In Praise of Nimby`s

Sometimes the political tribes throw stones from neighbouring cliffs but avoid the valley and the fight to the finish . Prominent amongst the rocks are ‘PC’ from the right and ‘NIMBY’ from the left. A NIMBY they say , is a person who does not recognise the greater social good their small sacrifice will facilitate . It is Left code for selfish small minded and stupidly unaware.
I refute this . For a Conservative my back yard is quite naturally the first area of concern.Conservatives are suspicious of claims to be concerned for “ Africa “ a la Bono recalling Johnson’s aphorism “ No man was ever truly vexed by public affairs “. Why ...well because it is an unnatural distortion of human nature and we suspect ,usually rightly, that a hypocritical gulf lied between the words and the motive . Sceptical does not mean in denial though and Conservatives are happy to recognise larger concerns but always happier at a community level or familial level . This was the meaning of the hugely de-contextualised remark “There is no such thing as Society”...ie there is chiefly family and community .From this flows much good sense but I have a couple of recent examples of the goodness of the NIMBY

1Airports - Auntie Flo made a tremendously strong case against the expansion of Stansted and Heathrow which I have just browsed through. She certainly introduced a lot of material I was unaware of .Interestingly there are two factors here . Firstly it is what you might call NIMBY...ism. Many of the airport protesters are simply people who do not want the noise and destruction in their area, but they are allied with others who are part of a wider movement and soon realise they have to make the case on better grounds than their own inconvenience. Their inconvenience however is a perfectly valid point. Until the Contract was signed most would have been unaware of it and certainly unaware of the tax inducements and planning frame-work whereby such an outcome was likely . They were, in effect, only asked when it reached “Their back yard”

2 Housing – many people have until recently been unaware of the effect of anti family legislation and immigration, and if asked about either they might say . Well you can’t pick on single mums and “ Isn’t this a racist dog whistle “ . When their lovely village however is swamped with endless high density estates to house 1,000,000 immigrants not even here yet they get all NIMBY. Rightly so say I . People are quite entitled to get on with their life without thinking through the ramifications of every perturbation on the political pond . They are right to engage when it impinges on them and right to be outraged that their wishes were not considered before .
They will be told , yes you voted for the Government and page 56 of the manifesto.... or you signed the consultation and so on. They will , with justification reply , had you not hidden distorted and kept secret the truth I see in concrete before me I would not have acquiesced . I have a living to make and I foolishly trusted you. Now I will stand in your way.

3 Chindamo..There is a sort of NIMBY accusation here. We look at the unrepentant murderer and see he is out after twelve years and his” Right to a family life” is seriously being described as a human right preventing his deportation. Frances Lawrence has been portrayed as vengeful in a disgraceful smear campaign by the left, who are only concerned to shore up their weak flank on the EU. She is not vengeful, she has made efforts to discover if he really had truly repented and it is as clears as can be that he has not . She is in fact as a well meaning and apparently brilliant teacher, a fan of what the human rights act was supposed to be. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was not at least acquiescent on the EU . Now she is a NIMBY , told that even if we repealed UK legislation we would only be arguing the same case in Strasbourg being bound by the terms of the European Convention on Human Rights . She cannot say now she doesn’t like it , she is complicit she must think outside her own case .What nonsense ,like the rest of us the extent to which our justice and laws are not in our control and the extent to which Liberal abandonment of punishment as valid were not clear until it cut deeply into her life. She is a NIMBY and a woman who the laws have betrayed


I welcome all NIMBY`s . All those who believe what’s mine and what is right are the whole point of laws .If the laws fail we stand in front of the bulldozer and the badge NIMBY should be a badge of honour !