Look, I agree with you. I've been arguing this corner for years. What riled me about your post is that I come to FR because there is simply no equivalent UK forum, and I've got to know some great, like-minded people here. But tonight I logged in, saw I had a new message from a name I didn't recognise, and in all innocence I clicked on it. Straight off it was brainwashed stubborn greenfreak socialist Poms on the verge of becoming Nazis. The same old tired old lines (apart from the "Poms" bit of course) trotted out ad nauseum by a small but persistent and vociferous number of posters here on FR. Did you reply to me simply to insult and patronise me? If so, knock yourself out, I'll just file you under "Frenchmen and Other Anglophobes" and leave it at that. But I'd prefer it if we could be civil. Just don't try and convert me to Crowded House.
I want to be civil as well, but objectivity must rule over first. The fact is you are not as conservative as most of us here - it is given that scepticism to the validity of global warming is not welcome even among conservatives in Britain. It is also given that in modern Britain the twin religion of environmentalism and transnationalism reign supreme. You can't dispute that this is accepted in Middle Britain. And you can't dispute reading today's Daily Telegraph is like reading the Times in 1954, and reading the Times today is like reading copies of Daily Mirror in 1962. Your country isn't even as conservative as it used to be - something that will make Margaret Thatcher feel alien in her homeland.
Pointing out the bad in Britain does not mean Pom-bashing. I will leave that to Aussies to do so. (wink)