During his/her annual speech last night the Chief of the Environmental Defence Staff was horribly misquoted as saying;
I can understand, completely, that in times of slightly lower national richness we must clobber the environment for all it is worth. I have, of course, no argument with our ‘greenest ever Prime Minister’ on that score. He is doing us all a great favour by launching his well-annunciated and perfectly thought-through attack on the very fabric of what makes England special to so many of us – its countryside and its wildlife. We should not hold it against him that he promised us a green government and has given us the opposite – it’s very witty and spirited of him.
Some would criticise this government for doing away with those bodies that had, a mere four years ago (it seems much longer) an independent and powerful voice on the environment (but thank the Lord we still have such outspoken NGOs). Let us raise a Christmas glass to the memory of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution ( a body with a distinguished 40-year history but now confined to an impenetrable government archive), the Sustainable Development Commission and to Natural England, a body which is still with us but is like a mistreated dog, now chained, neutered, caged and, through mistreatment, cowering, in a kennel somewhere near you and licking the hand of its rural customers as they finish off the remnants of England’s wildlife. We should remember that, these days, an environmental watchdog is not even for Christmas.
But David Cameron (and Nick Clegg), Francis Maude and Oliver Letwin knew that their opportunity to castrate English nature conservation was a narrow one. Only in the few months after ‘winning’ such a dramatic majority of -26 seats would this government be able to implement such long-awaited changes that had not been signalled in their election manifesto. It was the move of honourable and brave men.
In the few months that followed, we were all in it together, with the environment taking a leading role in the cuts that were handed out. No short-term thinking there at all. The rural myths of scores of country-house dinner parties were now enacted, badly, as government policy. Nobody knew what they were doing – it was such fun!
Having eviscerated nature conservation through abolishing some bodies, cutting the resources of those that remained, and friendly words in the ears of those that held onto their jobs, the task was more or less accomplished.
Now was the time to introduce the radical Tory agenda of wildlife-neglect, spiced up with attacks on nature so that there was little hope of its recovery. The planning system, forestry sell-offs, biodiversity offsetting and simple inactivity were the recipe for the future. How we laughed when Defra, the government department with the task of protecting nature launched its attacks on badgers and buzzards and ignored the needs of hen harriers. Such wit – turn the nature-saving department into the nature-killing department! Put some ‘real country people’ in charge of it. Let’s give Owen Paterson, a climate-sceptic, EU-sceptic, anti-badger rural idealogue the environment brief – next step, Richard Dawkins for Archbishop of Canterbury!
Nature Improvement Areas were a cheap distraction, and government just idled through several years of not doing much on agri-environment schemes and marine protected areas. At last there was the chance to make more of a difference, on CAP implementation, but the general election is still more than a year away and so there is no need to unearth some green policies just yet – let them stay buried. We’ll just do what our mates in the CLA ask and everyone will blame the NFU anyway – let the poor farmers take the blame, we were doing it for rich farmers really!
I think people complain far too much about all this. We still have the best environmental thinking in the world, the best environmental NGOs, and the best environmental science – that’s why we are trashing the environment so comprehensively.
We certainly have the best environmental legislation and policy – because some of it came from the past when politicians of all parties cared about the environment and not just about money and short-term votes. And because quite a chunk of it came from those foreigners in Europe. We have policies that say we will halt biodiversity decline by 2020 but actions that accelerate its loss. We have legislation that protects birds of prey but nobody is going to think about enforcing it so it counts for nothing. We have policies that say we want subsidies to be cut but when it comes to it our mates benefit too much from them to cut them when we have the chance.
But the dawning reality is that, even if we maintain the policies and legislation in real terms, lack of implementation raises the prospect of further accelerating wildlife loss. Unattended our current course leads to a strategically incoherent biodiversity policy: exquisite policies, but insufficient assiduity to implement that policy or enforce that legislation. This is what anyone with an ounce of sense would call the spectre of the hollow-force. We are not there yet – oh sorry, I wasn’t paying attention – we are!
The Chief of the Environmental Defence Staff sits down to polite but rather uninterested applause.
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The Government is pleased to announce today that our policies are vindicated and we are now reversing the environmental crisis that we inherited and which was all someone else’s fault. Using indicators specially selected by our Dodgy Statistics and PR Department we can show today that Grey Squirrels are flourishing across the country, Ring-necked Parakeets are booming in the south east (which is the only part of the country we really care about) and, thanks to our policy of ‘quantitative easing’, Pheasants are so widespread their corpses can be plentifully seen littering the side of all our major trunk roads. These green shoots of recovery prove that we are on the right course and we must maintain this course for the future. We are therefore pleased to announce that we shall fearlessly continue to attack “green crap” and “balls” wherever we find it, vigorously cut back Natural England and other “weeds” that stand in the way of progress and ensure that this green and pleasant land is a fit and proper place for every true barley baron, property developer and grouse moor owner.
Jonathan – many thanks and Happy Christmas!
