You heard it. Which one wins? In your ethical conscience I mean, what worries you on a day to day basis?

Your carbon footprint, whether you should offset your air miles or maybe whether the plastic bags you carry your shopping in are choking the planet to death, or Palestine?

I’m sorry, am I being a bit over the top, comparing Palestine with the massive threat of global warming? How dare I?

I mean, every sensible person has jumped in the "bag-wagon" and bought an ‘I am not a plastic bag’ bag.

Of course when faced with the devastation of the planet it seems perfectly sane that the average person should be piled with guilt about the slow walk of our planet to extinction and then told - Don’t worry! Stop using plastic bags and everything will be fine!

I mean of course the misuse of fossil fuels and the massive release of greenhouse gases will all be fine - once you buy a reusable ‘Bag For Life’ from your local Sainsbury’s.

And even better news, Marks & Spencer, the ethical retailer of the year, will now charge you for using plastic bags. Hooray! Marks & Spencer to the rescue. Everything will be fine now.

The great businesses of this country who, of course, release no CO2 into the atmosphere, and don’t package and repackage every product you buy in plastic are luckily for us at the forefront of this great battle.

Your ethical compass was right all along. Plastic bags are the great evil this world has to fight against.

If you’re feeling a bit uneasy now then I must say I’m with you there.

Retailers have used and abused our ethical conscience and global warming, however real and dangerous it may be, as just another way to sell their products.

In this skewed reality it is us who have been bludgeoned into a state of guilt and self-hate, while it is businesses and manufacturers who are the biggest pollutants on our planet and it is they who should be feeling their consciences prick.

Your brain has other things to worry about. Palestine is still the issue.

Marks & Spencer may be the hero when it comes to plastic bags but one of the fundamental objectives of M&S is to aid the economic development of Israel, and they support Israel with hundreds of millions of pounds a year in trade.

Israel who in the last week has killed over 120 Palestinians.

And the media will not show it. No, the same media is still cooing about how plastic bags are going to kill the planet; Bangladesh outlawed them four years ago - there you go, job done!

No, you need to feel guilty about Palestine. You need to ask yourself why pro-Zionist lobby groups are able to paint a picture where Palestinians are the aggressors.

You need to look deep down and think about what you have done to stand up against injustices perpetuated day after day against silent, suffering men, women and children.

You need to ask yourself why you haven’t once challenged the media, or written to your MP or boycotted Israeli products.

Plastic Bags Vs Palestine, there's no competition surely? Be guilty, be very guilty…

Lobby your MP - see www.theyworkforyou.com

Boycott Israeli goods - see www.bigcampaign.org.uk

Complain about media bias - see the latest MPACUK Alert and visit our Media Jihad section

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