VOTE

CMS News has covered the content of the manifestos – read about it here   Recap five articles

Not heard about the environment in this election? – read about gagging the NGOs by the Conservatives Lobbying Act

Mark Avery has put together a score card for the environment and the manifestos – check it below

When I vote next Thursday, the policies of the political parties on environmental issues will be a significant factor in my choice.  I hope you will consider the environment in your choice too.

There has been little media examination of the environmental aspects of the manifestos, but I’ve read and analysed them all and there is a massive difference in the approach to the environment from the Left and Right of politics.  No-one can possibly say that the parties are all the same.

What will environmental protection look like in the post-Brexit world? Labour, LibDems and the Greens promise to keep the current level of environmental protection and build on it whereas the Conservatives and UKIP say they will throw away the bad bits and keep the good bits without telling us which is which.  I fear that a Conservative government will dismember environmental protection in a similar way (but less drastically) to Trump in the USA.  The Conservative manifesto is vague on the matter – and that cannot be reassuring.  This is an absolute red line for me and it means I could not possibly vote Conservative or UKIP even if I loved to bits everything else in their manifestos (I don’t).

How should you vote? Well, I hesitate to recommend anything because it depends on the candidates etc etc but if you care about the environment please consider voting for whoever might beat the Conservative candidate.

Here are my ratings of the party manifestos’ environmental content (and if you click on the party names you will get more analysis and links to the documents themselves so that you can peruse them yourself):

Labour: B+

LibDems: B+

Greens: B+

UKIP: D

Conservative: D-

SNP: little environmental content as SNP Westminster MPs do not engage, no rating

Plaid Cymru: little environmental content as SNP Westminster MPs do not engage, no rating

DUP: little environmental content, DUP MPs tend to vote with the Conservatives, no rating

Other political parties are available.

This is an important general election for the environment. If you can vote, then please do.