The lack of enforcement by the current government is understandable- they don’t give a monkey’s about the wildlife. The real hollow force is conservationists who aren’t prepared to really stand up for wildlife. There’s little hope for us sorting out a good deal for wildlife by smooching in the political arena because we can’t slip enough under the table. As a political presence we’ve got a good popular support but little money. There’s even less hope by thinking we can do anything by simply expressing our discontent to each other and hoping that someone will notice and take sympathy (that’s pretty pathetic).
Popular support is our hand and we have to use it and I don’t mean just sending in a wad of petitions when our competitors are sending in a wad of reddies. We have to get up and use that popular support to be politely obstructive to encourage a change in direction which can all be done in a fun, peaceful and entertaining way.
Peter – Happy Christmas!
What a wonderful piece of creative writing, Mark ! And sadly all too accurate – don’t forget that the core of this Government came to power with the express intent of dismantling the state which was meant to be replaced by ‘Big Society’ – the rest of us doing it all for nothing. But that seems to have gone by the board when we didn’t behave properly and do as we were told.
But there is hope. This Government-that-never was – all labours fault in the past for 3 years, and all labour’s fault in the future for 2 – has achieved a good deal less than it would have liked and is creating some serious long term problems for its thinking. All is not well out in the shires: the Conservatives and their brainless business allies have created a new, largely non-political movement which is effectively checking their worst excesses – onshore wind is pretty well dead, the forest sales fiasco must have had about the worst political cost:benefit ratio of any policy since the poll tax, HS2 is hovering over the rocks because of it has tried to blast through a landscape occupied by rich and influential people and who’d bet on fracking even before its first (and inevitable) groundwater pollution disaster ?
But there are ways round – first, sharpening up our own act – we could get our woodlands back into management and potentially reverse the decline in woodland birds on the back of the Renewable Heat Incentive – and RSPB are talking about working with what is left of FC’s Forest Services to give more advice – and the actual work needn’t cost, it could make money. Where else could money come from – perhaps one of conservations biggest costs – removing carbon to check succession ?
Then there are the businesses that are trying for sustainability – and the magic links like Crossrail and RSPB combining to solve a waste problem by using it to create an environmental asset in a new nature reserve. Many are operating quite outside Government in a direct relationship with us the consumer – like B&Q which by adopting wood certification eventually pushed Government down the same route.
Underlying all this is that the present Government is operating an almost entirely negative approach to politics: creating fear and loathing between countries, between classes, demonising anyone they take against – and don’t forget, that’s most of us reading this blog if you track Owen Paterson’s pronouncements, in fact most of us are probably dammed several times by now. Opposition is meat and drink to that sort of politics: positive ideas and principles, lethal – as we’ve seen with the unexpected success of Ed Milliband’s head on attack on the great Conservative phenomenon of near-monopolies like energy and rail privatisation. I think we need to present a compelling alternative vision and come out from behind our sectoral bunkers to link with that wide, apolitical middle ground which is already, and effectively, saying no to the trashing of our environment.
Roderick – Happy Christmas!
I’m inclined to agree, Peter. It would be easy to group representative conservation bodies as ” Nero clones”, but whilst I suspect they are feeling the frustration too, advocating that we should build hedgehog houses or similar is not a substitute and supports that conclusion. Additionally, the absence of anything other than polite references to that frustration hardly instils confidence in what they might now contemplate. Why are they being so reticent?
My accompanying worry is that, at a time when we need to rely on such political support , the arrogant dismissal by the current Government of such action when it is taken by the electorate ( Brian May’s badger petition ) suggests we need some very strong innovative leadership from conservation groups to organize and achieve such “obstructive action”. Sadly I’m no longer convinced they are capable of it or willing to put themselves on the line.
Happy Christmas to Mark and all his readers and hope for a better 2014.
John – Happy Christmas!
Mark, well said, sir, but even at your thorn-in-the-side-of-pseudo-green-government best, you can’t hold a candle to the unintentional black humour that emanates from Parliament.
I wouldn’t bet against the below being touted as a positive wildlife measure by our elected colleagues:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25455415
You couldn’t make it up.
Graeme – Happy Christmas!
As usual I agree with both John and Roderick. Also as a group or individuals we need to start being much less polite when government lets us down as they usually do, the polite denouncements almost imply we expected to fail. Phrases like scandalous dereliction of duty or absolutely inadequate or the gov’ts response is utterly rubbish because— might be far more appropriate in galvanising the troops because we really need them to react. My own reaction is that like most previous tory administrations when it comes to conservation and wider environmental issues this gov’t is f—–g criminally crap.
Paul – Happy Christmas!
https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/british-fruitcake-goes-global-at-christmas
filbert – Happy Christmas!
If I remember right the National Wildlife Crime Unit will once again have to fight for funding by the end of this financial year. I say this every year but how earth can they plan for anything with funding only available (or not) one year at a time.
Bob – quite right. Happy Christmas!
Bob – quite right. Happy Christmas!
Are the NGO’s really that outspoken? Or too intent on placating neoliberalism with instrumental valuation of nature and biodiversity offsetting? Seasonal Greetings. 🙂
Ginny – Happy Christmas!
Governments will be able to carry on with negative decisions regarding our Environment and Wildlife as long as the majority of the country say nothing.