic decline is barely mentioned. In my area nearly every front garden is a concrete car parking space. Many gardens have huge extensions and even second dwellings - for which, amazingly, no planning permission is required. Walking around used to be pleasant with large and small gardens aglow with plants now it's just cars and concrete. The US government is spending about £8m on research into Mary Celeste Syndrome, called Colony Collapse Disorder in the US. The British government is supporting beekeepers with £200,000. Due to a lack of funds the only research laboratory, which was based in the Home Counties, was closed and one of the leading experts in this country on bee diseases was made redundant. Albert Einstein allegedly said:

“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life l
left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”
sparrows

Now, I don't think Einstein knew much about bees but he sounds pretty plausible to me.

Christopher Booker tells us that Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October's readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.Dr Hansen is also the man who had to revise his published figures for US surface temperatures, to show that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s, as he had claimed, but the 1930s. This has barely been mentioned in the MSM. Yet this man has had enormous influence on the hundreds of billions which are to be allocated to,allegedly, prevent climate change. Is this man 'fit for purpose'?

Saving our bees merits a mere £200,000 whereas billions are spent on subsidies to huge energy firms to build windfarms in the vain attempt to reduce GB's CO2 emissions by a fraction of a percent by the end of the century.

Rather than spend lots of public money building medical centres and huge alien schools'n'hospitals and at the same time taxing empty commercial properties ( so much so that owners are demolishing them), why not create green spaces? Native trees and plants could be planted and then, instead of areas of concrete and bald grass covered in litter, there could be hedges, small parks with benches and pretty, insect and bird friendly areas. Street furniture could be mended and painted, streets could be swept clean and woodlands coppiced and maintained. This would be job creation for all those young people who haven't any qualifications and in the meantime unemployed builders could train apprentices on real jobs so there are skilled craftsmen available when the economy is in a better state.
honey-bee
Reduce taxes on small shops and businesses. Cut ( apart from lowering the higher rate to 15%) or abolish VAT, but we can't do this as this is an EU competence . Encourage markets, people could once again mend or recondition things.
Disband many of the quangos and employ the bureaucrats to teach small groups of illiterate children and adults - including prisoners to read, write and count and use IT. Insist on supermarkets unpacking and sorting food waste for composting. Leave Iraq and Afghanistan.

By leaving the EU we could manage our food supply in a kind and sustainable manner and restore our countryside. All the intrusions into our civil liberties: ID cards, Contactpoint, NHS database, many CCTV and speed cameras could be abolished, tens of millions saved and perhaps traffic cops could return.

And if, smoking is banned, it must also be banned in the Houses of Parliament and the European Parliaments. This is to safeguard the health of our politicians and bureaucrats because, without them, we wouldn't have nearly enough to moan about.