Advertisement

‘It’s scary’: South Thanet locals rally against net zero-rejecting MP

<span>Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian</span>
Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

Under a cloudless sky in searing sun, Phillip Watts bends down to pick up a broken shell from the parched soil at his east Kent vineyard.

“My vineyard is eight metres above sea level, and I’ve got lots of pebbles in my soil because it used to be a beach,” he said, pointing at the shingle strewn around his award-winning vines. “And it’s going to be a beach again!”

“It’s scary. No doubt,” he said of the climate crisis.

Watts’ Barnsole Vineyard, near Staple, between Sandwich and Canterbury, lies in the constituency of South Thanet, which, according to recent data, had just 4mm of rain in July – making it one of the driest in the UK.

It is also the constituency of Craig Mackinlay, MP, a former Ukipper turned Conservative, who has regularly voted against measures to tackle climate change. As leader of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSC), a group of Tory backbenchers challenging the government’s net zero policies as “uncosted fairytales”, Mackinlay’s strong views are regularly expounded in a blog and in interviews.

They include describing net zero as an “elite delusion”. It would, he told the Daily Telegraph, “take this government down”. The rush to net zero”, he has tweeted, created the “madness in the energy market”. He is against a windfall tax on energy companies, and has dismissed the Cop26 summit as a “Glasgow jamboree”.

It is these pronouncements, among other concerns, that pushed more than 100 placard-waving protesters to gather in May outside the Broadstairs constituency office that twice bears his name – writ large. Organised by Thanet Left, a spokesperson for the protest said at the time: “The climate change catastrophe and the rising cost of living pose a terrible threat to us here, yet we have an MP who seems utterly blind to both of them.” More protests are planned for the future.

On a hot day this week, with temperatures close to 30C, Broadstairs beach was thronged with tourists, numbers swollen by a folk festival, with tills ringing as shops did brisk business. The dry yellow agricultural fields inland tell a different story, however. And, countywide, Kent fire and rescue has been called to 400 wildfires so far this year – 10 times that of last year.

Asking local people if they have heard of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group mainly yields blank looks. But all are aware of the climate crisis.

“Things are definitely changing,” said one local Broadstairs shop worker, busily restocking shelves, and surprised on hearing of her MP’s attempts to challenge net zero policies. “Oh, that’s not very good,” she said.

“I know he’s got strong views on it,” said one man, nodding towards Mackinlay’s constituency office. “It’s about the money, isn’t it?” He reflected: “But they’re saying we got something like 10 years of fossil fuels left. How long have we been here, and we’ve used all the fossil fuels.”

The office of Craig Mackinlay, MP for South Thanet.
The office of Craig Mackinlay, the MP for South Thanet. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

Global warming has meant Watts, 63, is able to ripen grapes he has never been able to before in the decade since he left his marketing executive job in London and bought a vineyard. “I’m making still red pinot noir now. I never dreamed I could be doing that. You are starting to see still chardonnay in our area. You would never have believed that to be the case 10 years ago.”

The idea his vineyard could one day become a beach once more is not far-fetched. Even quite conservative projections, said Mike Garner, a local Green councillor, predicted that the Wantsum channel, which separated the Isle of Thanet until it silted up in the middle ages, could reappear. “In time, as sea levels rise, Thanet is going to become an island again,” said Garner.

Agricultural land was being built on to meet Thanet’s target of 17,000 new homes over the next decade, “replacing fields with concrete”. It will cause more flooding, less drainage and result in more sewage in the sea – which would deter tourists, a major income generator in the area, he said. “There’s a litany of issues that are linked with climate change that are causing more and more problems. And having our MP not acknowledging the reasons why this is happening just beggars belief.”

Man on a boat
Phil Shotton is one of a group of local people who have set up the Craig Mackinlay Watch blog, factchecking the MP’s blog Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

Phil Shotton, who runs a computer software company, likes to take a dip each morning in the sea at Ramsgate. But, before he does, he checks the Southern Water Beachbouy app for sewage levels in the sea. “The main problem we face is water shortage and sewage issues. We have a very old sewage system which every time there is heavy rainfall is overstressed and raw sewage is dumped into our bathing beaches, which is of huge public concern.”

Shotton, who is “semi-retired”, is one of a group of local people who have set up the Craig Mackinlay Watch blog, factchecking Mackinlay’s own blog. “Pretty much every one of them had a glaringly obvious mis-fact about climate change,” said Shotton. “And I respond with the science and the facts.” He doubts most people are aware of Mackinlay’s New Zero Scrutiny Group. “But those that are, are really plugged in,” he said.

Related: Drought declared across eight areas of England

The group is crowdfunding to produce leaflets and set up stalls to better counter Mackinlay’s pronouncements on climate and net zero issues, he said. “I’d like to think if enough people read it, the groundswell of opinion will moved massively,” said Shotton, who acts as a policy adviser to Thanet Green party. “But, on the other hand, if the only satisfaction I get out of it is poking him in the eye, metaphorically, then job done.”

As Shotton speaks on Ramsgate seafront, on the nearby beach people are beginning to take refuge from the scorching sun in the shade of a wall. “I don’t know if people see this heatwave as wonderful. It’s nice to be by the seaside,” he said. “But I think more and more people are seeing it as a harbinger of doom.”