Calling for a blanket ban on fracking
Thirsk and Malton Labour Party congratulates Ryedale District Council on its principled opposition to the Government’s promotion of fracking.
The Government’s renewed enthusiasm for fracking flies in the face of both its own Climate Change Strategy and public opinion.
Mr Rees-Mogg’s advocacy of fracking is cynical opportunism aimed solely at gratifying those who stand to profit from it. Starting fracking now in the UK would make zero difference to global
fuel prices and therefore do nothing to protect UK households and businesses from energy price rises.
If the Government was rational it would have added fracking to its U-turn portfolio, but instead it used the parliamentary debate on Labour’s ban fracking motion as a political pawn in a failed attempt to shore up support in their own party.
Our representative in parliament, Mr Hollinrake, has blown with the wind on fracking. He championed it while his Government was granting licences, said its time had passed when his Government imposed a moratorium on it, and when he had a chance to stand up for the interests of his constituents by opposing fracking, voted in parliament against a ban.
Such flip-flopping is symptomatic of the unprincipled and dysfunctional Government which has so badly damaged our economy and blighted so many people’s lives.
The only certain way to end the threat that fracking in the UK poses to our local and global environment is to vote for a Labour government in the general election which is urgently needed to restore credibility to our democracy. Because the Government has scrapped Ryedale Council its ban on fracking will lapse next April unless it is adopted by the body that replaces it, North Yorkshire Unitary Authority.
Thirsk and Malton Constituency Labour Party and Labour county councillors are calling on the county council to commit to a blanket ban on fracking in North Yorkshire.
Given the county council’s past support for fracking and their record of subservience to Tory governments, a ban may not be won without a fight.
The Labour Party will work with all county councillors who oppose fracking to get it banned. However, it will also need pressure from the public writing to their Tory county councillors to demand that they back a ban on fracking.
The Labour Party will work with all county councillors who oppose fracking