By Local Democracy Reporter Simon Finlay
Additional details by Kathy Bailes
East Thanet MP Polly Billington has written to the Reform Leader of Kent County Council to express her concern about the party’s “endorsement of anti-science organisations and conspiracy theories.”
Her letter is in response to a motion tabled by two Reform UK county councillors which proposes rescinding the authority’s 2019 declaration of a “climate emergency” in favour of a more “open-minded but sceptical” approach to global warming.
KCC’s full council, which meets on Thursday (September 18), has proposed a five-point motion which calls for an inclusive debate, consideration of the business case of energy schemes and ways to “enhance the county’s energy security”.
A 15 paragraph study seeks to challenge current thinking over CO2 emissions, a warming climate and the science behind changes in weather.
It claims that it is “increasingly feared” the climate emergency is “being pushed as a means to increase state control over people’s lives”.
The Green Party group has dismissed the argument as “garbage science and conspiracy theories.”
Labour MP Polly Billington says the motion “contains a large number of unevidenced, false or misleading claims about climate science, carbon dioxide, and even polar bears.”
‘Unproven view’
The report to go before members states: “Kent County Council declared a ‘climate emergency’ in 2019. Since then, the council has had no discernible effect on the world’s climate.
“However, the impact of this designation has been that KCC has endorsed the unproven view of anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change, pushed that narrative through its policies and practices such as in procurement to the detriment of small, local suppliers; scared numerous young people, and had the effect of disallowing proper and reasoned debate on alternative viewpoints.
It adds: “There are simply too many anomalies evident in the climate catastrophism ideology for KCC, as a serious body, to continue with its declaration of ‘climate emergency’.”
The report says: “There are a number of factors other than cyclical trends that would appear to be drivers of any changing climate. “They include the shifting magnetic pole, solar activity (the number of sunspots) and the extent of volcanic activity.
“However, humankind has no influence over any of these. Perhaps the most significant likely driver of climate change is solar activity.
“There is a growing perception of what a society with Net Zero CO2 emissions would have to look like and it is increasingly feared that the ‘climate emergency’ is being pushed as a means to increase state control over people’s lives.
“Whether by introducing 15-minute cities to reduce transport movements; planned reductions in car ownership in city areas; forced reduced consumption of red meat (with the consequences this has for farming, land use and ultimately food security), reduced consumption of goods, and possibly the introduction of ‘carbon budgets’ giving individuals limited allowances for flights and clothing purchase.”
In her letter, the East Thanet MP says: “I am deeply concerned about some of the sources of information being promoted to members of the public by your councillors in this motion, most of which are not rigorous scientific institutions and many of which have obvious connections to vested interests – especially the fossil fuel industry. I would also note Reform UK’s well-documented funding by fossil fuel interests…
“We all believe in free speech, but I am deeply concerned by Reform UK’s continued efforts to undermine rigorous science while promoting unevidenced claims and conspiracy theorists.”
With 55 of the 81 elected members at County Hall, the Reform UK motion is likely to be passed.
Green Party KCC councillor Stuart Jeffery said: “Reform’s paper to council is full of conspiracy theories and garbage science. The science is clear – climate change is an emergency and we must prepare for the impacts.”
The KCC motion asks members to rescind the prior declaration of a Climate Emergency as well as urging members to welcome open and inclusive debate on the topic; consider ways to enhance the County’s energy security and welcome a mixed economy of provision.
Responsibilities
Ms Billington says the motion follows Reform UK’s invitation to prominent anti-vaxxer Aseem Malholtra, an adviser to US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, to give a keynote speech at their conference. He claims vaccines “created havoc” in the human body and said they were a “significant factor in the cancer of members of the royal family.”
In a radio interview, Reform Leader at KCC Linden Kemkaran called the claims a question of “free speech,” and said Reform was “not afraid to debate topics that other people have decided must be silenced.” She said the government ‘guilt tripped’ parents into vaccinating their children, adding that the Covid vaccine was “never meant for children”. The NHS continues to recommend it for immunocompromised children.
Reform UK said the party did not endorse Mr Malholtra’s comments but reiterated its belief in ‘free speech.’
Ms Billington said: “Being an elected representative comes with a responsibility to think carefully about the words we use and the ideas we promote. It’s deeply disturbing that Reform UK in Kent continue to spread dangerous lies and conspiracy theories that undermine science, public safety and our health.”
Protest
A protest against proposals to drop the climate emergency declaration will be held outside County Hall in Maidstone on Thursday from 8.30am to 10am. It has been organised by Kent Greens.
People would be really moaning if we had weeks of frozen seas like we did up to the ’60s.
Keep flying, folks!
