Guest election blog – Reform by Ruth Tingay


Dr Ruth Tingay

 I’m a conservationist, blogger, researcher and campaigner. I write the Raptor Persecution UK blog and a monthly wildlife crime column for British Wildlife magazine. I’m a past president of the Raptor Research Foundation, a founding member of the REVIVE coalition for grouse moor reform in Scotland and a co-founder and co-director of Wild Justice.

 I’m rarely swayed by specific manifesto commitments (with a few notable exceptions) and tend instead to vote for the party whose overall values align most closely with mine and whose representatives can demonstrate integrity and trustworthiness.

This is my review of, and my thoughts about, the environmental implications of the Reform UK election manifesto (although noting that Nigel prefers the term ‘contract’ to manifesto – whatever).

Things I like? I wasn’t expecting to find anything to be honest, but I did find a few. Although I daresay my reasoning about these policies is very different to Reform UK’s and any agreement we share is entirely coincidental:

  • Scrap HS2 – Absolutely agree. This stunt has already caused monumental and irreversible environmental damage and has cost tax payers £billions. Dishonest claims about its benefits have long been exposed and debunked. Close what remains of this fiasco and use the funds to support urgently-needed public transport infrastructure across the country.
  • Stop the release of sewage into our rivers and seas – An obvious crowd-pleasing statement given widespread national outrage about the current sewage scandal but the manifesto doesn’t provide any indication whatsoever about how this could be achieved, which makes it look nothing more than a shallow and calculated vote-winning exercise.
  • Ban foreign supertrawlers from UK waters – I agree that supertrawlers should be banned from UK waters, not because they’re ‘foreign’ but because repeatedly dragging giant mile-long nets to catch hundreds of tonnes of fish (and everything else in its path) every day couldn’t ever be described as sustainable. The use of the word ‘foreign’ is superfluous here, although wholly in keeping with Reform UK’s general xenophobic outlook which I’d guess is probably more important to them than any deep-seated concern for the marine environment.

Things I don’t like:

  • Scrap environmental levies; Scrap Net Zero and related subsidies; Scrap annual £10 billion of renewable energy subsidies; Start fast-track licences of North Sea gas and oil; Increase and incentivise ‘clean’ coal mining; Legislate to scrap EU regulations with immediate effect; Legislate to ban all ULEZ and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods; Scrap plans on selling petrol and diesel cars; Scrap legal requirements for manufacturers to sell electric cars; Scrap climate-related farming subsidies; Productive land must be farmed and not used for solar farms or rewilding; Stop Natural England from taking action that damages farmers; Protect country sports.

These aren’t environmental policies – they’re anti-environmental policies that are tone deaf. The scale of ignorance is shocking, even for this party. The word ‘reform’ is defined as ‘making changes [to something] in order to improve it’. Someone should tell Nigel.

Things that appear to be missing:

  • Intelligence
  • Credibility
  • Logic
  • Scientific understanding
  • Any trace of environmental awareness or concern

Overall assessment:

Depressing, pitiful, idiotic, terrifying.

Would I vote for these environmental policies?

Hello? Is that Dignitas?…