Who hasn’t come across examples of blatant hypocrisy displayed by the ‘great and good’, in the Westminster swamp or in the leafy shires where the WFH crowd lives! Who isn’t aware of the various wails from the Thunberg acolytes, keen to glue themselves to public highways in summer – funny how they never do such protests when it storms and rains – and spraying buildings and artwork with orange paint when it’s colder. 

We’ve heard how ‘saving the planet’ is all about saving it for the younger generation. There are daily examples of how the great, good and luvvies jet to one ‘earth summit’ after the other, in private jets because commercial flights are for the unwashed plebs and need to be forbidden. ‘My CO2 footprint’ is green – yours, you ignorant peasant, is unacceptable.

And now there’s this: a report in The Times, no less, about ‘Young people failing to act on carbon concerns’: how embarrassing! It’s about a study, showing that young people are taking less action to lower their carbon footprint than older Britons and are much worse at taking simple steps to help the environment, such as recycling.” (link, paywalled)

How could this be? Aren’t their schools and Unis teaching them green crap? Are they perhaps – perish the thought! – just regurgitating the incessant green propaganda they read on their smartphones while doing as they like? Why aren’t they doing as their elders do:

“The over-65s are also more likely to have reduced the number of flights they take, to take steps to save water, to repair items, to wash clothes at low temperatures and to choose a renewable energy tariff. They are also more likely to turn the heating down and switch off lights in rooms they are not using.” (link, paywalled)

 Of course, this being The Times, and keeping in mind that the general agenda is about blaming ‘the old’ for everything, the excuses are coming thick and fast (my emphasis):

“While some of the findings may be the result of older Britons being more thrifty or having more time to take the practical steps necessary to cut their emissions […] There are some areas where 18 to 24-year-olds are doing more than older people, however. Young people are more likely to walk or cycle than older people, although this may be due partly to becoming older, and they are more likely to be vegetarian or vegan.” (link, paywalled)

Why ‘older’ means people are less likely to walk – don’t ask, I haven’t a clue! Perhaps ‘older’ describes the posh denizens in the shires who can afford to be ‘green’. Is this why they can afford taking their holidays in places where they can learn such handicrafts like carpentry? Emma Duncan in The Times who went on just such a holiday lovingly reports:

“Once converted to handicrafts, I discovered that everybody is taking them up. Friends have been off on courses making cloth, pottery, bread and dry stone walls. The urban middle classes are paying to do the work that medieval peasants would have murdered their feudal overlord to stop doing. That’s economics for you. Making and mending come naturally to us, but capitalism has no room for amateurs and technology has mostly wiped out the jobs that let us touch and feel things.” (link, paywalled)

Ah yes: ‘tis the fault of capitalism which provided the plebs with washing machines, hoovers, mass produced clothing: all alleviating the drudgery and allowing bored housewives to enter the ‘job market’ and becoming ‘feminists’, allowing them to pontificate from the great heights of The Times about the ‘experience’ of making a chair or knitting some jumpers while on holidays where their every need is catered for. 

What if all those appliances were taken away because they need electricity which will have to become rationed when “we” need to run e-vehicles only? When people – male and female – will have to do the washing ‘the olden ways’, will have to do  the daily shopping to feed their families without fridges and freezers? Will the ‘great and good’ still praise ‘handicrafts’?

I am cross though because yon author used the famous WWII slogan “Make do and mend” in the title. This had nothing to do with the ‘joys of handicrafts’. Given the ongoing nudgery in our MSM, can we expect ‘guidance’ about coping with inflation and green crappery by knitting and mending their kid’s stockings and their husbands’ socks, turning collars, mending bedclothes, patching up rents and holes in jeans and jumpers? 

Nah – that is drudgery and who’d do that when there’s still so much stuff, so much ‘fast fashion’ coming from China! Let the politicians wail about that, let the Thunberg acolytes  bleat about the planet frying, blame ‘teh old’ – but only as long as it doesn’t interfere with their lifestyle. And then they wonder why ‘teh yoof’ only pays lip service to all those ‘urgent’ concerns.

That’s all I have for today. There’s a new generation of hypocrites, eager to yap but not to do. Perhaps we ought to learn from them, about how best to pay lip service while doing as we please. Have a good day.