23/09/2019
Michael Mansfield QC was apparently going to deliver a speech at Labour's party conference in Brighton today. A leaked copy of his speech appears to suggest he would say: "I think when we look at the damage eating meat is doing to the planet it is not preposterous to think that one day it will become illegal."
Vegan charity Viva, which is hosting the debate that Mansfield is talking at, says that 25% of all global greenhouse emissions come from agriculture, with livestock production contributing about 80% of it.
Juliet Gellatley, a director of Viva, said: "Thirty years ago people didn't bat an eyelid if you lit a cigarette in a pub or restaurant. But now society accepts smoking is harmful and totally unnecessary and so we legislated against it..... The same could happen with eating meat."
Her suggestion about the impact caused by livestock would appear to be somewhat exaggerated. The actual research conducted by the University of Oxford, published in the journal Nature, states that meat and dairy produces 60% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions; still significant, but somewhat different to Viva's claims.
They also seem to have misunderstood what was actually banned in respect of smoking, and why.
Smoking was banned in public indoor spaces, not everywhere, and certainly not in people's own personal spaces. And, critically, smoking was banned in those areas because of the health risks posed to those around them.
To compare this to eating meat is, quite simply, ludicrous.
It is absolutely obvious that significant action is required to address climate change.
It is also clear that steps are being taken to try and reduce the impact we have on the environment:
In the area where I live, there has been significant development of solar farms. This has also been the case elsewhere, and wind farms have also been created, both on-shore and off-shore.
Whilst some other countries are setting more ambitious targets, the UK has said that the sale of new petrol or diesel cars from 2040, but people are already moving towards vehicles that don't pollute the atmosphere as much - last month, August 2019, the third best selling car in the UK was the Tesla Model 3.
People are thinking about energy efficiency, recycling and other ways of making a difference.
What would actually happen?
One thing that I don't think is clear from the vegan narrative, is what would happen to all of the animals?
Would they be proposing a mass cull of these animals?
That would seem at odds with the vegan message of caring for animals, wouldn't it?
In any event, at a time when the Labour Party seems to losing its way, being swamped with the mad nonsense of the extreme left, this just seems like another completely bonkers way of destroying any chance of the electorate putting a tick in their box.
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