Conservatives propose scrapping Environment Agency and Natural England
The pitch here seems to be, ‘we’ll build the houses and infrastructure we failed to build during the 14 years we were in government, but we’ll do it in the most damaging and lowest quality way possible’. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
James Murray59Also worth noting planning is just one part of what the Environment Agency and Natural England do. This would be an enormous change and even if you don’t care about the environmental impact of development there’d be huge disruption to work on flood resilience, waste crime, nature recovery, etc.
Capt'n G.9Cutting regulations never reduces prices, it always increases profit.
Mike Shevdon7The pitch isn’t to the electorate. It’s to the potential donors.
Jazzaoxon5Tories have same policies that brought about their demise. Extraordinary.
Seb Berry 🇺🇦4The Tory party has travelled a long way since "hug a husky," and not in a good way. Shameful stuff. #Conservatives
mev2024We've just had one of the hottest summers and now's the time they announce that all that environment stuff is just getting in the way of profit. They are amazingly out of touch
Neil Goodrich8Yes, very much my take, too.
Spooky Snigdha5The Tory plans for deregulation may result in more homes being built. But what damage will be done doing it? 🧵 bsky.app/profile/jame...
St Aldhelms Birder5I try & stay out of politics on Bluesky. However, anybody who cares about the environment & our wildlife needs to seriously think about why they would vote for any of the right wing parties that plan to scrap our environmental & wildlife protections
Richard Delevan5The nothing screams “natural party of government” like serving up discount imported MAGA policy reheated in a Tufton Street microwave.
Ant Brown3Fingers crossed that the Tories remain far too online coming up with these batshit ideas (which no one who hasn’t had their brain fried by social media will ever agree with) and never get back into government to implement them.
Why stop there? Scrap the treasury to make the national debt go away Scrap the NHS and cure cancer Scrap the MOD and lo: world peace www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Ferrick Brick15Scrap the Tory party and give the UK a holiday.
Dr Paul Budd Brexaster Resister #FBPE #FBPR6Nice to see the last "i"s dotted and "t"s crossed on the Tories political suicide note.
cptjspaulding.bsky.social6They really are pointless as a party, they have no ideas, just get rid of culture war click bait to appease a base that won’t be here much longer.
Sir Garfield De Umfreville, Baronet Bywell4But they want to keep the green belt of course 🥲
Steve H.4Badenoch and crew are - obviously? - tapping into nostalgia for the Liz Truss years [sorry, days].
𝓔𝔁𝓬𝓵𝓾𝓭𝓮𝓭 𝓜𝓾𝓰𝔀𝓾𝓶𝓹4It's like Trump and his "if we stop covid testing, we'd have very few covid cases, if any". And it's just as stupid. thehill.com/policy/healt...
The Tories have announced they would abolish Natural England, support a Third Runway & pull the UK out of the Aarhus Convention - in further signs they’ve totally given up on Middle England, don’t give a toss about the environment & just want to please some wealthy grouse moor owners & raving YIMBYs
![Tory party press release: “[We will leave the Aarhus] Convention that powers the lawfare hindering every major infrastructure project in this country.”
“Abolish Natural England and the Environment Agency, moving to a more streamlined regulatory landscape to protect our environment.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:br3kmdgzf5pnbfdnd57jfo6g/bafkreidogxc5es43brvlqj3qx5mgzczudqbsu2df2ijhhwcjhcg2w32pji)
Jack Wallington6It’s just mad, they will never win back their voters with this lunacy.
Ralph Darvill5Thc collective failure to acknowledge the shit we are in is totally baffling...these people pretend that they want to lead us, and in theory carry out the first duty of government, while all the time doing exactly the opposite. We need a revolution.
Peter Matanle4The EA needs to be abolished, because it is completely captured by corporate politics. A new agency that genuinely acts in the interests of nature conservation and recovery is needed. But I suspect that's not what the Conservatives have in mind.
johnw6458.bsky.social2What a shitshow the Tories have become. Just finished 'The Lie of the Land'. Forget Burnham, Guy for PM. Great read, hugely inspirational and a call to arms. Brilliant.
Cat Thompson1So no flood risk work at all, or it all goes to the Councils? … well done.
Elizabeth Acheson1And keep the funds rolling in from the US
This would be a utterly insane change that both entirely misunderstands the issues we have with housebuilding and tne role of the EA/Natural England. Particularly given the huge additional responsibilities we've just given the latter. Hammer blow for nature and the enviroment for no good reason
James Austin30Proper 'I dont understans the system and want a knee jerk answer' policy
What?3Not enough adjectives to quell any normal person’s sense of indignation at this point! Plain bloody madness at large. #DesparateTimes
James C2There is a reasonable argument that the EA should be broken up into constituent responsibility areas, and that NE need more accountability. But no - not this madness
David Rearlamp1The Thames Barrier is operated by the Environment Agency. Been closed for flood defence 221 times. Protects 48 square miles of central London, 1.42m people, 4,000+listed buildings, 711 healthcare sites, 116 railway & tube stations and more than 300km of major roads... unison.org.uk/magazine/fea...
Ralph Darvill1So now we have two parties hell-bent on trashing the environment on the altar of housebuilding all over our Green (and "Grey" 🙄) Belt. Start with change of use in our town centres, convert empty office space, build on Brownfield sites, and end land-banking.
Alastair Wilcox1It's a bit obscure, but the use of Aarhus to obstruct development is an issue. I don't think I'd leave the convention, but I'd reduce the number of opportunities (3+) to challenge a planning decision. It can put a year or more on a development. I'd make it one challenge and you're done.
If anything screams, 'we are the party that doesn't care' this is it This nihilist approach to our environment stinks and in the true sense of nihilism suggests the Tory party has lost its way on beliefs and values...but I think we probably knew that already 🫤 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Livsbian 🌈2Yet middle England *is* pro environment & always has been. At one point there were even Tory leaning Greens believe it or not. Badenoch has had her brains boiled by Twitter 😕
Dr Negrin's Victory Pills2It lost its way when it elected Thatcher as leader and it's shown little evidence of finding the path again since.
Bob Bear1I'm not sure who they are trying to appeal to, or do they not know themselves.
James Steel1Nevermind the nasty party, more like the dumbfuckers party.
SchiGa1Toxic Trump influence. Big oil& Co don't sleep.
AWOL1The Tory party can be summed in one word: Philp.
Our water companies have been dumping raw sewage into the rivers and seas, and what will the Conservative party propose today? Abolishing the Environment Agency who try to enforce environmental protection measures against polluters. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Spooky Snigdha5The Tory plans for deregulation may result in more homes being built. But what damage will be done doing it? 🧵 bsky.app/profile/jame...
Cat Thompson2Also see Flood & Coastal Risk Management. There is currently no legal bar to building within flood zones & the sequential test can be ignored. Remove the flood resilience work and you can build anywhere. (Although that aspect of EA work may just have been forgotten in the dogma.)
Laura Clemens2It isn’t just water companies! This is also the fault of developers doing faulty hook ups to sewers and then water used for children’s recreation gets botulism and e-coli
Steve1The Tories, the party dedicated to 💩 everywhere, vote Tory, get 💩… it’s a potential winning slogan for the constipated segment of the electorate? 🙄😂