We have much bigger concerns in this area Polly. Totally detached aren’t you
My name isn’t Polly (otherwise I agree).
“I am deeply concerned about much of the information being promoted to members of the public by the Labour Party e.g. Ed Miliband for starters.
Crikey KCC and reform have achieved something a lot of us have been after, an actual email or letter from Polly bilington!
Amazing she actually exists. She’s never replied to any of my emails or letters regarding certain issues within Thanet.
She always replies to Phyllis & George Nokes, apparently.
Polly always replies to my emails, so is it because whatever you emailed her for is just plain dumb? Just recently I had a flashback to my student days many decades ago, and I dug out “Lumpen Proletariate” which caould mean the ignorent, ill informed, hopeless ie: people who have no future and who are therefor hope less, and the plain stupid. That seems to sum up Reform fans pretty well doesn’t it? Also see gullible, and easily led ergo Trump, and all the other rabble rouser so called Populists (Fascists?)
I’ve never emailed her, as she’s not my MP – but numerous people, both on here and on facebook, claim that they get no reply. They can’t all be liars.
PS. Re: Lumpen Proletariate! Lunchtime I was in a small cafe and a loud mouth shouted to a mate proudly “Trump has just said there are no more illegal migrants getting into the USA”. The question is, how does he know? Is this just one more of Trumps lies, because anyone entering the USA illegally are hardly going to report themeselves to the police are they? Yet this idiot in the cafe bought this nonsense, Duurh!
Tory u turn, reform are trying to overturn Tory policy in kent county council towards net zero which was introduced by the last conservative administration, now the conservative group are supporting reform in ditching the policy of their own party, no wonder the tories are jumping like rats the sinking tory ship
Both Tories and Labour are washed-up. Unfortunately, this means there’s a very real chance of Nigel Farage for PM.
Given, on X, they’re losing hardcore supporters in droves after taking on yet another failed Tory (farage, anderson, kruger) who are jumping ship for the likes of neo nazi lead homeland/patriotic alternative(both have employees connected to proscribed national action) and the new far right party, Advance, I don’t think so.
Reform are speedrunning the fracturing of ukip.
Everything farage touches, dies.
Maybe, maybe… but I really wouldn’t like to predict the next election. Even Corbyn’s proposed new party seems to be falling apart before it started.
Oh dear Barry – Labour Party totally destroying this country and now unelectable again. They never learn. They parachute in Ms Billingham who is totally useless as a constituency MP. Conservative Party no different and not electable either. Leaves door open for Mr Farage and company which I fear.
If you keep flying Checksfield the Atlantic meridianal overturning circulation system will cease or weaken so instead of having warm water currents giving us a temperate climate, we will end up having weather like Canada, and therefore weather events like 1963.The current exists I have seen at close hand when adjusting engine temperatures at sea, and I saw the frozen sea in 1963.
I couldn’t care less if Polly Billington writes to anyone, but I do object to conspiracy theories replacing science and so called debate replaced with misinformation and distortions.
Climate change is happening and we can all see it,I can’t help it if there are some who are so blind that they cannot see.
It certainly is happening. Thankfully.
What an ignorant bunch the Reform councillors are! They seem unaware of the facts regarding climate change.
I don’t care.
and that is the crux of it. Self centred folk who only care about whats in there immediate vicinity. Your thoughts on the biodiversity loss of pollinators already seen around places like Stodmarsh SSSI, Peter? Or doesn’t that matter to such an esteemed, trapped in teenage edgelord arrested development psyche like yours, Peter?
Stodmarsh? I’m more concerned by the lack of shop in that village now, forcing absolutely everyone who lives there to get their shopping from elsewhere or via home deliveries. Whether it’s Manston Market or Labour’s mass closure of village Post Offices (and by default, general stores) in 2008, the over-reliance on vehicles for everyday life should concern every one.
“Stodmarsh? I’m more concerned by the lack of shop in that village now”
Ofc you don’t care. Lets hope you didn’t align with No Farmers No Food, cause if we have no pollinators, we have no food.
Facts? There’s observed data and theory. The observed data is arguably to carefully selected and the theory comes from those who support one side of the argument. Too much focus on a very short period of history and total disregard to the climate fluctuations over the wider picture.
Climate change yes, part of the worlds natural fluctuations, checks and balances , probably , does man’s actions on the planet play a part in this, very likely , to the degree we’d ne led to believe , no one really knows and given the size of the planet really quite unlikely.
Worth crashing our economy, crashingng living standards and making industrial activity uneconomic , just to make Milliband the poster boy on Gretas bedroom wall, most certainly not.
this is embarassing as anything could be. So much wilful ignorance. If scientists knew about fossil fuels causing climate change in the late 1800s, why didn’t you?
