Here’s another reason Tories want Brexit: They won’t have to explain toxic air pollution
Last year the UK was warned it would face a European Court of Justice case if the nitrogen dioxide problem was not dealt with [Image: Getty Images].
You can be assured that it is no skin off his rosy nose that 50,000 UK citizens die every year because of air pollution; he’s doing quite all right, thank you very much.
You can also bet that he can’t wait for Brexit to happen, so he won’t have to answer to all those do-gooder Eurocrats who want to keep UK citizens safe from harm.
As far as he’s concerned, the sooner the UK can get back to making huge profits for him and his Tory friends, no matter the cost in health or wealth terms to the vast majority of the population, the better.
But you won’t hear him say that.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove has been asked to attend a meeting of the European Commission in Brussels, to explain why the UK still breaches legal air pollution limits.
Britain is one of the five member states that have received a “final warning” from the commission after persistently surpassing limits for nitrogen dioxide levels.
The meeting which is set to take place at the end of the month, will be an opportunity for Mr Gove and other European politicians to discuss air quality and how to protect “a basic quality of life” for European citizens.
Poor air quality resulting from pollutants including nitrogen dioxide have been linked with deadly health conditions such as heart disease and lung cancer.
Experts have estimated air pollution kills 50,000 people annually in the UK alone.
Last year the nation was warned it would face a European Court of Justice case if the nitrogen dioxide problem was not dealt with.
Source: Michael Gove summoned by EU to explain UK’s illegal air pollution levels
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THE WORST POLLUTION PROBLEM THIS COUNTRY IS FACING I THE STENCH FROM THIS TORY CESSPIT OF A GOVERNMENT.
Yet another good reason to leave, when an unelected body can set targets and a foreign court can be the sole arbiter of those targets being met, we clearly have no sovereign governance, that may suit the eurofederalists, but not those who believe in democracy.
The targets weren’t set by an unelected body, and the court isn’t foreign, nor will be until after March 29, 2019.
More unadulterated hogwash from Barry. Does he not realise that the European Parliament, with its proportional representation, is actually more democratic than the Westminster Parliament. When did he last have a vote on who is Head of State, who sits in the House of (so-called) Lords, and has he not counted the number of “safe” parliamentary seats where often over 50% of the electorate actually reject the winner, but “first past the post” ensures that divide and rule always wins.
@ Barry….so its now a good thing to have our air space filled with toxic gasses etc and for it to be killing so many people in our country????? i find your reasoning quite hard to believe……. whats being held to account by the EU (a small thing after all) compared to the lives of those 50,000. people? how callous is that.