Source: YouTube
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyoWwsxTcQ4
Date: 23/04/2017
Event: Rupert Read: climate change denial "amounts to kicking our children in the teeth"
Credit: Rupert Read
People:
[This excerpt is from a live debate about Brexit on BBC1 Sunday Politics East, on 23rd April 2017.]
Rupert Read: I just want to go back to UKIP for a second, though, there's one thing which it's really important to get clear about, here. When Brexit is all done and dusted, people will turn back to the great issue of our time - dangerous climate change. And we must never forget that UKIP are the party of climate denial, just like Donald Trump. And climate change denial is vile and despicable - it amounts to kicking our children in the teeth. And that's the kind of thing I hope people will be thinking about, at this election, that what we need to do is be thinking truly long-term - when Brexit is done and dusted, we'll have to go back to the issues that will be determinative, what kind of planet are we bequeathing to our children and our grandchildren. That's the kind of long-term thinking that we really need in politics now, more than ever.
Stewart White: Okay. Um, "vile" I think was the word. Peter Reeve, coming back to you, quickly.
Peter Reeve: Well, I love Rupert to bits but he would shut down every business, he would take every car off the road, he would shut down transport and he would stop people living their lives, for his cause.
Stewart White: Well, I'm going to have to let him answer that one as well - would you shut down business and take every car off the road?
Rupert Read: Well, it's very funny that Peter should home in there on transport policy, which of course is one of our great areas of strength. And both in the local election and in the general election, one of the reasons we'll be asking people to vote Green is so that we can have a massive - if you'll let me finish, please - is so that we can have a massive investment in public transport, which is one of our signature policies and actually an extremely popular one.