I seem to be in another pitched battle with the Islands Trust, an inevitability, I suppose. I like a good fight I guess, but I’d prefer not. However, the human rights record of green governments are pitiful and impossible to ignore. The Trust launches suit after suit against the residents of the islands, and all too often for silly things, resulting from flagrant over-regulation. In every jurisdiction where strict ecosystem management has been effected, local residents suffer. And the less privileged you are, the less access you have, the more you will be punished. Some months it seems, the most vulnerable are those culled: young men who work with their hands, who are trying to raise a family, older retirees who have mis-read their rule books, those needing an extra $5000 a year for dental bills, school fees, a family holiday. It is despicable and worth the fight.
In other rural areas, in working country, the situation is more serious. Poverty rates among working and middle class families shoot up when Greens move in – from 4% to 22.9% in counties in northern California. They are paid well, typically 30% more than for an equivalent private sector job. And they are predatory. The more flaws they can find in the wild, the more rules they can impose, the more secure their jobs. And for the rest of us who do not have a dog in the fight – it means higher prices for everything, a sky-high misery index for our less fortunate fellows, and secret misery for those who fight them. A creeping tyranny which does not see its deadening hand.

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