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However , the main issue doesn ’ t arise from forcing companies to censor material that the government deems needed . The problem is stopping the general population from being able to access sites that don ’ t come under UK jurisdiction , it becomes a complex and entangled web of programming and expensive cyber monitoring . It could stop perfectly legal 18 plus sites from existing , it could easily lead to pro-government propaganda being displayed regularly . There are many abuses that could follow on from
Michael Gove appointed environment minister
Theresa May ’ s appointment of Michael Gove as environment minister signals the Conservatives antienvironmental intent whilst in government .
By Matthew Clifton
Climate change measures and environmental protections are vital for the UK and with the Paris Climate Agreement , current government measures , legislation and regulations must be kept and improved . This would mean a strong voice on the environment should be placed as the Department of Environment , Food and Rural Affairs ( DEFRA ) minister . With Brexit negotiations beginning shortly , keeping vital environmental legislation should be a
this law and if you couple it with the removal of the Human Rights Act , our civil liberties as we know could be slowly stripped .
As previously said , it is stopping UK citizens are not visiting content that hasn ’ t been approved by the government . This would mean the creation of a walledgarden like system along with the banning of virtual private networks and anonymisation services , like policies enacted in China .
priority .
However , Theresa May has seen fit to appoint Michael Gove as the DEFRA ’ s minister . Gove is the man who said people have had enough of ‘ experts ’ and did considerable damage when education secretary .
A fox in charge of hens
Michael Gove has had an estranged relationship with the environment , in fact , his history of voting suggests he is one of the worst choices for DEFRA . He previously voted to sell-off England ’ s state-owned forests , plus , he was against the reforms on carbon emissions in new homes . During the EU referendum , Gove spoke against EU environmental measures directly blaming EU measures as the reason his father ’ s fishing business went out of business . Gove ’ s father later denied that Brussels was to blame .
He missed two key votes on climate change and energy votes . Michael Gove has voted in favour of climate friendly measures 5 times , but has voted against them 12 times . Theresa May got rid of the Department for Energy and Climate Change ( DECC ) and the role was subsumed within the Department of Business , Energy , and Industrial Strategy ( BEIS ), however , previously in 2013 , Gove tried to downgrade climate change as topic
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Issue # 8 17th June 2017
Civil liberties slowly eroded
Of course , we wouldn ’ t see civil liberties gone overnight , that would lead to anarchy and violence on the streets ( most likely ). It would be slow one-by-one removal , where the population will largely be apathetic towards the idea . The first step would be to use a situation that sees security breached ( a terrorist attack ) to promote it as a positive , then slowly strip them away one-by-one , so that the general population don ’ t notice until it is too late . This is how Erdogan has gained power and how dictators act .
within education . But the plan was dropped after pressure from campaigners and Liberal Democrat colleagues .
Theresa May ’ s Conservatives working against the environment
The government will be facing several challenges regarding the environment after spectacularly failing to address pollution issues and agree to protecting significant environment legislation upon leaving the EU . The Conservative manifesto had little mention of the environment and promoted practices such as fracking , along with the well-publicised free vote on fox hunting and backtracking on the ban of selling ivory within the UK . The UK has been sued or fined on at least 4 different occasions since January over emissions or air pollution .
Since Theresa May took over has Conservative leader she has done considerable damage to the UK ’ s ability to tackle environmental issues such as air pollution , with the DECC being abolished and refusal to release the Emissions Reduction Plan even after significant pressure from the EU and elsewhere . The government needs to focus on environmental issues , however , with this appointment it is clear that the Conservatives have little desire to deal with the real issues that face us in the 21 st century .