Guest election blog – Labour by Alick Simmons

Alick Simmons is a retired veterinarian. He served as the UK Government’s Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer (2007-2015) and the UK Food Standards Agency’s Veterinary Director (2004-2007). 

In his private life, Alick is a passionate amateur naturalist and after leaving public service in 2015 he set out to combine his interest in wildlife with his professional experience. Alick is chair of the Zoological Society of London’s Ethics Committee on Animal Research and a member of the Wild Animal Welfare Committee.  He sits as an independent member of both the RSPB’s Ethics Advisory Committee and the National Trust’s Wildlife Management Advisory Group.  He is a former chair of both the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare and the Humane Slaughter Association. 

His first book, Treated Like Animals: Improving the Lives of the Creatures We Own, Eat and Use, was published by Pelagic Publishing in 2023.

This is his review of, and his thoughts about, the environmental implications of the Labour Party election manifesto.

Things I like:

• ‘Restore Hope’ and ‘Stop the Chaos’:  I won’t argue with that.
• Set up Great British Energy to cut bills for good: it would be good combine this with greater accountability: force the energy utilities to commit to public service, to reduce excessive profits and have them held to account by customers. Failing that, renationalise.
• Water companies forced to clean up our rivers:  The citizen has been robbed blind by privatised utilities, especially the water companies. Fergal Sharkey is right. Rhese companies have no moral compass and the regulator is toothless. Labour needs to take back control. Cleaning up the rivers is a start but bringing the companies back under public ownership must be the ultimate aim.
• Nuclear power: to ensure a smooth transition between fossil fuels and a wholly green economy, I’d like to see a network of small nuclear power stations of the type being designed by Rolls Royce. And for those opposed to nuclear on safety grounds, I’d merely point to the tens of thousands dead from pollution, accidents and wars associated with fossil fuels.  
• Warm homes: our insulation standards are, in comparison with much of Europe, around 50 years behind. And that is for new homes. Bringing older homes up to a high standard, particularly for those on low incomes is imperative.

Things I don’t like:

• Protecting nature: although I welcome the recognition that GB is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world the response has far too little ambition. I want to see more than a few new footpaths. Where are the real National Parks owned by the public?  Where is the commitment to restoring biodiversity? Where is the plan to meet 30 by 30? (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-commits-to-protect-30-of-uk-land-in-boost-for-biodiversity). 
• Stronger animal welfare: who doesn’t want better animal welfare? Some of this is good but most is tinkering at the edges. Sure, let’s get rid of snares but what about the numerous unaccountable and untested methods of killing wildlife such as Larsen traps, mole traps, Fenn traps and poisons that are on free sale for use by anyone? And as for domestic animals – a pledge to address puppy farming while ignoring industrial pig and poultry farming does not strike me as a balanced manifesto. And trophy hunting? I hate the whole notion but will a ban on imports of trophies make a jot of a difference? No, it won’t. Meanwhile, the vast majority of UK shooters enjoy their hobby safe in the knowledge that no one expects them to be able to shoot straight or to be to able identify their quarry.

Things that appear to be missing:

• Wholesale reform of the law protecting wildlife: the Law Commission has looked at the Wildlife and Countryside Act and associated legislation. They came up with a plan for reform. We need to stop dithering and fiddling around the edges (it’s over 3 years since the Conservative government promised to review the use of snares – nothing has happened). We need to stand back, take a look at the whole rotten regime and seize the opportunity to end the War on Wildlife. It’s time for a root and branch review of the way in which wildlife is protected and give the regulators real teeth and adequate resources.
• Restoration of extirpated native species: let’s get on with it. Where is the plan? A radical government and one with a huge majority has the opportunity to restore these lost species – in publicly owned and managed real National Parks. No more dithering. 
• A commitment to end badger killing.  Last summer, I met a shadow cabinet minister who assured me that Labour would stop badger killing. No ifs, buts or maybes. Now we have a commitment to something that looks like… another blasted review.

Overall assessment

Despite the lack of a dedicated section on the environment, this is a lot better than any of the others – with the exception of the Green Party. Although there  are nods to animal welfare and wildlife protection these lack ambition. With some yawning gaps on the environment it lacks the punch and detail I had hoped for.

Would I vote for these environmental policies?

I have always been clear about who I would NOT vote for. Which generally means I vote tactically to keep out the party I loathe. I really want to vote Labour. Sadly, because I live in a rural constituency, I think it will be no different this time, particularly as this looks like a close run thing.  

This is one of a series of opinion pieces on the political parties’ 2024 general election manifestos. They were commissioned by Wild Justice several months ago by approaching a wide variety of conservationists and environmentalists long before the date of the general election was known. Some people who originally agreed to write pieces found the date and short timescale impossible and had to back out. We did not know what they would write and their only brief was to pick one or two political parties’ election manifestos and tell us what they liked and didn’t like about their environmental policies. We didn’t tell people what to write and we haven’t edited what they wrote (except to squeeze things into a common format, to correct minor grammatical and spelling errors and typos). The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Wild Justice.