The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) has released its position on the UK’s membership of the EU (see here).
CIEEM asked its members for their views on matters relating to the UK’s membership of the EU and the potential impacts of leaving on the natural environment and the sector. The results of the survey showed 93% of members supported the UK staying in the EU.
That’s not a close call – it’s a landslide from professional environmentalists (right or wrong).
[registration_form]
Well they would do, wouldn’t they?
Mandy – welcome!
Mandy – nice to hear from you, even though you sadly died nearly two years ago.
This is actually quite an interesting reply, because conspiratorial thinking is such a feature of Leave campaigners. Pretty much everyone apart from Nigel Farage, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin thinks Brexit is a bad idea? Conspiracy. The web site handling voter registration crashes and registration time is extended? Conspiracy. If CIEEM (and almost everyone else in the environmental field) says we should remain? Well, you get the idea.
In their world, everyone who opposes them is corrupt and/or lying. They are the brave victims of the shadowy forces ranged against them. Every event, no matter how insignificant, can be woven into the narrative. And any attempt to call them out on this nonsense is just further proof of how far the conspiracy goes.
It is perhaps no coincidence that so many leave campaigners also happen to be climate change deniers, that other bunker of conspiracy thinking.
But then, maybe I’m in on it, eh Mandy?
If so, I’m in on it too.
Thanks Andrew, well put.
An article by Anand Menon and Jonathan Portes in today’s Guardian put it rather pithily..
“And perhaps most importantly, those engaged in public debate should play the ball, not the (wo)man. “They would say that, wouldn’t they?” is not an argument. It is a whine. Sometimes, when people say what their paymasters would like, they’re right. Sometimes, they’re not. The fact is that the only way to establish this is to analyse the claim, not attack the one who makes it.
Please, by all means, question our evidence, our assumptions or our methods. Please illustrate why it is that we have misunderstood, or come to the wrong conclusion. But don’t waste our time with personal abuse because you can’t do any of the above.”
“Well they would do, wouldn’t they?”
… is a comment, not an argument. Don’t make life so complicated. There is no need to invent conspiracy where none exists – there’s nothing harmful or unlawful about wanting to stay in the EU, as I would if I had not already left for a better place. Would you find it conspiratorial if The Chartered Institute of Turkey Farmers voted not to abolish Christmas, or just good business sense on its part?
Follow the money, I say. I did, and my life was one long descent into respectability.
count me in with Nigel, Donald and Vladimer
Well, I suppose a vote for the end of the world solves the Brexit issue rather nicely.