Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Joanna Lumley, whose glamorous high flying lifestyle includes long holidays in Bhutan, the Swiss Alps, and at least one trip on the Trans Siberian Railway, wants ordinary people’s leisure activities and travel to be restricted by a climate rationing system.
Joanna Lumley says wartime-style rationing could help solve climate crisis
Actor proposes system under which people would have limited points to spend on holidays and luxury items
Nadia Khomami
Arts and culture correspondent
@nadiakhomamiTue 26 Oct 2021 10.01 AEDTJoanna Lumley has suggested that a system of rationing similar to that seen during wartime, under which people would have a limited number of points to spend on holidays or lavish consumer goods, could eventually help to tackle the climate crisis.
The Absolutely Fabulous actor, who has long campaigned against single-use plastic, said legislation could be the only way to curb the amount of waste produced by the public. “These are tough times, and I think there’s got to be legislation,” she told the Radio Times.
“That was how the war was – stuff was rationed – and at some stage I think we might have to go back to some kind of system of rationing, where you’re given a certain number of points and it’s up to you how to spend them, whether it’s buying a bottle of whisky or flying in an aeroplane.”
Lumley, who has been involved in conservation work, said that while many people remained poor, it was largely “the western world that stuffs its face and chucks stuff away”.
“Perhaps people have got to think a bit harder,” she said. “Maybe more of our holidays should be at home or taking trains, and not hopping on a plane to Magaluf for the weekend … Every plastic bottle you don’t buy, every piece of litter you pick up, every piece of meat you don’t eat, every small thing counts.”
…
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/26/joanna-lumley-wartime-rationing-solve-climate-crisis
Joanna Lumley famously played a dissolute hedonist in the hit series “Absolutely Fabulous“.
I understand Joanna’s call for climate rationing. When someone lives a life as privileged as Joanna Lumley, why would they want ordinary people cluttering up their favourite Swiss ski slope?
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Moron- Flush
Cheese ages better.
Dogs age better…
Cheese a dog.
Nice one!
So long as those of her ilk receive no more annual points than those of the least fortunate.
Gracefully surrender the things of youth: birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan.
And let not the sands of time get in your lunch.
Hire people with hooks.
For a good time, call 606-4311. Ask for Ken.
Take heart in the bedeepening gloom
That your dog is finally getting enough cheese.
And reflect that whatever fortune may be your lot,
It could only be worse in Milwaukee.
Must be a fan of Prince Charles, who runs his car on cheese and wine.
Who cut the cheese?
Be fair: just one of his cars!
Just as soon as they figure out prop guns on sets and the value of the Bolivar.
My conspiratory inclined neighbour pointed me to Wikipedia:
Halyna Hutchins, Ukrainian grew up in the Russian city of Murmansk, on a Soviet military base in the Arctic, where her father served in the Soviet Navy. She called herself an “army brat“ – quote from wikipedia
Apparently this might be a bit troublesome for an Ukrainian (considering the current Ukraine-Russia relations) on a temp work in the USA having had great deal of the insider knowledge of the top Russian military base.
Murmansk is a Russian Navy submarine base, found this on you tube.
https://youtu.be/7L8pKSfJc88
How would the child of a sailor “have a great deal of knowledge” of a military base?
Just living on a base wouldn’t tell you anything satellites couldn’t find out more easily.
No idea, I’m not Ukrainian and never lived on a Russian military base, I assume most valuable information would be names of serving officers.
G’Day Vuk
“…names of serving officers.”
It is/was called “Order of Battle”. When you know who you’re up against, you have some idea of how they will conduct a battle. (You might recall from the movie “Patton”, the exclamation, “I read your book!” – would be an example.)
(For three of my four years in the Australian Army Cadet Corps in the 1950’s I was trained in the “Duties of an Intelligence Officer at Battalion level”.)
She lived on the base a long time ago.
We know the names of former Soviet admirals and many lower ranking naval officers.
Joanna who?
If ever I need a solution to a worldwide problem, I always ask an actor. If I can’t find an actor I’ll look for a pop singer, they also have amazing insights into hugely complex questions.
