George Monbiot
Category Eco / GreenThose of you who know me well, know I don't read a newspaper or spend hours watching BBC News 24 - or any other news channel for that matter. I don't much hold with the media. However, recently I have discovered George Monbiot's site which allows me to read his epiphanic* weekly column for The Guardian without sullying my hands with rubbed-off newsprint.
I am lucky enough to be attending the 'Changing Climate, Changing World' event in the Edinburgh International Book Festival next month, where I will get to see and hear him talk on climate change and what needs to be done. He does not pull punches in his writing and, although scary, it is extremely enlightening. I would recommend adding him to your reads if you haven't already. He is a 'must' for anyone remotely green in their thinking.
His latest article, which landed in my RSS feed this morning, is not on climate change, but on the Trade Unions in the UK. Now, to be honest, that is not something which interests me much, but about half way through I found this absolute gem of a sentence:
"The unions’ involvement with the Labour Party is rather like the government’s special relationship with George Bush: their response to being used as a doormat is to become just a little more bristly."
and it just made me laugh out loud at its accuracy and be glad that someone with such a public voice had captured the image so perfectly.
A few weeks ago, when mr tb FINALLY announced he was going to hand over the reigns of power, Morgan had a post on the topic and, in a uncharacteristic gesture I commented on the not so good things that Britain has had to put up with under tb - uncharacteristic as I tend to stay away from on-line politicking - but I didn't have the facts to hand and so it was not a well-researched comment. George came to my rescue today and beautifully summed up what I was trying to say:
"It is true that some important victories have been won since 1997. We have a minimum wage, better pension protection, improvements in parental leave, better conditions for part-time workers. The list of defeats is much longer. There is the private finance initiative, doggedly promoted by Gordon Brown, which now dominates the provision of most public services. There is the creeping marketisation of health and education. The government promised the unions that it would give employment protection to temporary and agency workers. Instead, it has obstructed the European directive which would have introduced it; when a backbencher proposed a private members’ bill, a government minister talked it out. Tony Blair preserved the opt-out clause in the EU’s working time directive, that allows bosses to blackmail their workers. The government has refused to repeal Thatcher’s draconian union laws. After ten years of broken promises we still don’t have a corporate killing act. Inequality has reached scarcely imaginable levels, tax evasion is rampant, the railways are still in private hands, council housing remains moribund, companies don’t have to publish operating and financial reviews, the minimum wage is far from being a living wage. And there is the small matter of an illegal war in which perhaps a million people have died."
Thank you George.
I urge you to add George to your list of must reads.
* I'm not sure the word epiphany has yet been given an official adjective, but I like it and it suits. Who said language isn't dynamic?!
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Comments
Posted by T At 21:47:48 On 10/07/2007 | - Website - |
this post gives me courage.
Posted by jonvon At 15:45:07 On 10/07/2007 | - Website - |