AS a child growing up in New Zealand, it might surprise you to learn I was what would be known in 2020 as an environmental activist.
The ozone hole discovered above Antarctica in the Eighties was causing huge concern and I wanted to ensure I wouldn’t turn 40 living on a fireball.
I joined conservation clubs. I wrote articles. I attended events.
And I even composed and recorded (badly) a song called Reuse Refill Recycle. What I didn’t do is cause civil unrest, dig up people’s gardens, criminally damage property, shut roads, smash windows, distract police from investigating terrorists or block ambulances from getting to emergencies.
I am truly sick and tired of a direct correlation being made between the extremists of Extinction Rebellion and how much you care about climate change or protecting the environment.
I’m also sick and tired of XR and Greta Thunberg setting the media agenda on the so-called “climate emergency”, a term designed to conjure up terror in young people today. It means completely ignoring the progressive and dramatic policies that have already been enacted by the Government to make us first in the western world when it comes to pushing towards becoming carbon neutral.
It’s time there is an acknowledgement that it is possible to be passionate about the need to rebalance the environment and a believer in climate change without wanting to destroy our economy, shut down farming in the UK, force the entire population to go vegan and limit flights to one every six years.
I also implore the police to stop facilitating criminal behaviour by the XR morons.
At Trinity College in Cambridge this week, much money was spent and resources wasted on cops overseeing crimes being committed.
Not only is it completely sickening given the pressure on our emergency forces these days, the idea that XR represent in any way peaceful protest sets a terrible example to our kids.
On my new talkRADIO Drivetime show this week, prominent XR spokesman Donnachadh McCarthy attempted to compare the protests to the Stonewall gay rights activists or the civil rights movement.
What absolute baloney.
The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has acknowledged a climate emergency and the need for the UK to be carbon neutral by 2050.
No one’s human rights are at stake and such environmental leadership puts us well ahead of other major economies such as the US, Australia and especially China (whose actions undo all the progress we are making anyway).
As an aside, just last year Nasa scientists announced that the ozone hole is now the smallest since it was discovered in 1982.
That’s proof that the modern world can adapt and change the environment — sensibly and over a long period of time.
And it’s also an illustration of why catastrophising such events to terrify children is totally unnecessary.
WHAT struck me about this week’s announcement of the official Megxit transition is how much is being made of the 12-month trial period.
It feels to me like wise heads in the Royal Family think there’s a chance Prince Harry might realise he’s made a terrible mistake walking away from his country and the crown, and especially his military commitments.
The Queen is giving him a very obvious opportunity to come back into the fold in 2021 if a Hollywood lifestyle getting about on private jets to give behind-closed-doors speeches to bankers for a million bucks a go doesn’t end up fulfilling him.
But I’m also incredibly impressed by the 93-year-old monarch proving categorically she will not allow the Royal Family to be commercialised – at any cost.
Her decision to ban Harry and Meghan from using the Sussex Royal brand would have been personally difficult.
She rightly wants to try and be supportive of her grandson’s new start – even though she is very upset by his choice to quit.
But she also knows the couple’s desire to make a lot of money in the commercial sector is potentially perilous for the reputation of the monarchy.
This is the Queen drawing a line in the sand: Sorry, guys, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t be referred to as royal while hiring Hollywood advisers who have no acknowledgment of the need for the monarchy to stay politically neutral.
IMELDA STAUNTON gets two thumbs up from me for her call to ban all food – especially large bags of Doritos – from the theatre.
But I want to go one step further and get rid of it all from the cinema as well. At the very least, movie chains could offer some food-free screenings, a bit like the quiet carriage on the train.
Personally, I’m prepared to sacrifice my own popcorn for a greater good. And to the poor lady who had to sit by me on a transatlantic flight as I hoovered up a large KFC meal I had brought on board, I sincerely apologise.
I will never forget her traumatised face and promise not to do that ever again.
THE Queen of Pop has left the London Palladium and I don’t know if the legendary venue will ever see anything like it again.
Through intense pain, the superstar put on an intimate West End-style show for the ages based around her Madame X persona. She was wickedly funny, as saucy as she was in 1990 and performed like her life depended on it.
And because she made the controversial decision to ban all phones from the venue, just like the old days it’s something that will only exist in my memory.
