Impartiality of the EADT – UKIP Green Policies
May 2nd, 2010
On Saturday, May 1st, the East Anglian Daily Times “Environment” supplement featured the so-called “green policies of Labour, LibDem, Conservative and Green parties without a mention of the UK Independence Party or as far as I can find out, any attempt to consult us or even read our manifesto, section 11 – Energy and the Environment – easily accessible in summary or in full in pdf format.
UKIP’s main four policies which have direct relevance to East Anglia and Suffolk Coastal in particular are:
(1) to provide 50 GW of nuclear power electricity to replace the imminent loss of North Sea oil as Britain’s national energy mainstay by 2050. This would reduce CO2 emissions by 40%, the biggest single reduction that any party is showing how actually to achieve.
A “quick-as-possible” start on Sizewell C is the subject of a petition which we have been running on our street stalls for several weeks. Work on the road “system” between the A12 and the Leiston area, and on the A12 itself is an integral part of UKIP’s vision for the new power station (see the question from Alfred Farnell for answers to people’s queries on fuel reprocessing and waste disposal).
(2) For UKIP’s plan to adopt a 30 year £1.5 billion p.a. programme for national flood and coastal defences [one of our 5 Long Term Programmes (LTPs)] see the Manifesto, Section 2 – Jobs, Enterprise and Skills.
A National Rivers and Coastal Agency (NRCA) would be established to take responsibilities for this away from the Environment Agency, DEFRA and Natural England, which latter quango would be abolished. The NRCA would concentrate on building comprehensive, properly engineered and managed defences agains major inland river flood risks and severe coastal erosion as on the East Anglian coasts, parts of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, Sussex and Kent.
It would aim to build on local initiatives such as those in Suffolk Coastal at Southwold, the coast to the North of there, Felixstowe, Aldeburgh and Ore and along the Suffolk and Norfolk coastline. NRCA would have the funds to establish comprehensive coast models to see that all initiatives, both existing and new would not shift a problem from place to place. Offshore dredging operations and access channels for shipping would come within its remit, as would helping to establish local supply chains to carry out the work involved.
(3) Excessive wind generated electricity subsidies will be reduced to a common level applicable to all non-fossil fuel sources of electricity, and UKIP will ensure that farms with more than 5 turbines are built offshore to protect our landscape and villages from massive visual intrusion and noise.
(4) Wildlife conservation.
(See question from Suffolk Wildlife Trust for our policies on the countryside, marine protection and land management generally.)