Lord Melchett’s cause is not Greenpeace but green war: a war against agriculture and commerce science and the law
Lord Melchett’s cause is not Greenpeace, but green war: a war against agriculture and commerce, science and the law.The GuardianTHE RESPONSE of the original Luddites to the advent of the power loom was understandable. Greenpeace, though, is in the business of whipping up mass hysteria against multinational corporations, as it successfully did in the Brent Spar case. But if Greenpeace had been interested in scientific debate, it would have allowed this perfectly legal experiment to go ahead GM crops have so far harmed nobody. The Daily
Telegraph
LORD MELCHETT evidently hopes to inspire mass civil disobedience. In the brave new world, neither Americans nor West Europeans are shy in calling for, and encouraging, the toppling of Mr Milosevic.Providence JournalCanadaTHE SUMMIT is mostly a photo op for the benefit of the leaders junketing to Sarajevo to display their statesmanship to the folks back home.
Pretty much everything done there could be done more easily, more cheaply and better on the phone or by dispatching a few foreign-aid officials However, that would provide inadequate publicity.. The EU’s dilemma is that in the real world, it has set itself the impossible task of bringing about the development of the region while bypassing the dominant economy and people, Serbia and the Serbs. Now he must help consolidate a wider Balkan peace.Khaleej TimesUAETHE NATO leaders, led by Clinton, will be liberal with high-falutin’ rhetoric about bringing this deprived and fractious corner of south-eastern Europe into the European mainstream. Once he is gone, building a more democratic and prosperous Serbia will help cement regional stability. Clinton helped free Kosovo from Serbian rule and enable its refugees to return home. The point is not to punish the Serbs but to hasten Mr Milosevic’s downfall.
The New York Times
US
CLINTON’S MEETING with more than 30 other national leaders in Sarajevo offers a chance to get the postwar reconstruction of south-eastern Europe off to a sound start. So long as Milosevic remains in power, most international reconstruction aid will rightly bypass Serbia. Until the Tube improves, let us take our cases to the House of Lords, chanting all the way, “We shall not/ we shall not be fined”.. We cringe when we find that we have broken the rules, albeit unintentionally Our meekness merely encourages these nasty bullies Middle England can take only so much It is time for us to revolt against these grotesque fines Call for the cops and let them do their worst. Where these fine-Nazis score is in their realisation that the middle classes will always pay We become embarrassed, will apologise and cough up.
The rule of law is being bent, not by Mr Clarke, but by the Underground.Daily MailTHERE IS something quite heartening about Kenneth Clarke’s pounds 10 fine for failing to pay the correct fare on the Tube. For, if nothing else, it proves that at least one of our leading politicians is prepared to brave the vagaries of our down-at-heel public transport system along with the rest of us.EveningStandardMR CLARKE was nabbed by the fare gauleiters at Kennington station. Asked to justify such a penalty, which runs contrary to every canon of justice, the authorities point out that they are losing millions to fraud We should be clear about this. Unable to sort out hardened bilkers from the rest, the Underground finds it simplest to punish everyone found with a ticket that does not match the journey. The Daily
Telegraph
A MAN with no intention to defraud, caught on the Underground with an inadequate ticket, judged instantly to be guilty of cheating and then fined pounds 10 on the spot is very apt “to kick up a bit of a fuss”, justifiably, in our view. One of the most important rewards of risk-taking is the confirmation it provides that we are free to exercise our own judgement.Professor John Adams co-presents ‘Big Ideas: Virtual Risk’, on BBC2, Sunday, 7.30pm.
There is almost certainly a connection between attempts such as this by the safety bureaucrats to eliminate all risk from our lives and the growing popularity of dangerous sports. The more Nanny seeks to wrap us in cotton wool, the more we seek to reintroduce risk into our lives We seem to resent imposed safety as much as imposed danger. The much-loved Routemaster bus, the one with the open platform, is being consigned to oblivion because people, exercising the freedom it provides to jump on or off between stops, occasionally have accidents. The main effect of prohibition, whether of drink or drugs, has been the spawning of criminal empires.At the same time that the Prime Minister is urging us to take more risks, armies of regulators and safety officers are attempting to ensure that we take none.
