THE TRAGEDY OF BREXIT CONTINUES

I have just received the latest issue of Natura 2000, the regular EU newsletter about nature and biodiversity. I have been a subscriber to this excellent publication for many years, both while living and working in France and other EU countries and in recent times in the UK. Every time it arrives in the post now, though, I have a deep feeling of regret and sorrow plus not a little anger at the sheer stupidity and manipulative mischief of the 2016 referendum which led to the UK’s departure from the EU and our place at the top table. If anything, I am more troubled today by the madness of Brexit than ever, and from the views of those to whom I speak and from whom I hear, I am very far from alone. All our privileges of EU citizenship, freedom of movement and the ability to work and live at liberty anywhere in the 28 (now 27) member states were stolen by Brexit. I have had to close my French office and accept that my professional qualifications are no longer valid in the EU, and now we have to suffer the ignominy of having our passports stamped when we visit an EU member state, and the shame and disbelief, often with sympathy it must be said, of being British under the uncaring, dissembling and extremist Brexity government in Westminster, apparently helped by Russian interference in our democracy. This interference, notwithstanding the eventual issuing of a redacted version of the infamous Russia report in July 2020[1], has never been fully investigated and one is tempted to ask how the propaganda put out about it and Brexit by the UK government is so very different from the propaganda that is rife in Russia. From July this year, we understand we will also have to suffer an increase in ignominy by submitting to biometric impositions every time we enter the EU.

As I have noted in earlier writings, the UK has been dropped from the Natura “barometer” which indicates the status of marine and terrestrial nature sites and reserves across the EU. The UK is now greyed out on the EU map which covers more than 760,000 km² of protected terrestrial sites and over 450,000 km² of marine areas. Yes, the UK has its own biodiversity targets, reserves and regulations but how much better it was when we were a fully contributing and respected EU member scientifically and politically. It is both a tragedy and a disgrace to have been made to lose that status and synergy by the scheming political shenanigans of the Brexiteers and external interference. 

The key EU nature commitments are listed in our Management Plans and I repeat them here. I realise that the UK’s policies and new Environment Act reflect some of these aspirations and obligations, but how much more powerful it would have been in their achievement if we were committed EU members rather than separatists. The world is a connected ecosystem: division fosters weakness.

Nature protection: EU key commitments to 2030

• Legally protect at least 30% of the EU’s land area and 30% of its seas;
• Strictly protect at least a third of the EU’s protected areas, including all remaining primary and old-growth forests;
• Create ecological corridors as part of a true Trans European Nature Network;
• Effectively manage all protected areas.

Restoring nature: EU key commitments to 2030

• Legally binding targets;
• Ensure no deterioration in any protected habitats and species by 2030, and a favourable status or strong positive trend for at least 30%;
• At least 25% of agricultural land to be organically farmed;
• At least 10% of agricultural land to be transformed into biodiverse landscape features;
• Reduce use of pesticides and fertilisers by 20%;
• Plant 10x3⁹ (three billion) additional trees respecting ecological principles;
• Reverse decline in pollinators;
• Remediate contaminated soil sites;
• Restore 25,000km free flowing rivers;
• New Urban Greening Platform: the Green City Accord;
• Halve the number of “red list” species threatened by Invasive Alien Species;
• Reduce damage to the seabed and adverse impacts of bycatch. 

There is also a new EU strategy for the protection of soils, a vital and threatened asset of global ecology. 

Our government talks incessantly about the benefits of Brexit as if that will make their fantasies true, and has even appointed a minister (Rees-Mogg of all people) to promote them – but anyone observing the situation objectively can see that there are no benefits of Brexit, only losses and damage. The vast majority of scientists, wildlife enthusiasts, professionals, academics, artists and our young people abhor Brexit. We should remember that the Office for Budget Responsibility no less (a statutory body providing the government with independent data), stated the “UK … appears to have become a less trade intensive economy, with trade as a share of GDP falling 12 per cent since 2019, two and a half times more than in any other G7 country.” Remember that the G7 have suffered the same problems from the pandemic and Ukraine fallout, but not Brexit! Yet the Brexiteers go on and on with their lies and pretence[2].

Betts Ecology utterly rejects Brexit and continues to support, and observe wherever relevant to our sites, the EU’s principles. We will not be bullied by the Brexiteers or yield to their fatally flawed, offensive and extreme views. We note that, in data published by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council, by 23 March 2022, after removing the 13% of “don’t knows”, 56% of respondents thought Britain was wrong to leave the EU.  Given that human nature makes it hard to change minds, and that many still believe the propaganda that was sold so deviously but effectively by the Brexity liars in the last election, that is a significant change. Brexit, born of corruption as it was, is a malevolent, deceitful and destructive tragedy for us and our children and grandchildren. It must be reversed.

 © Betts Ecology

[1] You can read it at https://bit.ly/RussiaISCReport.

[2] This report is also worth reading: https://www.cer.eu/insights/cost-brexit-december-2021.