I wrote to my MP last week and received a very prompt reply from him on Monday this week! That’s impressive and I am very grateful for the speed and content of his reply.
Mr Sawford has written to Owen Paterson on my behalf asking the Secretary of State ‘the extent to which Defra use the Farmland Bird Index, which covers 19 species reliant on the farmed countryside, as a basis for setting environment-related targets?’ and ‘At what level does the department want the Farmland Bird Index to reach by 2020, given the index has just seen a five year decline of eight per cent?‘. Both Mr Sawford and I wait, with breath bated, for Mr Paterson’s reply which will, no doubt, take a while to get back to us but which will be posted on this blog.
Mr Sawford also wrote to Maria Eagle, the Shadow Secretary of State, and says ‘In his email to me, Dr Avery challenges the Labour Party to set out how a future Labour Government would deliver this form of compact and what measures we would take, therefore, to improve the public vlaue of CAP spending. He adds that he believes that there are many rural Labour supporters who feel that Labour should have a much stronger rural and countryside agenda.‘.
But Mr Sawford went further than that. He suggested meeting up to discuss these matters further – and I will certainly take him up on that offer.
Now I know my MP well enough to be on first name terms with him, which I wasn’t with his predecessor Louise Mensch (but I did have a brilliant argument with her at one of her surgeries once), and he does know that I am a Labour Party member and a supporter of his. And he does know that I write this blog and so, sorry Andy, his replies to me will be under a bit more scrutiny and under a spotlight than would be the case for most constituents – the power of the blog! But I am grateful to him for taking my concerns seriously and promoting them to both the Government and the Labour Party.
Why not write to your MP about wildlife matters and see what sort of response you get? If you do, then I’d consider posting extracts of your letter and your MP’s reply on this blog if that would show your MP in good light or bad. Please make sure in your letter that you tell your MP that you will consider publishing his/her reply (that’s only fair). If enough of us write and get (or don’t get) answers then we will build up a picture of how seriously our political parties take our concerns about the natural world, and we will, I promise you, help raise the matter up the political agenda, bit by bit. Get emailing!
Do remember to vote in the poll to pick the Westminster MP who did the best job for wildlife in 2013. Voting started on Monday and has already attracted over 900 votes.
Well done Mark,think your M.P.has acted really well and sure you will get a good response when you meet him.Really good of him to make time to have a meeting.We need more like him.
Mark as an ex offender (now reformed) I look at that letter and can’t help thinking id theft, you should hide your personal details a wee bit better fellow, just a bit of advice. People will troll the net (note the proper use of the word troll) for snippetts like this and it wouldn’t be too hard to find out your date of birth too
Wee-Jock – sometimes I wonder whether I want my identity… You are probably right but things have come to s strnage pass when you can’t tell people where you live…
On a day when the world is mourning a rather fine gentleman who fought to bring freedom & democracy to S Africa*, it’s inspiring to see a small example of it being used to good effect. I will make time to write to my MP as soon as I can. Will you have a link set up from the top for the replies Mark or should we just share them under this post?
* I noticed he referred to SA as “this beautiful land” – a better understanding of the value of nature than many of our own politicians as per recent blogs?
MP’s response to full postbags over the forest sales fiasco in 2011 was fantastic and really proved that our democracy can work and that it is worth contacting your MP – despite the almost celebrity culture created around public figures, they are after all just people, and some of them have even lived and worked in the real world before becoming MPs !
What impressed me over the forest sales wasn’t just that backbenchers picked up that this was a real, serious issue where many, many of their constituents felt so strongly but just how much hard work MPs who spoke in the Commons debate had put into their speeches: in contrast to the Government which, having cut the FC out of the loop, exposed both Ministers & Defra civil servants shocking ignorance of forestry, backbencher’s speeches were superb – hugely well informed and accurate, but beyond that reflecting the deep emotional attachment of their constituents to their local forests – a very impressive performance by a range of MPs from both sides of the house.
Roderick – quite right!
I shall write again to Margaret Beckett MP about what I see as threats to the Local Nature Reserve network in England. I did so in 2011 when we learnt that Derby Council wanted to build a massive cycle race track on top of the city’s first and only bird reserve (and now an LNR) which Mrs Beckett herself opened as Secretary of State for the Environment. She forwarded me a lovely letter the Council sent her, assuring her no harm would come to the reserve. But two years on and we now expect a planning application for a pay-to-race bike track and mountain bike training area to appear any day. (So there goes the snipe, wheatear, ring ouzel, stonechat, skylark and reed bunting habitat, to name but a few) With rumours of a second LNR in Derby being eyed up for development, I’m really concerned that a huge precedent could be set whereby local authorities think it acceptable to declare LNRs one year, then build on them the next.
A coalition of 12 conservation organisations across Derbyshire is now urgng its members to raise the nationwide threat to LNRs with their MPs, as well as the more local threat with their own Councillors.. I hope they gets the same quick response that your letter has. Somehow I doubt it, but will keep you informed. (Anyone wanting to know more can contact us on [email protected])
What chance LNRs when all 82 publically owned NNRs are to be Dedicated as Open Access? So, not just walkers but dogs (popular as local authorities close their public parks to dogs), cyclists, equestrians (big money earner for cash strapped agencies and authorities), to quad bikes etc. even restoration of industrial locomotives where tracks existed!
If Natural England do not comply with the Habitats Directive in terms of appropriate assessments then why would local authorities worry when it comes to developing or ‘improving’ LNRs?
Saltfleetby Theddlethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast already suffers from execesses of the masses, sensitive dune systems are put at risk of irreparable damage &c.
So well done Mark for prompting people to write to their MPs. MPs need to know that even amidst austerity the environment is valued and people do care about NATURE Reserves.
While active ‘recreation’ (unaided by engines) is undoubtedly very good for people, it is usually not good for nature (or for people trying to enjoy that nature) and the myth that both can co-exist is still being widely peddled.
Whether it is NNRs or LNRs, they all play a role in the jigsaw of sites that hold important habitats and wildlife, whether that value is local, regional or national…so we need to defend all these places as best and as vigorously as we can. With the majority of MPs and councillors being so apathetic towards nature conservation, we may need to be a bit more strident, more ‘joined up’ and also more clever in our campaigns to defend these places.
Nick
ps watch out for Peter Marren’s forthcoming article in British Wildlife magazine December issue due out in a few days time about Open Access and NNRs, a subject on which most of the major NGOs have been remarkably reticent so far.