It is one of my abiding fascinations how some sorts spot one phrase in my writing and latch on to it in order to dump on me.   I'm not referring to the usual Lil'Elves, especially the ones who think that their personal axes are not obviously being ground, but to the ones who see, for instance, the words "tree-hugger" and get all precious about my heinous denigration of the valourous defenders of the environment.

My failure to swoon at the feet of assorted NIMBYs and screechers of slogans, not to mention amateur (and this not in the complimentary sense) environmentalists whose grasp of science is limited to what they glean from the 'Net, is well known.   This does not mean that I want the landscape to be rendered a blasted wasteland or anything like that, though I don't imagine that my detractors will believe this.  Care I do not.

So, what is it about the valiant protectors of our environment, that they only feel their hackles rising when (what they see as) the problems can be laid at Government's door?    When a Nationalist activist or anyone associated with the Nationalist Party has some sort of planning issue reported on, it's as if the sky is falling and Chicken Licken screams and shouts and runs about like, erm, a headless chicken.

When, on the other hand, a Labour activist or anyone associated with the Labour Party has some sort of similar issue, quite apart from the fact that it doesn't get much coverage in the first place, Chicken Licken remains quietly in her coop, with no screaming, shouting or running about at all.

Where are the environmentalists, the proper ones or the pseuds, now that planning issues have raised their heads and nodded in the direction of the Hon Galdes and the Sisters Mintoff?  Perhaps they have other things on their mind, such as fostering proper race relations and muttering about "coloureds" and being worried about Hungarians, Rumanians and whatever other aliens attract their attention.

For that matter, where is the mainstream media, at the beach or something?   The Sisters Mintoff are  up close and personal with a major developer, in circumstances where a reasonable man or woman (and thus not a tree-hugging NIMBY of the local variety) would ask pointed questions about how the developmental potential of a nice chunk of land was rather conveniently changed, but no-one has asked any such questions that I can see.

And before the rabid conspiracy theorists start mumbling about oligarchic networks of opinion writers given their instructions by some master of the dark arts, yes, I've picked up this story from elsewhere and run with it - do you have a problem with that?

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