Sunday 30 March 2008

Intro

Well hello,

Here I am, adding my two pence worth to the trillions of other worthless opinions cluttering up 'cyberspace'.

Who am I? I'm an ordinary sort of guy I guess. In the real world I'm a 40-something Englishman, pen-pushing accountant, married, kids, moderate income. Never been involved in politics before, but getting to that stage in life when I have started to pay more than a passing interest in what's going on in society. So does that entitle me to preach to the masses? No! But then again I feel strongly enough about a few things that I want to put finger to keyboard about them. This blog will probably catch me when I feel most strongly about some news item or other, so may well not always be coherent. But it will be from the heart and will say things as I see them. I titled it - a little cheekily - "NoBollocksPolitics", because it's probably the precursor to me moving, eventually, into politics proper. The prefix is because I, like many I suspect, feel that in the UK at least we the populace are being fed a sterile blend of the same old fodder from politicians of whatever ilk happens to be in power today. My hope and aim is to cut through the self-interested rhetoric of our representatives and get to the core of what we the everyday man and woman of Britain actually cares about. Of course I'm one man, and I can't truly hope to encapsulate the thoughts, the zeitgeist, of every one of my co-citizens. So far as it goes I guess this is also an attempt to see if there are like-minded individuals out there who care to comment, plus or minus, on what I have to say.

My first 'opinion', just to start the ball rolling, is on population growth.

It seems to me that there are a number of elephants in an awful number of rooms. Be it immigration, global warming, economic downturn. There is a base cause that no-one, be it politician, eco-warrior or financial analyst will name. In just about every country in the world we now have record population numbers and a continual growth in populace. What are the effects of this growth on a) world food supplies, b) carbon emissions and c) land use? Every pundit I listen to seems to regard population growth as either non-existant or an uncontrovertable human right. But how can we sustain the huge increase in numbers that carries on relentlessly? The USA, to take an example - and I could take any number - has an annual population growth rate of about 1%. Not much you may say. But 1% of 300m people is 3m people per year. That's a big city EVERY YEAR. In a world with limited resources how can this continue?

"Human Rights!" I hear you cry. You can't tell people that they can't breed! But when do we reach the point when that's unavoidable. In a world with 6bn people how many do we have to accomodate before that's an inevitability? 7bn, 10bn, 20bn?

This is fundamentally against the capitalist ethos, the thinking of the free nation. But it has to happen, and that my friends, is NoBollocksPolitics.

The other defining characteristic of a NoBollocksPolitician - other than speaking the truth as he sees it - is that he/she will see reason if it is placed before him (or her). I invite you to share your views and look forward to hearing from people who DON'T agree. Because there's nothing worse than a politician who does not listen and learn....

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