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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Robin McKie Science Editor

‘Get rid of all the green crap’: Tory PMs’ strange attitude to the environment

Margaret Thatcher in the Downing Street garden
Margaret Thatcher made some big noises about the value of the environment – and then passed the buck to John Major. Photograph: Michael Brockway/Shutterstock

Conservative party support for environmental causes has generally been vocal at election time but hesitant and half-hearted in power. On one hand, the party – with the exception of a few hardcore climate crisis deniers – has never reached the total opposition to green causes that disfigures rightwing parties in other nations, in particular the US Republicans. On the other, it has generally failed to enact the kind of legislation that would allow the UK to take a global lead in the battle against global heating, as can be seen from the records of three recent Tory prime ministers.

Margaret Thatcher

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