Buzz Off!

Campaigners for Brexit maintained that, outside the EU, the UK would be able to adopt higher environmental standards. This always seemed unlikely, as things had markedly improved after the UK joined that body. The UK had cleaner rivers and beaches. The UK now failing to ban 36 pestides not allowed for use in the EU, is just further confirmation that improving environmental standards was never a consideration (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/13/uk-fails-ban-pesticides-outlawed-use-in-eu). The 36 agricultural pesticides have all been shown to be harmful to human health and the environment. They include the neonicotinoids, which greatly impair the pollinating services of bees and other insects. It seems that profits have always ranked higher than human or environmental health. There's a real danger to returning to our former status as 'the dirty man of Europe'. It seems very likely that further dramatic reductions of UK biodiversity (already a scandal) are imminent.