Boris Johnson criticized for commenting on Thatcher coal mines

Boris Johnson is facing a major backlash upon his comments on coal mining. People have urged him to apologize for his offensive comment about Margaret Thatcher, who is helping the environment.

The PM has said that the closures gave the UK ” a big early start” in its fight against climate change. He was speaking on the visit to an offshore wind farm in Moray Firth. The First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, says that the remarks were very insensitive to the mining community.

She has tweeted, “Lives and communities in Scotland were utterly devastated by Thatcher’s destruction of the coal industry (which had zero to do with any concern she had for the planet).”

Labour said that he must apologize for his shameful comments. The First Minister of Welsh Mark Drakeford said that the damage done to the Welsh Coal mining areas 30 years ago was incalculable. 30 years later, the Tories are still celebrating what they have done.

On Thursday, Mr. Boris Johnson, on his visit to Scotland, attended a quiz about the preparation for the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. He would also set a deadline for the ending of the extraction of fossil fuels. He said that the UK has already transitioned from its coal mining, and he suggested to Mrs. Thatcher to get the ball rolling.

He said, “Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, who closed so many coal mines across the country, we had a big early start, and we’re now moving rapidly away from coal altogether.”

Boris Johnson may have been ill-advised to summon the ghost Lady T to support the climate policies, but he has some point. In 1989 the Iron Lady riveted the UN with a warning about the damages of the greenhouse gases. She also continued that the result will come with a change in the future which will be more fundamental and widespread.

Her pit closures were not part of the green policy. This has made Britain a global leader on climate change, but it has crushed the communities. Politicians do not want to repeat the mistake. Thus they aim to create jobs in the environmental sectors.

The PM’s climate advisors say that his policies on green jobs are running behind his rhetoric. Mr. Johnson said that there was an opportunity to increase the use of more environmentally friendly technologies. But he also stressed that this needs to be smooth and sensible with the transition from the oil to the gas to the greener to make power.

Credits: BBC