Need to protect our environment
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Remember that Gina Miller had to go to the Supreme Court before the May Government conceded that Parliament should have a say before Article 50 was triggered, and so the campaigning lawyer group ClientEarth had to threaten the same course of action before the Government released its so-called and long overdue Air Quality Plan.
How overdue? The EU originally set a deadline of December 2010, and our own Supreme Court gave an extended deadline of December 2015. It is only now in May 2017, that the Government has been forced to reveal its plans.
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Hide AdWhy the reticence? Because the plans are so pallid and ineffective to tackle the problem of 40 to 50,000 premature deaths per annum in the UK and a cost to the nation of £27 billion a year, and the Government did not want them exposed to scrutiny in the run up to the General Election.
The only positive ideas are to create clean air zones, for which the Government intends to make cash-starved local authorities responsible.
There are no plans to increase taxes for pollution, or to create incentives for cleaner transport and more investment for public transport. Only a rapid drop in the use of diesel vehicles will make our air safer for us all to breathe.
Remember this is how a Tory Government would want to handle a key environmental problem identified by the EU.
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Hide AdJust imagine then how we will be able, post Brexit and under a Tory Government, to protect our environment – and our healthy lives.
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