Guest election blog – Reform by Elizabeth Perry

I have been a public law solicitor for twelve years (although currently non-practising). I started my career in human rights and, more recently I’ve moved into animal protection law.

This is my view of the Reform Party’s election manifesto, so far as it concerns any environmental implications. I have read through the manifesto, thought about its perspective, what is seeks to achieve and what, importantly, I think it omits and this is my summary; essentially – the bad, the bad and the ugly.

Are there things I like?

There is one – the statement that “we all care about the environment”.

Many don’t care about the environment – in fact, reading the Reform Party’s manifesto has made me believe that they actually see the environment as just a  very inconvenient obstacle one has to live with – but – and this is the big but – if one can profit from the environment, well, then that’s ok then – they’ll get on board with that.

Anyway, I like any optimism that perhaps one day, everyone will care about the environment and so for that, I like that sentence.

Things I don’t like

There are many, not least as so many issues seem to conflate with one another and don’t really bear any truth to the real issue at question. It reads as outdated, set in a time when we weren’t facing climate disaster, loss of countless habitats, the possibility of our native wildlife species becoming extinct, soil degradation or the terrible fate intensive farming will bring to our environment.

It glosses over an awful lot and makes no qualms at all about doing so.

For example, energy and the environment – lumped together under the same heading, essentially with “energy” winning out, because there’s money to be had – or yet to be found – in that domain, regardless of the cost to our planet.

Climate change is effectively denied as an urgent, crisis-of-our-time issue, but rather one which is inevitable, always has been and always will be, so we should take this in our stride, sit back, look at where money could be made or saved (for example, taking examples given to us, by granting fast track licenses of North Sea gas and oil or perhaps by abandoning any investment in the net zero targets) and let the climate disaster play out.

This manifesto completely disregards the effect of the heavy, intensive industrialisation we have allowed our earth to endure. It suggests we should simply adapt rather than try to prevent further global warming and goes on to point fingers – noting that China produces 27% of CO2 emissions, whereas the UK produces only 1%. So, the message seems to be, if we can’t beat them, let’s just join them – they’re the worst anyway. There is a complete lack of any joined-up thinking or attempt to reaching out to other nations to make our voices stronger, nor is there any thought of future generations to come, and what their world may look like if we keep carrying on like we are.

The manifesto calls for the release of sewage in to our rives and seas to stop – and whilst I support this, it gives no further detail on how it would achieve this nor any detail on what sanctions could be imposed upon those who carried on doing so. The health of our rivers and seas is incredibly poor.  The River Trust reported (this year, 2024) that 85% of river stretches in England fall below good ecological standards. So, what we don’t need is bland statements that say sewage needs to be stopped – we know this, what we need is an action plan of how it will be stopped.

On the issue of agriculture, the manifesto effectively pledges to support farmers – but seemingly, at all costs. It wants to help farmers, keeping farmland in use and wants to scrap climate-related subsidies. It supports British grown, clear labelling and gives the nod to smaller food processing – and whilst all of this very much plays into romanticised notions of what British farming perhaps was once more akin to – and many believe it should revert back to – it underappreciates how we are now, through industrialisation, climate change and advancements in technology, worlds away from returning to that place. Over 70% of the UK’s land is farmland – and 85% of all UK farmed animals are now raised in intensive farms – which are nothing like traditional farms.

So, whilst people may support a return to the more traditional farming models –such a move could only ever come about if intensive farming was recognised for what it is – a huge blight on our environment – both in terms of the vast resources it needs and the bio security risks it creates (due to overcrowding, the over use of antibiotics etc) but also the unethical and inhumane conditions our fellow creatures live in.

Agriculture is the main source of river pollution in the UK and whether it’s traditional farming models or intensive farms – the UK’s farming landscape has changed – I fear for the worst – and the Reform Party’s manifesto simply scratches the tip of the iceberg by offering support to smaller farms, without any mention at all of how (and, if) it would ever seek to tackle the growth and operation of intensive farms and their anticipated and inevitable expansion.

The manifesto also supports country sports.  I’m not sure how it would defend its assertion that country sports increase investment in conservation of our environment – the majority of country sports often aim to obliterate anything natural (all in the name of sport) – so I will wait (but I won’t hold my breath) to see if the Reform party expand upon this further. In reality, I think any vote for the Reform Party is a green light for abhorrent levels of cruelty to endure, all in the name of a jolly good day out

And finally, fishing; the manifesto speaks of the need to police our waters, impose and extend bans on foreign vessels – (foreign vessels being the ones it believes to be damaging our seabed) and restore the UK’s fishing heritage and support coastal communities. But the manifesto neglects to detail how it’s proposals will stop any further damage to the seabed (even if it were just UK vessels in the waters), how it will commit to protect the waters now and in to the future and how it will look to restore all that we have lost along the way.

My overall view of the Reform Party Manifesto

The Reform Party’s only interest really does appear to be making the country as rich (sadly, only in monetary terms and not in any environmental sense of the word) as quickly as possible, with little (in fact, I’d go so far as to say no) regard to our environment.

It ditches any notion of trying to engage in any useful dialogue or seeking cooperation between nations (something I believe is absolutely vital if we have any hope at all of resolving the climate crisis we are currently faced with), it lacks any progressive thinking to protect future generations (which, let’s not forget – are our children’s children etc) and it focuses on old-school, frankly outdated models of how it would like the UK to look in any environmental sense, irrespective that those models serve no useful purpose – given the drastic changes the environment has been subjected to and the pressing need for us all to step up and protect it.

It refuses to recognise that climate change is something that can be stopped, or ought to be stopped – it downplays the urgency and severity of the same, it’s views in relation to agriculture are archaic – farming is not the industry it once was – not necessarily because we have chosen not to support local, but because intensive farming practices have been allowed to develop and expand with very little scrutiny, which has had (and will continue to have) dire consequences upon the environment around us.

Overall, it’s a blast to revamp some long lived past – with little conviction.

Would I vote for their environmental policies? In a nutshell, no.

This is one of a series of opinion pieces on the political parties’ 2024 general election manifestos. This piece was not originally commissioned by Wild Justice but was submitted by a newsletter subscriber. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Wild Justice.

If you think you could produce a review of one of the 2024 general election manifestos then we would need to receive it as soon as possible, but in any case before 26 June, in a similar format to that above, as a word file and with a .jpg or .png image of yourself, the author. Send any potential texts to admin@wildjustice.org.uk and we will look at them. We’ll let you know if we want to publish your piece and we may be able to pay you a small amount for it.