As promised, Dear Reader, today’s article is a report on the “Friends of the Earth Hustings” at Council Chambers, Guildhall, Helston yesterday evening.
The title of this article is in Cornish (with English translation) for we were deep in enemy territory here! You will be cheered when we can report that UKIP’s man, Graham Claderwood did not have to venture alone into this particular den of Celtic lions. Along with your Editor, there was the doughty Stuart Guppy, Chairman of the St. Ives and Isles of Scilly branch.
Whilst St. Just had caught us a little on the hop, we were fully prepared with plenty of ammunition for last night’s battle. We had prepared some material that Graham would have been able to use most effectively against Mr Andrewes (the Green Party’s candidate) at the start of proceedings. Graham was ready to “lock and load” as they say in Hollywood. [Should not that be the other way around? – Ed.]
As it turned out however, Graham was not the main target.
The format of last night’s hustings was far more ordered and controlled that the circus that was St. Just. The chairman of the meeting (a local chap who was the Friends of the Earth organiser) was an effective chairman who kept control of the proceedings. Questions were read by the questioners from the floor, the candidates answered and the questioner was allowed a retort. Naturally the candidates tended to speak for longer than the chairman hoped but he did manage to keep a check on things. In addition, the audience were generally polite and well behaved and there was very little by way of heckling.
There are six candidates contesting the seat:
Tim Andrews (Green)
Graham Calderwood (UKIP)
Andrew George (Liberal Democrat)
Cornelius Olivier (Labour)
Rob Simmons (Mebyon Kernow)
Derek Thomas (Conservative)
Mzzzzz Harridan Hatemen – sorry, Ms Harriet Harman – would of course castigate this as all are middle class white men. To which we of course retort: “So what?”
Of the six candidates the two who are clearly the most practised at the art of party politics – putting in the knife where and when it hurts – are Cornelius Olivier and Andrew George – in that order. Graham Calderwood is however a quick study. He has the appearance of a mild mannered quietly spoken retired solicitor.
This is because that is what he is.
Graham however was one of those solicitors who appeared in court and as such is able to study and master a brief.
Mr Olivier’s main weapon against UKIP is Labour’s intentional misrepresentation of UKIP’s position on the immigration issue. This is very effective in the presence of a partial (Labour/Lib-Dem) audience but much less so when deployed in the presence of others.
Graham’s weapon of choice (he has of course plenty to choose from!) is Labour’s woeful record on the economy.
Mr George’s tactic is to spend most of the time allotted to him to impress upon anybody and everybody within earshot his record in acting for his constituents. He proclaims the times on which he has rebelled against his party’s whip as his principal “badge of honour” and the principal reason why the good folk of Cornwall should re-elect him.
All the candidates are decent, pleasant and well meaning fellows.
Thus it was that when the hustings started we were expecting to launch our attack on Mr Andrewes at some point. The debate however never moved onto the ground where we were in a position to launch our attack. The one candidate who did come under attack from members of the audience was poor Derek Thomas. Mr Thomas was taken to task for aspects surrounding his Christian faith. This from a member of the audience who was clearly a militant atheist. The confrontation was ended by the Chairman who moved the proceedings on. Had this action not been taken and the audience had continued to take Mr Thomas to task, your Editor would have considered an intervention from the floor as we were not going to remain silent when a Christian was being taken to task for being a Christian. Even if the price was to give both Mr Farage and Mr Shapps the Hebe Geebees for UKIP coming to the aid of a Tory!
This aspect of last night’s proceedings was however most instructive for it shed a lot of light on the aspects of “being Green.” It must be borne in mind that a considerable proportion of the audience were Friends of the Earth members and supporters and inter alia Green Party members and supporters. Mr Thomas’s critic is an atheist. Mr Andrewes is an atheist.
This organ DOES NOT criticise atheism but it does note that the whole Green/Climate Change agenda and the notion that the emissions of CO2 by the rich First World is doing damage to and in fact killing members of the poor Third World is not only a central pillar or their argument but is in fact a central pillar of faith.
This aspect MUST be borne in mind by all those who seek to challenge the Green agenda, for we should realise that whilst they claim to advocate “Science” they in fact advocate the very opposite.
One of the pieces of ammunition Graham was going to fire at Mr Andrewes was the statement that Science does not operate by consensus.
On 26th February, 1616 Galileo Galilei was summoned before Cardinal Robert Bellarmine and ordered … to abandon completely… the opinion that the sun stands still at the centre of the world and the earth moves, and henceforth not to hold, teach, or defend it in any way whatever, either orally or in writing…..
Galileo Galilei promptly did – to save his life. This recantation however did nothing to adjust reality. That the Earth orbits the Sun and not the other way around.
The Greens will often talk about consensus. This is the consensus of the Aztec civilisation. The consensus amongst Aztec priests was that human sacrifice was necessary to stop earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The support of this consensus was an act of faith. Thus it is with the belief in CO2 and climate change. It does not matter that CO2 is the smoke and not the fire. It will not shake the faith of Mr Andrewes any more than astronomical observation would have shaken Cardinal Bellarmine’s faith in that the Sun orbited the Earth.
What this means is that the Greens will not abandon their beliefs as more and more scientists come out and show their beliefs to be false. These Greens will merely retreat into the belief that it is “Big Oil” (the oil companies) who are paying their critics to say such things.
The challenge this poses to the four other candidates and their party’s is this: For how long will they continue to pay lip service to the Viridis fides (Green faith).
Speaking the Truth unto the Nation
