I would guess not, because he was complaining bitterly about the regulatory nature of the British government, in an article which drew a dry smile.
After making the confident predicition that the world as we know it will end, on the grounds we are running out of oil, Monbiot presents for our admiration a commune in Somerset. But our hippy heroes found to their dismay that regulations thwarted them at every turn:
Peasant farming, the settlers have found, is effectively illegal in the UK.
The first hazard is the planning system. The model is viable only if you build your own home from your own materials on your own land: you can’t live like this and support a mortgage. So the settlers imposed more rules on themselves: their houses, built of timber, straw bales, wattle and daub and thatch, would have the minimum visual and environmental impact.
But the planning system makes no provision for this. It is unable to distinguish between an eight-bedroom blot on the landscape and a home which can be seen only when you blunder into it.
…Then the environmental health inspectors struck…
… Tinkers’ Bubble, which has never poisoned anyone, is now forbidden to sell any kind of processed food or drink: its cheese, bacon, juice and cider have been banned.
I think it is just hilarious that the hippies of Tinker’s Bubble, who have imposed all manner of self-regulations on themselves, find themselves so hindered.
The State is not your friend, even if you are a hippy on a commune.
“It is unable to distinguish between an eight-bedroom blot on the landscape and a home which can be seen only when you blunder into it.”
If George wants an unobtrusive home I’d recommend he start scoping out attractive caves in his area. Cozy, natural, and completely inoffensive to birkenstock wearing jackasses with the infantile desire of living forever in the 60’s.
Hippies: ridiculous then, more ridiculous now.
Please don’t celebrate harm done to these people, who have every natural right to impose self-discipline on their own lifestyle, by the UK’s evil “planning” laws.
I personally hate planning laws with a passion. Along with CAP, the green belt and complex building regulations they are the primary reason Britain is so bloody ugly nowadays. They cause both suburban-desert and agri-desert, homelessness, permanent renting or impossible mortgages, ugly housing estates, crowded towns, and the total loss of character or individuality from new construction.
BTW, hippy style building techniques are not all ludicrous. “Cob” building (basically mud and straw, applied wet) has the advantage of being incredibly cheap, strong, time-tested and capable of being built correctly by total amateurs. Limewash it and it looks 200 years old. I personally don’t give a damn about the evironmental stuff, but I’ve considered building my own house with cob, so as to cut through the “work to rent, rent to work” cycle.
I do not have any intention to ‘celebrate harm’; it just seemed to me to be hilariously ironic.
Although I think hippies are quite ridiculous, I certainly defend their right to be so, just as long as they do not expect me to share their ‘ridiculousness’, as it were.
They probably had losts of trouble with building regulations, too. Like Julian, my guess is there’s a lot to be said for hippy-approved construction techniques, but I don’t imagine those advantages wash with the bureaucracy.
Monbiot’s problem is that he does approve of planning regulations, he just wants them to discriminate in favour of certain lifestyles that he approves and against others he doesn’t. Ideologically he’s very close to the planning authorities, but it doesn’t do him any good, because total control can be exercised in an infinite (probably transfinite, yet) number of incompatible ways.
The libertarian hippy approach of, “Don’t bug your neighbours, man,” on the other hand, is infinitely flexible. I’m perfectly happy to have teepees next door , and I expect to be able to build a Palladian mansion to my taste (and not be limited to a Department-of-the-Regions-approved ticky-tacky estate, or a hypermodern pile by one Tony’s architectural cronies).
Along with CAP, the green belt and complex building regulations they are the primary reason Britain is so bloody ugly nowadays.
Also three big reasons why Britain is so damn expensive, or course.
This type of story suggest some efficient tactics. Just as a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged, a libertarian is a statist who’s ever been on the receiving end of state meddling. People are generally not interested in theory: but give them a story of absurd state interference and they’ll lap it up. We can then build on that to challenge rules in other areas. If people can be convinced that the state is incompetent in one area, they’ll be all the more inclined to believe the same about other areas and the need to restrict it generally.
Example – planning permission is good. but it stops my favourite hippies. suddenly it becomes bad.
Example – incitement to hatred laws good. but they are then used to prosecute anti-US speakers. suddenly bad.
It’s a kind of conceptual judo – take the most intrusive absurdities of the statists and find a way to make those rules turn on their creators. Self interest can be expected to win out, at which point they might be less interested in further rules.
…a libertarian is a statist who’s ever been on the receiving end of state meddling…
If only that were true–the world would have 5 billion libertarians. The sad truth is, most people are comforted by authority and the way it secures their place in the chain of being. Libertarians remain rare malcontents.
Anonymous Coward writes:
“Example – planning permission is good. but it stops my favourite hippies. suddenly it becomes bad.”
Precisely. Moonbat would have had an apoplectic fit had the Duke of Somewhereshire wanted to build a palace on the same spot. Or, even worse, an oil refinery.
It would be wonderful if an event like this were to spark a complete re-examination of his nonsensical beliefs, but there seems little chance.
The logical inconsistencies will continue to pile, one upon the other, yet somehow he will still keep churning out his Left-liberal claptrap for the Guardian-reading classes.
My favourite part in the article tells how the eco friendly hippies use solar cells. Of course solar cells can be produced by any peasant type society and create no waste products when they are manufactured 🙂
The no doubt numerous readers with an interest in Tinkers’ Bubble matters may find the comments on this Daily Ablution post interesting.
Ah, the health inspectors.
No doubt you recall that in the 70s there were a couple of experiments, one in Denmark, one in Britain, where people lived for a few weeks in Iron Age houses using Iron Age techniques, to see how they got on and to make documentaries. It was interesting. But is no longer permitted, quite.
The BBC tried to re-run their experiment a short while ago, and had to abandon it at the point where everyone was compelled into galoshes.
Now an enterprising couple is offering a Living History holiday along the same lines
You’ll note however the extensive Health and Safety guidance. Somehow the world must have changed more between 1975 and the present than it did between 100BCE and 1975.
Good ol’ Moony. He’s funnier than The Onion. What WOULD we do without him?
I am currently doing a case study on Tinker’s Bubble. I was wondering if anyone could help me gather info within the line of environmentalist, as I need to provide 2 1000 word essays on this part of the subject
If people could e-mail me at miggal7@yahoo.co.uk