It’s quite astonishing, but pretty much standard for Reform.
Another episode of go with nokes. Get down shep!
Fine,go with the fantasists vote them in and see what happens,just like tge last time over Brexit,after all that was a great success. When your pensions melt like the ice at the north pole,because Farage tries to do a Truss, don’t moan.
I see boobus-brittanicus is alive and well sinic. Come on let’s hear your theories on climate change, I could do with a laugh and so could Shep, even if he is long dead.
You sound like you need a holiday. Easy Jet do plenty of cheap flights to most parts of Europe, go and treat yourself!
The overwhelming consensus among climate scientists is that the current episode of global warming is driven by humans burning ever increasing amounts of fossil fuels.
What qualifications, and upon what science does KCC’s leader draw, to challenge that view?
Andrew actually there is no overwhelming consensus, with many scientists across the world having other views. And Billington’s use of the term ‘conspiracy theory’ is a tedious attempt to slur, misdirect and shut down debate. So funny how people reveal themselves in all their posturing.
“The scientific consensus on climate change is that the Earth is warming primarily due to human activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, which increases greenhouse gas emissions. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists agree on this, with studies showing consensus levels exceeding 99%.”
A.I. or Wikipedia?
Peer reviewed scientific study, actually. Just cause you “do your own research” on those sites and apps, doesn’t mean everyone else does.
I don’t use rubbish like that. I interview people (over 300 musicians, managers, producers and fans for my books to date!).
George I hear Greta thunberg is always looking for volunteers to spread climate clap trap.fancy joining her??
Sticking your head in the sand tends to leave the part of your body from which climate change denial ‘clap trap’ and conspiracy theory bunkum emanates, like a bad smell.
I do hope that the storm dog of climate change does not bite you on the fundament because of your folly.
4:03 AM? Hope you haven’t been up all night worrying that “the end is nigh”, George! There’s a lovely world out there (even in Kent, where we’re having our next holiday), go out and enjoy it!
If you want to know who’s lying, look for those who are trying -like Ms. Billington – who are trying to shut down alternative views.
The people with “vested interests” are the now millions of varsity academics whose salaries rely upon research grants and the gullibility and fear of the scientifically functionally illiterate. Those who buy E.V. because they haven’t done the whole life calculations or thought about what cells are and where the components originated.
One also needs to look at all the patented “Green” technologies and who is making money.
Green is big business in Europe.The continent is resource poor. Which is why several centuries ago its countries created massively expansive empires. It’s why Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, to get to Caucuses oil. It’s why certain politicians have decided that we must live in the cold and the dark. Other scaremongers put a brake on nuclear development too. Madness!
Meanwhile, idiots like Millipede ban oil, gas and coal exploration on our own land and sea. Suicidal empathy with a falsehood.
What’s the carbon footprint of the protest and its hot air going to be?
The late Dr. David Bellamy was correct. It was the real vested interests and grifters who shut him down.
I agree with the Reform motion. It’s the small people with grifting salaries who are the problem. Whatever energy solutions are chosen, it will be the same multinational corporations which will develop and own the future technologies. Pointing jealous fingers at them is just small “s” socialist envy and bitterness. They need to cry harder.
David Bellamy was admired by everyone – until he disagreed with them. Then he was dismissed as an old fool, and not invited on to TV shows.
Meanwhile, the science is unequivocal. Burning fossil fuels create green house gass3s, and those gasses are driving climate change.
Have a look …
https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/scientific-consensus/
“If you want to know who’s lying, look for those who are trying -like Ms. Billington – who are trying to shut down alternative views.”
Followed by everything that comes after, is totally self awareness lacking, irony killing, jokes. Its no wonder you’ve been a useful idiot for Reform since inception.
Its laughable that our MP keeps bleating on about climate change.She could start by doing the basics.Thanet A299 is a contender for the dirtiest litter strewn road in England.The laybys have rubbish in them that could fill the bins over 5 to 6 times.There is more litter on Thanet A299 than the entire M25.If TDC swept up the streets it would cut the industrial levels of weeds all over the borough which then need spraying.Spraying chemicals omit VOCs(Volatile Organic Compounds)into and polluting the atmosphere.So Polly get the basics right and get ris of the Blot on our Landscape.
That’s because this would require both money and effort. It is far, far easier to do a bit of virtue signalling while ignoring local voters concerns. I’d still like to know what her private “public” meeting in Broadstairs actually achieved, beyond a few luvvies telling her what a wonderful job she’s doing.
I do love when people accuse others of “virtue signalling”, when they’re doing exactly what they malign in others.
