Time to think for yourself

MANY in the chattering and scribbling classes believe, and as a M.E.N. correspondent I suppose I am one of them, that the election was over-personalised and oversimplistic.

Life was ever thus.

But a lot of misinformation was generated in ways that we have not been used to, with the usual assertions and whoppers politicians big and small pump out.

I’m not a member of Extinction Rebellion, indeed a lot of what they present seems to me to be naive and ineffective. However they are bang on with the urgency of the crisis facing us and those who pooh-pooh it say more about themselves than about what they object to. So I keep a watching eye on their Facebook pages and pass on what I agree with.

Recently there has been a kerfuffle about XR style posters with dog-whistle racist messages. I can’t think of anyone I’ve met at an XR event who would support such views – people appreciate those taking most cause most damage.

Indeed Oxfam tells me: “The average Brit will emit more carbon by 12 January than the residents of seven African countries do in a year”.

I’m more prepared to believe that than an agent provocateur who has picked up a couple of logos through

Google images, pushed their bile out through a laser printer, blown it up on a photocopier and flyposted it.

We need to put our own house in order, not blame others.

The struggle continues – don’t believe what they tell you without thinking and checking implications and motives!

Beni Niemand, Salford