Britain is not just a "nanny state" anymore. That term is too genteel.
That anyone in the United Kingdom could propose with a straight face mandatory carbon ration cards for every adult in Britain -- total control of every movement of every citizen, in other words -- and that a reporter and editor would actually publish such a proposal as straight news -- is evidence of how far the U.K. has fallen toward the abyss of total loss of personal and economic freedom.
Every adult should be forced to use a 'carbon ration card' when they pay for petrol, airline tickets or household energy, MPs say.
The influential Environmental Audit Committee says a personal carbon trading scheme is the best and fairest way of cutting Britain's CO2 emissions without penalising the poor.
Under the scheme, everyone would be given an annual carbon allowance to use when buying oil, gas, electricity and flights.
Anyone who exceeds their entitlement would have to buy top-up credits from individuals who haven't used up their allowance. The amount paid would be driven by market forces and the deal done through a specialist company.
MPs, led by Tory Tim Yeo, say the scheme could be more effective at cutting greenhouse gas emissions than green taxes.
But critics say the idea is costly, bureaucratic, intrusive and unworkable.
The Government says it supports the scheme in principle, but warns it is 'ahead of its time'.
The idea of personal carbon trading is increasingly being promoted by environmentalists. In theory it could be used to cover all purchases - from petrol to food.
Does anyone in Britain -- or on the left in America or other Western democracies -- put any value whatsoever on personal and economic freedom anymore?
Energy pervades everything. Energy is necessary for everything. Seize control of the energy use of every citizen and you have seized total control. This is communism. This is fascism. This is every form of total tyranny ever invented by the hardened hearts of humankind.
Can you picture the citizens of Britain, already forced to beg and plead for their medical care thanks to nationalized health care, now forced to beg and plead to a bureaucrat for another liter of petrol or another serving of steak?
"But, dear Esteemed Members of the Carbon Credit Appeals Board, we used up all our carbon credits to heat our home! It was a long, cold winter and we couldn't repair our leaky windows!"
"Nay, you should have used coats. If we accept your story we'll hear the same from the 412,443 other citizens who have appealed their carbon credit rations."
"But our baby was only 3 months old and my wife was very sick with -- "
"NEXT. Case Number 112,632, step forward."
"Thank you, Most Honorable Appeals Board Members. I seek additional credits to travel by jet airplane to Malaysia to visit my dear --"
"NEXT."
Is any degree of intrusion into human lives alright with you as long as it's proposed by supposed "do-gooders" like MP Tim Yeo or Al Gore rather than by presumptively "evil" men such as Tony Blair or George W. Bush? (Neither man is evil, but let's go with it for sake of discussion.)
George Bush allows overseas phone calls by suspected terrorists to be tapped and everyone is up in arms. But a proposal is floated to take total control of every movement of every adult in Britain and it's, la, la, la, no worries!
Is there no point at which you'll stand up and refuse to be ordered around like sheep? Is there no point at when you'll squash like a bug a proposal to take away more of your precious freedom -- before the proposal takes on life, shape, and form and comes to rule your days?
The MPs who proposed this, including Tim Yeo, should be laughed out of polite society and routed out of office.
The current British Government that supports this "in principle" but says the idea is "ahead of its time" should be gone tomorrow.
If Britain adopts this scheme, it will be the death of its economy.
More importantly, it will be the death of its freedom.
It almost brings me to tears to think how much of their personal freedom the citizens of Western democracies have willingly yielded up to their masters. For this, brave soldiers fought and died? For this? So that you could hand over your precious, hard-won freedom to envirocrats?
The would-be enviromasters have no greater intelligence than you do, and a great deal more narcissism. They sense only dimly how much they take when they take away your freedom. It is up to you to hold tight.
If you open your hand and release your grip on your own freedom, that is the death of your liberty, the death of all the joys that freedom brings, and the death of the prosperity that flows from personal and economic freedom -- not just for you, but for the generations that follow you.
"Give me liberty or give me death!" (Patrick Henry)
"I would rather belong to a poor nation that was free than to a rich nation that had ceased to be in love with liberty." (Woodrow Wilson)
"Do not ever say that the desire to 'do good' by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives." (Ayn Rand)
"Life without liberty is like a body without a spirit." (Kahil Gibran)
Others writing about this deeply disturbing, outrageous proposal:
Comments