Please, do provide the stats for the a299 having more rubbish than the entire m25.
I’ll wait…
“Spraying chemicals omit VOCs(Volatile Organic Compounds)into and polluting the atmosphere”
wait until you find out what vehicle exhaust is classed as…
You sound aa bit down to. Go on holiday with George, Andrew & MMR… or better still, turn your computer off and blast out some Chas & Dave or Tremeloes or Little Richard or Showaddywaddy or any other good time music!
Peter LOVES misinformation and turns into a darvo peddling narcissists flying monkey on behalf of others when they’re unable to satisfy the burden of proof they brought upon themselves. Don’t be like Peter.
At least I don’t listen to Take That.
This is Reform’s biggest problem. Take the conversation away from immigration and their other policies are absolutely barking mad. To write a 15 paragraph report to a county council meeting which attempts to contradict decades of climate science is absolutely laughable.
Asking Miss Hackney to do anything other than preen and virtue-signal is a waste of time. She’s just another DFL, though she rarely is DOWN from London, much preferring to stay away from this dump as much as possible.
So you’re saying, the mp, who’s job is in westminster primarily, spends more time in westminster doing work than in her constituency?!
SHOCK. HORROR. MP WORKS AS MP…
For once I agree with Thanetian blind.It is OK to press the government immigration and get them to do better, but spouting nonsense as fact is harmful.
David Bellamy changed his mind several times and had the decency to accept the data he was using was actually non existent,but alas he did have a blind spot on anthromorphical climate change.
Even if we accept his premise, we should be using less plastic,stop littering and give nature a chance, what’s more green energy is cheaper, and not reliant on dodgy suppliers like Putin.
Can we not agree to differ and instead focus on saving money, cutting pollution, and breathing cleaner air,surely a green(?) like Checksfield can go with that flow.
As I’ve often stated, we should NOT be having to put our rubbish in plastic bags. Even those well-meaning people who collect plastic rubbish from beaches then put them in plastic bags!
There needs to be a law that makes sure all politicians and their associates have the source of all their funding and the source of all their facts made explicitly clear and public, perhaps displayed as a banner around their neck when they’re in public, and also as a header on any written communication that they make. Then the public will see what and who is really pushing these irrational and crazy ideas that we’re getting. The way that politics has been infiltrated by big money is obvious, but needs to be made clearer to the voters. The fossil fuel companies are pushing back hard on the scientifically proven factual consensus, creating sound bites that are basically lies to ensure oil, petrol and gas still gets consumed in enormous quanitities to keep their profits high, stuff the planet. This reminds me so much of the “smoking is good for you” diatribe that the tobacco industry came up with when scientific evidence proved it was cancer causing. I do wonder if faridge will start saying smoking is totally harmless soon and KCC then get all the No Smokkng signs taken down? We’re being lied to big time. Let’s not be gullible like the USA.
Stress and worry is far worse for your health.
Sometimes I wake up early in the morning and read or try to improve my really poor chess playing skills, but sometimes I read and comment on the unsubstantiated “facts” that some here continue to trumpet, even though tine after time they are refuted.
That doesn’t make me stressed, it’s what happens when you get old, even dyed in the wool happy clappers like Mr Checksfield will suffer these symptoms from time to time.
I’ve been up since 5am the world is still spinning we all haven’t died! By climate change. We’re all still here.
There another oldie with sleep issues! Oh the world will keep on spinning,and the climate will keep on changing,just not in the way that works best for humanity.
On a brighter note President Trump is visiting the UK, and better still he us not visiting Kent.At least the media will be spending its time commenting on the Trump visit, than inventing stories about allotments being sold or local government reorganisation not saving money,or how thousands of Billionaires are leaving the country (here’s one on a visit).Even Reform will have to shut up while their false God is visiting.I wonder if his familiar will pop up pint in hand, to tell us the error of our ways.More good news Google and Microsoft are investing billions in Britain, that makes me feel a whole lot better.
Iranian drones hitting Ukraine 400 times a day, are they net zero?
Probably doesn’t matter to left and green, as Moscow always championed them in an effort to undermine western economies.
And no Jews, no news.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Charlie boy brings in andrew to do some kind of deplorable act on trump to keep him sweet,and help secure government contracts.
Both were friends of Epstein! And allegedly had illicit things going on.
I’m no lover of trump George!
Saw the Reform KCC clown on Meridian News yesterday pretending that many scientists don’t believe it is real. Just like the saving already signed off on before the election Farrago & grifters like her claim they were responsible for. She & her party are a total embarrassment.
There is an imposter of me. How extremely flattering.
I rarely posted and I guess I was missed.
I love a tribute band.