This looks good: a new website and group called Environmentalists for Europe.
The website is rather slow – perhaps it is being inundated with people joining?
Follow on Twitter at @Env4Eur
Like on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EnvironmentalistsForEurope/
It’s good to see cross-party support from the likes of Lord Deben, Baroness Young, Caroline Lucas MP, Richard Benyon MP, Baroness Parminter and Stanley Johnson.
This looks like a good initiative.
Most environmentalists I know are pro-EU – not unquestioningly, but strongly. The referendum will be a good opportunity for all of us to examine those knee-jerk reactions and find out how well based they really are. It’s an important decision – let’s get it right.
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Love your optimism Mark
Particularly with some of the membership – Benyon, confident he’ll be doing his best for upland moorland owners?
Conversely, Caroline Lucas …. absolutely:)
The objective of the group is to campaign around a single issue – that the UK environment is safer if we’re part of the EU than if we are not. It is not a group about the best way to manage the uplands, the rights and wrongs of grouse shooting or any other specific environmental issue and it is therefore possible for members of the group to hold different views on those things whilst agreeing on the basic aim of the group i.e. that we need to stay in the EU.
Since many voters vote Tory and a large proportion of those that do are probably naturally unsympathetic to EU membership I’d think that having Tories on board – even land-owning, game-shooting ones – is probably a rather beneficial thing for this group and that overall it needs to represent a wide political spectrum if it is to achieve any impact.
It is said that politics is ‘the art of the possible’ and it certainly seems that it involves a substantial amount of compromise and the formation of unlikely alliances in order to achieve things in politics. Of course it is possible to be ideologically pure and to refuse to dirty your hands by dealing with anyone who does not agree 100% with your own set of principles but I’d suggest that that is not a recipe for success and certainly will not help win the battle over whether or not we remain in the EU.
If you’re interested in nature (or science in general for that matter), then this is a no-brainer; we must vote to stay in. The most powerful laws that protect our wildlife – the Birds and Habitats Directives – come from the EU, including SPAs for hen harriers. Nature conservation is also an international endeavour, and our sites form part of a series across the continent.
This is the most important vote many (all?) of us will ever have, and it’s vital that those of generally liberal or progressive politics join forces with like-minded conservatives to make a positive case for our continued membership. The alternative will be a disaster that doesn’t bear contemplating.
If you’re still unsure, ask yourself this. Are the likes of the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, Nigel Lawson and Nigel Farage really campaigning for a Brexit because they think EU protections for the environment aren’t strong enough?
Andrew,looking at a map of RPAs it is literally a disaster of the difference in numbers of Hen Harriers between the start and latest figures.
If that is put at the EUs door then it is a complete failure.
I don’t see how you could put the decline of the Hen Harrier at the EU’s door Dennis. It’s true that our EU membership has not stopped them being persecuted but you can’t seriously believe that if we had not been members all those grouse moor managers and gamekeepers would have kindly refrained from being beastly to them.
Jonathon,read my comment again,I did not suggest that at all but my comment was answer to someone who suggested in my view that staying in the EU would be beneficial to RPAs.
That was my interpretation anyway.
Hen Harriers desperately need all of us who are in different ways fighting for them to unite into one group somehow and as he has most members Mike Clarke becomes desperately needed for the Hen Harriers cause.
I agree that we need to pull together on this – I fear there is a massive complacency because of the oft-stated belief of some, repeated in the media, that it’s a no-brainer and we will stay in. I believe that thinking is very risky. Consequently I’m delighted to see this group form.
The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) has recently carried out a lengthy survey of its members on this issue and the vast majority are in favour of remaining in the EU. The results will be published in the next few weeks.