INSIGHT - Sunak’s waging war against the planet

It is now quite clear what Sunak’s strategy is for the upcoming General Election: it is not, as his lectern says ‘Long term decisions for a brighter future’ but ‘Short term decisions for a Conservative victory.’

Over the ten days Sunak has announced an extra five years to carry on selling polluting and planet-damaging internal combustion driven vehicles, to the absolute consternation of industry, whose greatest need is for consistency in Government policy, and yesterday, he is promising to back the car lobby by stopping councils in England from introducing lower speed limits in urban areas – you know the very sensible ‘Twenty’s plenty’ which Liberal Democrat councils up and down the country have been urging for a long time.

And perhaps away from these car headlight news items from Sunak, we had another blow for nature and indeed the planet, with an announcement that a planning measure, due to be introduced in November, to ensure that all new developments improved in an absolute way wildlife habitats. No explanation why or any date when this law, originally passed in 2021 will be actually become a legal requirement. This followed on the heels of their cynical, but thankfully failed attempt a couple of weeks ago, to get planners to ignore the effect of pollution on rivers and watercourses.

So it is clear that on the basis of the Uxbridge by election victory where the Tories scraped in by just over 400 votes, Sunak thinks he can win the General Election with an agenda that simply wants to destroy nature and burn the country and the world just that little bit faster.