It was reported on 16 July that County Durham council, presently dominated by Reform UK, is now thought to have become the first council in the country, to revoke its climate declaration. In its place the council has declared a care emergency.
Darren Grimes, Deputy Leader of Durham County Council and a former presenter on GB News was reported as saying: “We are done with expensive virtue signalling tripe and care about our residents,” and was also noted as saying that the ongoing social care crisis is the “most urgent threat to the well-being of our children and the financial stability of our county”
It was also said that the previous council had approved an environment pledge aimed at achieving net zero emissions by 2045 running alongside the current Climate Emergency Response Plan.
Another Reform councillor, Andrew Husband seemed to hint that global warming would be a good thing as: “During the Roman-occupied era not far away from County Durham, around 45AD, there is evidence of Roman vineyards along Hadrian’s Wall. This is because the Roman period in Britain is known for having a relatively warm climate which would have been conducive to growing grapes. Mind, how the climate has changed”
Meanwhile, a third reform councillor Kenny Hope, went so far as to accuse the Lib Dems of being in favour of adult and child slave labour, claiming that the mining of material for lithium batteries was “rife with child slavery” as was the production of solar panels in China.
The Lib Dems and Greens reply
In response, one of the council’s two Green members, Johnathan Elmer described some of what he had heard in the debate as “bonkers”, going on to say that the vote represented “a very dark day” for the council and that “80% of the population do believe in the climate emergency and want to do something about it. Durham has an administration that doesn’t. They’ve got a head-in-the-sand, don’t-look-up approach”. Elmer was also reported as saying: “It’s so vital to our economy. If you signal that you don’t care about the climate, then you are putting that at a disadvantage. It’s really negative and tragic to be tacking 180 degrees from that vital priority”.
Liberal Democrat councillor Mark Wilkes was reported as saying that he was concerned for his nine-year-old son. “I want to know he can grow up and live in a country and on a planet that is safe. There is a personal aspect to everything, isn’t there?”
Wilkes also pointed out that more than £13 million had been saved due to the council’s climate action in the last twelve months alone. This meant that that by ending work on tackling the climate crisis the new council was risking losing considerable external funding, with the accompanying risk of less money to invest in social care.
Protests outside County Hall
It was also reported that the vote to revoke the Climate emergency Declaration was met by vociferous protests outside County Hall. It was said that a considerable number of protestors had assembled outside Durham County Hall before the vote, where they voiced their opposition to the contentious proposal and carried a number of placards and banners highlighting the ongoing climate crisis and urging council leaders to ‘get your heads out of the sand’.
Comment
So, here is the new Brexit, the new issue, which Farage and his supporters are going to try and use to win power; opposing Net Zero and serious work on limiting and mitigating Climate Change. This is despite the fact that across the world numerous climate records have been broken this year, including Spring being the warmest on record in this country. Throughout the world more and more people are dying, because of the Climate Crisis, including now here in Europe.
It is also surely telling that Mark Wilkes made the point that actually, declaring a Climate emergency, was absolutely not getting in the way of combating social care, that both were important issues and that far from preventing progress on social care, the climate emergency declaration actually was helping, by saving the council £13 million in the last twelve months.
But of course, none of that will matter to these Reform councillors. Like the MAGA supporters in America, they are happier to indulge in what might be described as ‘smashing stuff up’, which they don’t like, because they don’t understand it. The idea of empathising with people across the world who are suffering and dying, including the same elderly people in this country they claim to care for, is an anathema to them.
What is certain is this; the arguments about climate and the crisis we are increasingly facing must also press home those elements that involve issues such as social care, education the NHS and many others. If we want decent social care, a fully functioning NHS and a better education system for our children then we must also tackle the climate crisis.
The climate crisis is an overarching crisis and cutting our commitment to tackling it, will not end well.
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