I’m smarter than you.
I always ask swedish teenage dwarfs who complain about stolen childhoods while travelling around the world on a 5 million dollar yacht.
I get most of my firearms handling advice from actors.
I’m learning how to kill someone in front of cameras/witnesses and get away with it.
got to get my SAG (screen actors guild) membership first.
What about would be ballet dancers?
List, please.
In Australia, state premiers ask lawyers how to deal with a pandemic. Same same!
Manhattan bartenders apparently have economic analytic abilities to rival Milton Friedman.
How dare she?
What a nitwit!
She lost me when she replaced Diana Rigg
On the Avengers.
Diana Rigg is not still on the Avengers? Where have I been?
You got that right. Diana Rigg really turned me on…
It was the boots.
What boots?
Never looked at her feet.
Beat me to it. Definitely was not the boots.
But she didn’t replace Diana Rigg on the Avengers – that was Linda Thorson (Tara King). Joanna Lumley was in the New Avengers, quite a different show altogether.
I remember her from that show, both the adult women were morons, constantly drunk or high, living in a fantasy world. The daughter was the only one with any sense. It was popular on public television in the States but I never understood why. Keeping Up Appearances was superior.
My five year old son nicknamed the central actress on “Keeping up Appearances”, the demon lady.
That was back when the local PBS channel thought “Keeping up Appearances” was overwhelmingly popular.
Though PBS was unable to point to a legitimate customer survey. KuA was dead time during their telephone fundraisers with sleepy call takers looking miserable on live TV.
I suspect the BBC let them have KuA episodes on discount.
You are remembering her from Absolutely Fabulous, not the New Avengers. AbFab was a comedy show and a good one. The whole point was the alcohol dependence and them being morons, with the daughter acting out the mother role. That was the whole basis of the comedy. Falling out the taxi door onto the ground when she came home. It was a classic comedy and I think you’ve had a humour bypass. Keeping Up Appearances was much more traditional sitcom fayre and not a classic.
You are right. Two morons, apparently impossibly rich, were stoned drunk causing them to make a mess of everything.
Even in fantasy land, people learn to avoid such boorish incompetent meddlers who bring disaster to everything.
One episode of morons stoned drunk ruining everything around them might be funny.
Two episodes get boring.
Three episodes and the question becomes, “surely, there is something better”?
Yes, the daughter played a perfect straight man. She was the only thing good about that show
I lived through the beatnik/hippie/freaks eras. Stoned human wrecks were common and definitely people to avoid.
Those that drank to excess were in worse shape/ability and far likelier to die young. Far too many who refused to stop drinking turned out to be mean drunks. No fun to be around.
Funny?!
No.
You might have liked AbFab. I had better things to do during that time.
To think that the BBC made Joanna Lumley rich, entitled and whom desires to share her condescending malevolent thoughts with us peons.
I wish they showed more ‘Dave Allen at Large.’
Sorry, there is nothing funny about adults behaving like children, forcing a child to become a parent. I’ve never been amused by the antics of drunks.
Sorry Pamela but Ab Fab was hilarious, are you expressing the difference between British type humour and American lack there of, just asking
Meant to add, JL has lost the plot here. But Ab Fab was absolutely hilarious, a totally “piss take” or did you miss that. Written by the very creative Saunders and French, probably two of the best comedians in the last 20 yrs
No. French and Saunders were good writers but I never cared for their performance. Victoria Wood and Julie Walters were better on their off days than French and Saunders at their very best.
Again you don’t get it
Rationing for thee, not me.
I very much doubt that Ms Lumley would come out with such garbage if she had spent her vacation time in the UK in recent years- and I don’t mean staying in friends holiday home for free.
holidaying in the UK is eyewateringly expensive, and even after the expense tends to be pretty rubbish – this is probably the reason why most Brits long to get away to foreign shores- and as a bonus if you venture down to the Mediteranean you are most likely to see the sun.
The British STARTED bread rationing in 1946 and potato rationing in 1947. British rationing lasted until 1955. Some people love misery!
