What the Sun also fails to mention is that its five-point manifesto bears a striking resemblance to the ‘five core campaign objectives’ of FairFuelUK
Following the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election, there has been a concerted campaign by the right-wing press to seize on the backlash against net zero, even as temperature records are being broken and the devastating impacts of climate change become all too clear.
The latest example of such a short-sighted and dangerous campaign is from the Sun newspaper. Rupert Murdoch’s paper has put together a five-point manifesto called ‘Give us a break’, which seeks to protect drivers from the ‘rush to net zero’ and which it says is backed by ‘MPs, peers and motoring campaigners’.
The manifesto includes demands to stop ULEZ expansion, opposing low-traffic neighbourhoods ‘where the public object’, a delay to the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars and no new green motoring stealth taxes and fuel duty freeze’.
This at a time when the UN General Secretary is warning that the era of global warming has ended and “the era of global boiling has arrived” and after scientists confirmed July was on track to be the world’s hottest month on record, with heat waves causing wildfires in Europe’s Mediterranean region, leading to widespread anger and criticism.
What the Sun also fails to mention is that its five-point manifesto bears a striking resemblance to the ‘five core campaign objectives’ of FairFuelUK, a lobby group funded by the freight and haulage industry and run by regular Sun writer Howard Cox, as revealed by the Private Eye.
The Private Eye goes on to add: “The only bits of FairFuelUK’s core objectives the Sun left out were the demand that the UK scrap ’15 mins localities’,-the batshit online conspiracy that sees urban development as a tool to imprison people in their local areas-and the cycle lanes that cause congestion.”
The Sun’s story also quotes Cox as a drivers’ champion who has cast doubt on man-made global warming and the health impacts of pollution. Cox is also the Reform UK candidate for London Mayor.
It’s also worth pointing out that FairFuelUK runs an APPG which is chaired by Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, leader of Parliament’s Net Zero Scrutiny Group. The APPG’s 2021 report opposing the petrol and diesel ban, listed as a contributor the climate change denying Global Warming Policy Foundation.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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