The Labour manifesto contains this sentence,
We will maintain and continuously improve the existing EU standards of environmental regulation.
A Green Industrial Revolution. Environment.
This promise does not appear to be hedged around (although hedges are of course good things). So I am taking this to mean that, if elected, a Labour government would seek to ensure that, Brexit or no-Brexit, the level of environmental protection would remain at least as good as that adopted by the EU. That is a way of saying that Labour would negotiate a Brexit deal which would maintain environmental protection and offer it to the British people in a second referendum which would also have Remain as an option. So, whichever way you and I voted, environmental protection would be at least maintained. That’s what I want, and that’s what I think it means. Do you agree?
Now that has not been offered by the Conservative party in this election. Something like that was in the May deal but Boris’s deal has moved environmental protection from the binding divorce settlement into the non-binding political declaration. Why would you do that if you wanted what Labour has promised? I can’t think of any reason except Tory skulduggery.
I haven’t noticed anything as clear in the other parties’ manifestos but I may have missed the relevant bits – please point them out if you can. Thanks.
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Environmental protection can’t get much worse surely? HS2 can be run through our last scraps of ancient woodland. Marine conservation zones and woeful, our national parks are embarassing and nature reserves are far too small and poorly linked. Badgers can be culled against scientific advise. Wildlife crime is rife and seems to have little repercussion. Wild Justice proved just how useless the general licences were and little has been done to impove them. If it wasn’t for charities and social media petitions picking up the slack we’d soon have nothing left to protect.
Dave – fully agree. But I don’t agree with mark re Labour. A good example is HS2:
“Labour has vowed to invest £250bn in the UK’s infrastructure through a new National Transformation Fund over the next 10 years.”
“Labour supports HS2 which was a programme that began under a Labour government. The party has pledged to complete the line from London through Birmingham to Leeds and Manchester, and then into Scotland.”