This evening, probably, MPs will vote on what is almost always called Mrs May’s agreement with the EU – it’s interesting that it is less often called the government’s agreement, probably because the government keeps losing members over it.
It seems unlikely that TM the PM will win her vote. But if she does we will have the benefit of EU environmental legislation for a few more years during a transition period (and just perhaps for longer).
If TM the PM loses the vote then the chances are strengthened both that we will lose the full protection of EU legislation at 11pm on my birthday of 29 March this year (the no-deal option that my MP, Tom Pursglove, favours) but also that we will keep those protections for ‘ever’ (the ‘Remain’ option that I favour).
What happens this evening has huge environmental consequences.
Those environmental consequences have hardly had a mention in the last three years when we have been ‘debating’ our future in or out of the EU. Shame on the media, politicians, and the wildlife NGOs.
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Well put, Mark. The simple truth is that, despite efforts in the past few years to put a price on “the environment”, it simply does not make enough money. Businesses and politicians have had to pay increasing heed to people’s views on what has happened to our world but in reality the vast majority of them simply pay lip service to it. Things have changed enormously since I started out in the 1970s when birdwatchers and conservationists were strange (mainly bearded) beings who could be safely ignored. Unfortunately, the rate of that change doesn’t seem to be a fast as the degradation of our natural resources. I’m not overly optimistic on any front.