When the Green party in this country were sucked into power last year by the great vacuous siphon of Fianna Fáil, I thouhgt to myself, this is no longer a party of idealists and tree huggers led by the political incarnation of Duncan from About the House; this is a Marxist and Sellout Party.
Sadly I have not yet been proven wrong. Despite all their fluttering and spluttering like a diesel engine under water, the party has stood fast in its only stable belief at the moment – it’s better to be inside the tent pissing out than outside pissing in.
I recently read an article in the mainstream printed media that cited further rumblings from the Green Party about further taxes on our emissions, our fuel, and pushing, pushing, pushing us further towards a carbon tax on every man woman and child. All this despite the fact that the country already has one of the higest global costs of living and the fact that we are in serious recession with no free money to spend on taxes that will be unavoidable if such measures are taken.
Recently I had the pleasure of spending lots of hard-earned money to get a BER certificate survey performed on my house that I am selling. The guy who did the assessment is a top guy and a true professional but enlightened me to the fact that half the assessment is guess work and based on assumptions. It doesn’t matter that you have a gas boiler that you may never use to heat your water it still brings down your rating if it’s not 100% efficient and many more stupid assumptions. So much in fact that a 5-year-old, modern home, with good insulation and double glazing was awarded the average rating of a D2, which is pretty low down the scale. Imagine introducing a carbon tax on that? Imagine what anyone with a 20-year-old home is facing!
Another thing that particularly annoys me about the Green Party in this country is not only do they choose to ignore EU stupidity such as the BER system and its impact on people but they also choose to ignore our own national stupidity. Just over a year ago the new road tax system came into being and vehicles were to be taxed on their emissions. On face value a wonderfully progressive idea, even if it doesn’t take into consideration that somebody might only drive 1000 km per year and have almost no emissions. However, such was the stupidity of our implementation that all possible Green intent was striped from this plan when it was announced that it only applied to cars registered in 2008 and beyond. Imagine an outwardly Green policy to reduce emissions and save the planet is actually encouraging waste, disposal of existing cars and purchase of new cars, incurring shipping, manufacturing, etc waste and emissions and dissuades people from the primary function of environmental consciousness, to recycle and reuse. Yet again our Green policies are nothing more than penalise the majority and tax everyone. Everyone knows that the only sensible way to be environmentally conscious about vehicle emissions is to tax the usage, i.e. tax the fuel and do away with road tax. Alas that idea would never fly.
Yes, our dear Green Party presides over a government of incompetence that sits only to tax and taxes only to cover its own blundering expenditure rather than putting any thought into policy making and budgetary planning. Indeed I think it is fair to say that the only shade of Green left in this party is that which reflects the envy of how Fianna Fáil have managed to garner so much power and that Super Duncan and co will never realise such ambition.