The coalition mid-term review hardly mentions the environment in any meaningful way.
There are a few poor jokes – the two mentions of ‘greenest government ever’, the promise to protect the marine environment with protected areas, the continuing obsession with a badger cull rather than control of bovine TB and closing an ash door after Chalara has bolted (but tree planting is still on the agenda). Rather surprisingly there are only three mentions of farmers.
Can you find anything more positive to say about it?
Defra has no useful momentum – it is a Department which is parked. Unfortunately it is parked on a slope and nobody remembered to put on the hand brake so it is slowly rolling backwards.
Since David Cameron and Nick Who? have kept saying they are half way through this coalition government they seem to be planning to stay until September 2015 since they have had 32 months together so far. This is the same attention to mathematical detail that we have come to expect from Gideon Osborne too. But just as the days are now lengthening, and we are heading towards the glorious summer that we are owed, we are also only 28 months away from a General Election where there is a chance, only a chance, that the environment might be better served.
By the way, has Defra Minister David Heath done anything since arriving in Smith Square? He doesn’t like meeting NGOs from what I hear and I can’t find any trace of him making a speech on the Defra website. The LibDems could hide behind their lack of Ministers at Defra in the past but now they have a Minister is there any sign of an impact? Not that I can see – can you?
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/05/hawks-extinction-illegal-hunting#start-of-comments
The RSPB press release and CA comment article re Hen Harriers in England has some interesting comments. Sadly I don’t think the RSPB took advantage of their Humphrey’s slot this morning – unconvincing and uninspiring – 1/10, could do much better.
The ‘mid term’ statement missing out the environment is surely no surprise – see George Monbiot [also in the Guardian on line]. Also recommend Simon Barnes in Sat 5 Jan Times, value the ordinary or next time you look it won’t be there.
Is this the time to start chaining ourselves to the railings – a bit old fashioned perhaps…how about some spy drones over the grouse moors.
recessions are quite green in some ways because they suppress carbon emissions and we’ve had one of the longest and deepest recessions of modern times. However to be fair the previous Labour government probably deserve most of the credit for that one.
Firstly I listened to Martin Harper and the ghastly Blackmore today, no RSPB should have done much better, especially against the intellectually challenged crap of the CA.
I’ve never voted Tory in my life nor will I, all currently ghastly upper class spivs and though I usually have voted Liberal to try to keep the Tories out of the labour unwinnable seat I live in, I’ll not be doing that next time either. Its the price they’ll pay for being liars (university fees) and sleeping with the enemy but being totally ineffectual. Conservation and Green issues have always done badly under the Tories so why be surprised at it this time.
Also No Giles the blame for the recession should be laid squarely at the doors of national and international banking, you’ve swallowed the spin the current n’er do wells in power have put on that one.
It’s them Gnomes of Zurich again
As one of the world’s largest financial centres who was responsible for regulating our banks properly?
Not sure I have fallen for any spin Paul. I’d like a Government that is willing to actually take responsibility for our economy and that includes the downsides as well as the up. Labour had 13 years to sort out our financial sector. It failed spectacularly.
What they have effectively tried to do is bask in the golden glory of eleven years of boom which were had largely on the back of an unsustainable out of control banking sector and then avoid all blame for the inevitable massive bust. That is highly dishonest.
And as one of the biggest and most influential players in the global economy we should take our share of responsibility for its failings rather than ducking it.
The biggest shame of all this is that Labour will never learn from its mistakes until it can be grown up enough to acknowledge them
BTW I’ve never voted Tory either.
Mark – please listen carefully
1. Even third-world countries have TB-free national cattle herds via the TB test and slaughter policy (unless they have a wildlife reservoir)
2. We have a Test & Slaughter Policy
3. We have the Badger TB reservoir
4. Thus – each and every herd TB breakdown is (NOW) due to Badger
QED
I read one anti cull campaigner saying it was all down to farm cats! Maybe we should cull them? The RSPB poisons cats and the RSPCA has confirmed it’s ok. Not sure what they use though but obviously its perfectly humane.
Mark, did you pick up a one liner from David Cameron going into the last EU leaders meeting ? He said the UK would oppose the mooted limit to the maximum amount of CAP money any one landowner could receive because it would ‘limit consolidation’. What that means is stopping the biggest farms getting bigger – and its the biggest farms – the arable prairies – that have lost the most birds and least need the money. As I’ve said before, Defra looks more and more like MAFF re-born – simply cheer leaders for top-end agri-business. It is also interesting to note that the headline farming budget has not been cut at all and the assumption remains that we all want to go on subsidising farming at present levels – for example, when Ministers try and scare us with ‘Btb could cost the country £1 billion’ there is no suggestion there is a choice to be made – we could decide simply not to spend the money, especially as the supermarkets seem intent on off-shoring our dairy industry through their monopolistic price cutting. (and just to pre-empt Trimbush, I think the industry has handled Btb very badly, creating a situation where it has lost massive public sympathy through its single-minded focus on badgers but at the same time I’m deeply sympathetic to the unsustainable attack on the prices paid to farmers for milk. )