Scare tactics, the old Tory ploy!

One of the most worrying aspects of the Net Zero announcement by Rishi Sunk was the dishonest way in which the proposals were framed. Sunak made the bold claim that policies had been scrapped when in fact there were no policies. Misinformation is straight out of the play book of authoritarian Governments and by cancelling non-existent policies the Government seeks to obscure the real impact of what they are doing.

Let's look at the facts on these so called scrapped policies, there was no green paper, no manifesto commitment or any formal proposal by a cabinet minister. There wasn't even a policy proposal by ourselves or Labour on these issues which needed to be scrapped.

The policies that never existed were:

1. “The proposal for government to interfere in how many passengers you can have in your car. I’ve scrapped it.”

There has been discussions for many years that lift sharing would reduce car journeys and pollution, this is common sense but nobody has proposed that this should be set out in law so there was no legislation or draft legislation to scrap.

2. "The proposal that we should force you to have seven different bins in your home. I’ve scrapped it.”

There was no proposal that households should be required to have seven different bins – there are plans to simplify recycling across the UK by having 7 different categories but even Defra says there is no plan to force these in to 7 separate bins.

3. “The proposal to make you change your diet – and harm British farmers – by taxing meat. Or to create new taxes to discourage flying or going on holiday. I’ve scrapped those too.

All these issues have been discussed by various think tanks and academics but no legislation has been drafted or proposed.

This is a threat to democracy and free and fair discussion, what Rishi is saying, which he reiterated on the Radio 4 Today Programme, is that if any person or group raises an issue or makes a suggestion on how we might proceed then it must be assumed that this is a firm commitment to future Government policy. This is clearly ridiculous and stifles debate.

Let's be clear his speech was designed to scare people and divert people from the looking at real issues so please don't fall for this nonsense.