When I was in Europe in the late 50s and 60s, they were still rationing butter, giving two little pats for four people at breakfast and always marmalade, which is my opinion is made from kitchen scraps.
You can’t be serious. Breakfast without marmalade just isn’t breakfast!
Interestingly, it was invented because of a need to use a whole shipload of bitter oranges from Spain. Some guy decided to try boiling them up with some sugar. The result took off.
John T Shea,
The British don’t “love misery” but they had to start paying-off ‘Lease-Lend’ to the US when WW2 ended. The UK continued to pay until the debt and interest on it were finally payed-off in 2006. Meanwhile reconstruction of blitzed Britain was required. These were necessary if the country was to survive and so food was a luxury that needed to be distributed fairly.
Please remember that the USA was the only country in the world that made a financial profit from WW2, and Britain was almost bankrupted by it. Also, US companies owned factories that provided to the Axis war machine and when the war ended they claimed (unsuccessfully) the US government should pay them reparations for the damage those American factories had suffered from the Allied air forces. Some people profit from misery.
Richard
I’m willing to bet that those who were running the rationing system, weren’t having their food rationed.
Even during the war, Churchill didn’t look like he’d missed a lot of meals.
Your assertion about the US making a profit from WWII is not correct.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1988/09/02/uncle-sams-multibillion-dollar-debtors/25e18040-1dea-4b23-b40a-c5cba28dbff7/
“Five countries owe about 97 percent of the $1.2 billion unpaid. They are the Soviet Union ($678.8 million), Britain ($325.5 million), China ($116.1 million), Indonesia ($26.4 million) and Iran ($23.3 million).”
Further, from the article Britain still owes over 12 billion from WWI.
The dateline on the article in that link is 1988.
Britain paid off its ww1 debt in 2015 and ww2 debt in 2006, this article is dated 1988 so over 30 years out of date.
Britain got 4 times as much as Germany under the Marshall Plan and what did they do? Speculate.
Meanwhile Germany reconstructed from nothing and powered ahead.
The British Empire more or less funded the war for the Allies. Over and above Britain’s enormous lend-lease debt to the US, she also “shared” some of the most valuable technology at no cost and lost benefits for the future.
Richard,
Do you mean to say that the US was the only country among the combatants and ravaged nations to make a financial profit?
Portugal ended the War wealthier than at the commencement.
Haven’t yet checked Sweden, Spain and Switzerland but the neutrals obviously were able to benefit both from the Axis and the Allies.
Herbert,
There is a difference between
( a) remaining neutral so not getting involved while continuing normal economic activity
and
(b) profiting from the war.
The US showed it understood that difference by ‘coming late to the party’ of both world wars when it attempted to remain neutral for years after each world war broke out.
When it became clear which side would ‘win’ WW1 the US joined in to gain the benefits of being on the winning side. And the US was forced to get involved in WW2 by a Japanese attack followed by Japan’s ally Germany declaring war on the US.
Richard
Richard Courtney posted:
So, Richard, please tell me exactly when, and to which US decision-maker, the side that was going to win WW1 became clear.
Also, history recalls that the US declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941—thus officially getting “involved in WW2” (your words)—three days before Germany declared war on the US (December 11, 1941) and the US responded later the same day with a declaration of war on Germany.
Your revisionist history doesn’t gain any traction with me.
As for your assertion of “the benefits of being on the winning side”, I’m curious at to what value you yourself place on a single human life lost during warfare? Please multiply that value by the estimated 53,400 US combat deaths during WW1 and the 291,600 US combat deaths during WW2 (ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war ).
Against these calculations please cite your list of economic “benefits” (the top three in each case will do).
revisionist history is the only history socialist/communists deal in.
Please remember that the USA was the only country in the world that the warmongering Europeans ran to — twice — when they needed help to stop slaughtering each other. In the process, hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their lives.
Of course, after the last European fiasco, the US ponied up $148 billion (today’s dollars) to rebuild their countries.
CapitalistRoader,
Please recognise that the only Europeans who ran to America were refugees.
