09 June 2004

NOABYS

IE "Not in Anybody's Back Yard". Environmental activists evolve from nimbys to a more solidary approach. I found the following comment about the wealth index especially revealing.
"The makeup of complainants also confounds the old image of the middle-class environmental protester and suggests that poor people fight more for their environments - or are the most affected by developments. Of 500 cases examined in detail by ELF, nearly half came from people over 50, but the wealthy were found to be the least likely to complain about the deterioration of their local environment."

Why is that? My guess is that it has something to do with the sense on the part of the wealthy that they can always buy their way out of trouble and in any case they often already have [big gardens, trees etc etc], whereas the poorer know that this isn't an option and only exercising political muscle will get them help.
Maybe.

Shame that windfarms seem to be one of the things campaigned against.

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"Spend and tax" not "tax and spend"

 I got a response from my MP which got me kind of mad. You'll see why as I reproduce it here. Apologies for the strange changes in types...