Paul McCartney is a cultural icon. And although it has been decades since the Beatles first came on the scene, their music is still played everywhere and their fame and image endures worldwide. How can the man, who wrote Yesterday, be anything less than a God living a rarefied existence!
The truth is of course that Paul McCartney is still very much alive and kicking and caught up with current events. The main issue concerning him and his daughters; Stella McCartney fashion designer and Mary McCartney photographer, is the environment.
Recently a festive lunch was hosted to launch a new range of Linda McCartney Vegetarian food – the vegetarian food brand set up by Paul’s wife Linda in 1998. Back then this was the only mainstream environmentally friendly vegetarian brand but as time has passed an increasing number of people have turned to vegetarianism and a plant based diet.
The McCartney food range is accessible providing a meat free alternative to “ordinary” foods such as chicken wings and sausages. The new range of vegan festive dishes such as Mushroom Wellington provides an easy and delicious alternative to turkey. Sales of the brand have recently increased by 20%. The company aims to be fully plastic free by 2021 and are introducing new vegan dishes.
According to Paul, there are similarities between his wife’s pioneering spirit with the recent Extinction Rebellion protests.
“Yeah, she would have been out front, she would have been out there,” Paul says. “You can look at all these protestors and go, ‘they’re out of step, they’re not doing what ordinary people do. But without protest you would still have slavery; you would still have women with no rights. There would be no changes made.”
As Paul points out all positive changes often have disruptive beginnings. Although the recent Extinction Rebellion protests in London stopped people getting to work, the bigger picture of climate crisis is worth the disruption. Naturally, not everyone has seen the protests in such a positive light. As fellow guest, rapper Loyle Carner pointed out,
Protests are important but the issue that I’ve been hearing from friends of mine is that working class people trying to get to work are getting blocked by the protests, and they get angry. Then they start to look at the people who are protesting like they’re the enemy, but they’re not.”
Surprisingly most people are sympathetic to the cause. Most of us believe that unless we do something about climate change we will not have a future. Greta Thunberg and the student protestors are seen by many as an annoyance but at the same time, even the most died in the wool reactionaries, concede they have a point.
According to Paul, the only people who aren’t responding to climate range are the government and Industry.
“Everyone else is going, ‘Yeah!’ and Trump is going, and ‘Climate change is a hoax.’”
According to Paul McCartney, the fight against climate change will be achieved by a “slow rebellion” of ordinary people. It’s a lovely thought but do we really have enough time to do this slowly?