The reasons for the US eventually joining each world war were – as I say above to Herbert – to get the benefits of being on the wining side of WW1 and being forced into WW2 by attack from Japan with Japan’s ally Germany also declaring war on them.
It is true that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour instead of Hong Kong because of excellent espionage work conducted by Britain in Australia, but it is hard to portray that as Europeans ‘running to America’ because ” they needed help to stop slaughtering each other”.
Richard
The irony today is that N.I. border smuggling actually then fed the British. Now that the EU wants to weaponize that very same border one wonders!
Brexit is ricocheting!
Lumley has been around for a while, she probably remembers the rationing fondly….
Just yesterday there was a “climate quality program” on public service TV (arte). The main theme: putting butter on your bread is way too damaging for the planet, and totally unnecessary. Bread tastes fine without butter.
I guess it shall be water and bread for the common people, private jets for the Al Gores, and punishment for all the oil-money bribed who dare to critize this new world socialism.
Schaffer,
I detect the sarcasm, however I believe that IS the goal of the elites.
Just look at the mask and travel restriction mandates that only apply to the common folk.
Bread tastes fine without butter.
NO !
Roesti are best done with butter!
Now, that is staple Swiss – another reason not to join the EU!
FOAD Patsy.
Britain just had to have a Jane Fonda retread….
I naively thought I lived according to a social contract lo’ these 7 decades & when I click on image below see what’s afoot.
Ah …. the old moving goal posts trick …. NICE!!
There should be an award for folks that generate the most plant food per year.
She would not win against Kerry, Gore, Musk, Bezos, and others, but she contributes more in a year than I have in a long life.
Filthy old hypocrite. Typical Champagne Socialist.
Well, celebrities are the new marx oil salesman in NWO communism.
The more equal animals can not keep their superwealthy lifestyle
without creating a celebrity propaganda front they can hide behind and that tells people that super capitalism is ok for a chosen few while super communism is the choice for the rest.
And as part of the new global propaganda trinity (politicians,experts,celebrities )
it is their job to spout the nonsense they are told if they want to keep their privileged status as noone wants to be in the lowest class (peasants) of classless communism,
as only the three classes above(superrich,propaganda trinity,bureaucrats/army/police)
will get enough food.
Blithering idiot, she is. She has no idea that CO2 cannot and does not warm the climate. In fact, it is greening the planet. That said, why does she want to curtail the activities of everyone? The “social” part of her social carbon credit is much too similar to the social credit in China. She wants the government to be monitoring everything we do. I am sure she assumes she can buy whatever credits she needs in her elitist world.
I guess this means Tom Petty was wrong. We all have to live like a refuge.
It is a sad fact that too many highly regarded entertainers are convinced there is a man made climate crisis.
It is virtually impossible to convince them they have been conned into thinking the way they do. We love the work they have done, and must forgive them their ignorance. I would hope they also respect the public’s right to ignore their ignorant rants.
As I always say of these types – “After you, please”
Someone has to position to be the senior citizen Greta. There is a void there that must be filled with the right level of incentives and “qualifications”.
Am I the only one that misses Emma Thompson in that role? She spouted some wonderfully funny crap as a celebrity eco warrior.
I agree.
She’s used up all her climate credit, so she should be locked in an unheated mud hut and only allowed out to graze periodically in the modest fenced in pasture.
Oh God; those teeth!
Maybe a little less botox.
The control freaks recognize no limits, and are will to fight climate change to the last drop of the serfs’ blood.
She’s running the whole world short of peroxide and Botox, apparently.
Her picture reminds me of that great old song, “Smiling Faces” (by The Undisputed Truth).
She’s currently checking out locations around the world for her new series: Secret Cities
No, you can’t make it up
EXACTLY! the way privileged folks can be so arrogant and hypocritical makes me ill. They of course never think to give up their own luxuries. GGRRRR!!!
What’s so frustrating to me is how so many of the “common folk” lap it up and not only ignore but actively excuse the hypocrisy.
She’d be great playing the lead role for “Absolutely Fatuous”.
Who?