Tory U-Turn on green policies

Seven bins, enforced car sharing, tax on meat, tax on flights, all strawmen.
They are going to fight the next election on this aren't they?
I am beyond disappointed with this announcement, as are the car manufacturers who had been assured that the policies were going ahead as planned.

Casdon

growstuff

And who said anything about seven bins?

I’ve got 6 bins already, and it’s fine.
Garden waste
Black non recyclable
Glass
Plastic and metal
Paper
Food waste
Mind you, I am in Wales, and we are more into recycling.

We have no bins at all- and everything gets recycled!

How? Fleurpepper. I’m genuinely curious.

Urmstongran

And what if you live in a terraced house Casdon? Where do those folk keep their 7 bins?

They are able to use different coloured bags instead which they leave out on recycling day, so they don’t take up more space, it’s all been thought through. People do take pride in recycling, it’s something we have become good at. A trial is also being done on giving money back for recycled cans near me, and that is going well so far.

I believe Rishi Sunak thinks this is a vote winner. Tell people what they want to hear. When were Sunak's revised targets discussed in parliament?

Last time I put stuff, non food might I add, out in a plastic bag it was torn to pieces by crows and magpies so I had to buy a dustbin until the Council brought in wheelie bins. ( And I thought it was him next door being vindictive lol.)

I agree Greta, I believe Sunak thinks this will win him votes. I also believe that he is totally mistaken. This move might appeal to a section of DM reading, climate denying, I’m alright Jacks, but for the rest of us who actually care about the climate, particularly young people, this is a retrograde step. I think he has underestimated just how many UK citizens want things like green energy and clean air - millions of us do! We care about the environment our grandchildren will inherit.

Casdon

growstuff

And who said anything about seven bins?

I’ve got 6 bins already, and it’s fine.
Garden waste
Black non recyclable
Glass
Plastic and metal
Paper
Food waste
Mind you, I am in Wales, and we are more into recycling.

They're introducing reusable bags here but the rollout is very slow.
In the meantime we still have to use polythene bags for metal and plastic, paper and general waste.

We have large, green bins for garden waste which can be heavy to manoeuvre; they replaced the green reusable bags, similar to the ones being rolled out now for metal, plastic and paper.

What happens to these reusable bags? They are made from heavy duty woven polypropylene 🤔

It’s the right thing to do.
There is insufficient infrastructure for everyone to drive electric cars and this needs to be put into place before abandoning petrol and diesel cars.
The idea of forcing people to change perfectly good boilers and spend upwards of £16000 was never, ever going to work. We’re in the middle of a cost of living crisis, but some people want to force others to change their boiler and pay thousands of pounds for the privilege. Now it will be done more gradually and people can change their boiler when it needs to be replaced. I still don’t know how the Islington set think millions of ordinary people are going to be able to afford it though.

Last year we had a power cut that lasted a week because of storms. Had we been all electric we would not only had no light but also no heating, hot water or means of cooking. They just don’t factor in these things. I asked a government sponsored electricity installer what we would do , no clue of course.

Sunak and his family are intimately linked to the fossil fuel industry through his wife Akshata Murty’s stake in the transnational IT services firm Infosys, one of whose top clients is oil giant Shell.” Mm, interesting🤔

(This extract is from The Byline Times but it is also widely reported in the public domain. The dividends received by Sunak’s family are eye-watering.)

It's not impossible to design bins which have separate compartments, as on e local council does.

And what about scrapping the requirement for landlords to make their properties energy efficient? They don't pay the bills - their tenants do.

The whole thing is a nonsense of course.

7-bins Sunak is apparently stopping things that didnt exist

7 Bins - this will follow him for the rest of his political career

Meat tax

Compulsory car sharing

Compulsory insulation upgrades.

Flying tax

None of this exists, although she who would save the country in 10 years mad Liz Truss praised Sunak for getting rid of them.

Sunak talked about the cost to households, but no one is forcing a single household to buy a new electric car or central heating boiler after 2030, all it is saying is that as your existing petrol car wears out the only new cars available to buy will be electric, and by then there will be loads of second hand electric cars anyway, given the level of electric cars I see on the road now.

The same with new boilers. As the old fossil burning ones wear out other forms of boiler will be available. But you don’t have to change it in 2030!

What Sunak is doing is purely political, because
Firstly he wants to stick it to both Johnson and also the centrists in his party. Sunak sits very much on the right of his party.
Second he is panicking about his 20 point behind labour and trying desperately to appeal to what he imagines is the voting public concerns over the cost of living. However, he has badly misjudged this, largely because he has made himself look ridiculous over stopping stuff that doesn’t exist and gas lighting the public over non-existing expense, which will soon become clear is a huge exaggeration.

The scrapping of rules to make landlords improve energy efficiency doesn't help tenants, who will be the ones paying higher energy bills

Im not a landlord and I dont like LLs but scrapping the unrealistic changes that were being foisted on LLs in an unrealistically shrt time is a good thing.

Under the proposed legislation LLs had until 2028 to raise the EPC of their property to a C. Now with many older Victorian and prewar houses this was going to be impossible. And the cost would never have been recouped in energy savings.

For example, digging up a concrete floor in a 1980s house (such as mine) to install underfloor heating would cost thousands but the savings might be £35 per year. What kind of business sense is that?

This is yet another reason LLs have been selling their portfolios before the new regulations came in and thereby further reducing the stock of private rental properties, Now we hear of 30/40 tenants going after each new rental and engaging in bidding wars to secure somewhere to live.

There is an old saying - be careful of what you wish for because you might get it!

This is another example of barrel scraping to try to appeal to the non thinking voter. Saving money is more important than saving the planet. We’ve all got swimming pools to heat haven’t we? Another attempt at gas lighting - we won’t force you to have 7 bins- when was that happening? Just shows that the UK is even more untrustworthy - let’s sign a treaty and then break it when it suits.

It's just another example of this Far-Right Neo-Liberals being prepared to sacrifice everyone's future in order to hold on to power. It's certainly not any form of Conservatism. Unsurprisingly, those who support them can always find reason in the unreasonable.

I wonder how many, who have have seen the results of those who have made themselves the New Aristocracy, who don't private jets to fly themselves somewhere safe when the waters rise, will actually be persuaded to vote for their lies - again.

this these

Thought I'd just pop this in here incase anyone is interested:

It's a petition demanding Rishi Sunak doesn't rip up plans for net zero.

you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/don-t-rip-up-plans-to-protect-the-planet?source=whatsapp-share-button&utm_campaign=blast2023-09-20&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=whatsapp&share=c4db300f-d2b2-467f-aced-bed8ac72a788

As well as the sheer ludicrousness of ‘scrapping’ policies that don’t exist (the bins, the meat tax etc), and environmental costs, it’s also economically illiterate, and very bad for business, to have this inconsistency and lack of commitment.

Shame on him - and those in his party who support him - to prioritise short term party (potential) political gain.

Well, it seems to have ignited Tory conflict, along with everyone else.

inews.co.uk/news/politics/tories-at-war-over-net-zero-u-turn-as-liz-truss-backs-rishi-sunak-but-zac-goldsmith-calls-for-election-2631792

inews.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-rishi-sunak-green-u-turn-cannot-afford-falter-2630449

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/20/rishi-sunak-net-zero-u-turn-green-mps-car-manufacturers-caroline-lucas

Have to wait and see whether the opinion polls suggest the public are happy with it all being rowed back on.

Compulsory car sharing 🤣🤣🤣. Where on earth did that come from!
How on earth could you force people to car share?

If short term opinion polls are what is motivating Sunak - then shame on him.

Mr Sunak has not ripped up net zero NotSpaghetti the U.K. ‘s goal is still 2050.

GrannyGravy13

Mr Sunak has not ripped up net zero NotSpaghetti the U.K. ‘s goal is still 2050.

Then what mitigations is he putting in place to continue towards net zero to replace the those he has taken away? Like the 7 bins😀😀😀.

Common sense prevails.