OK – which of these Secretaries of State for the Environment, three Labour and three Conservative, do you think was the best? and worst?
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38 Replies to “Who was the best/worst Secretary of State for Defra?”
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Completed as an ex-Defra employee who worked under each and every one of these except Truss … It was hard to choose between Paterson and Truss as the worst as both stood head and shoulders above the rest for this dubious accolade but Truss must take it for her sheer and complete ignorance, utter disregard and contempt for the environmental element of her brief, and systematic destruction from within of Defra’s capacity to function on anything other than food and farming. All she cares about is protection, facilitation and support for agri-business and “country sports”.
“All she cares about ….”
her own ‘job or future’ certainly not the environment, so a corporate lapdog? Paterson is still very busy behind the scenes so, an interesting choice ….
Too many ‘career’ politicians unaccountable beyond securing safe seats, time there was a mechanism whereby of a percentage the general public can require accountability and removal from post? Political reform, we can dream?
Truss is just a wannabe. From a non Tory background against which she has rebelled in a desperate wish to be part of the kool klub. She perceives contempt for the environment to be a requisite behaviour.
Utterly hopeless.
Forgot the bit about no doubt fetishising Ayn Rand as a starry eyed teenager and never moving on into the real world.
I lack the over view to make my own objective judgement so I very much appreciate this view from someone closer to all.
Truss and Paterson – awful.
Truss hasn’t responded with any substance on Air Quality and now Client Earth will take Govt to court again. I predict fines from EU eventually (if we are still there). And it will be taxpayers who pick up that bill as politicians fail to tackle the problem due to not risking upsetting the corporate lobby.
Whilst David Miliband was an important proponent of Carbon Capture and action on Climate Change, I’ve voted for Hilary Benn, on the basis pop his opposition to the Badger Cull: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7493846.stm
Despite Liz Truss’ incompetence, Owen Paterson just shades the ‘worst’ category for me, combining a similar level of incompetence with a philosophy totally at odds with the care of our planet.
Mr Benn got a grip of the fact that the UK food system has to change, not just others or ‘foreigners’ but us, the British. He was S of S when the Govt was shaken by banking crisis and knock on into food. Set up process that delivered new food security indicators and charted sustainability as core of future food system. Culminating in Food 2030. Best strategy from any UK Govt so far. First the Coalition and now the Conservative Govts have quietly destroyed this. The New Tory policies are all about growth, exports, marketing. They miss the plot, alas. Worse, they are adding to the problems coming down the line. Consumers are left in the dark, on the one hand asked toconsume consume consume; on the other hand, set to take the consequences (obesity, diseases of excess, climate change inducing diets, etc). Bring back Benn, say I. Or at least: start where he left off.
Benn; not as bad as others,damned by faint praise? Having watched him at a fringe meeting some years ago I was surprised at just how evasive,mealy mouthed and misleading he was. GM crops Hilary……
Adam – welcome and thank you for your comment
Liz Truss has to be the worst. Paterson was dreadful,but at least he cared (however misguided), and at least he made one or two good decisions. Truss is just there to dismantle the Dept. She is a truly terrible politician.
I remember talking to Hilary Benn when he was in Swaledale a few years ago. He asked about rabbit problems etc and I mentioned that there were far too many because of no natural predators (welcome to grouse country) and that they ate lots of grass so farmers put more fertiliser on and most of that ended up in rivers and that the rivers became nutrient rich and that…….etc etc etc…..
I think he thought I was mad!
None of the above
Curious Filbert who you’d offer up for the accolades?
I believe the list is complete
Nicholas Ridley has to be a candidate for worst, I’d suggest. Mark’s list focuses on recent Secretaries of State but if you are going to widen out the choice Owen Paterson’s relative by marriage must come into consideration.
Hi Mark
the conepts of ‘best’ and ‘worst’ open up a whole philosophical argument… as presumably whats good for defra (in line with the policies of those in power at the time) is not necessarily the best or worst for wildlife, or the environment. As the remit of defra also includes agriculture, food, other rural issues, etc as well as many other things, maybe the question should have been different? or are you just toying with us all and our concepts of whats good and bad?
Anyway, I answered assuming we were thinking of the wildlife element of this.
A bit off topic to the side, I found out today that Natural England will no longer fund (in a small way that it was, a few £000 per year per county) the provision to its staff of relevant, up to date, species and habitat data to enable land advisers to make rational decisions, as they have pulled the plug on all funding of local environmental records centres. (see http://www.alerc.org.uk news section). glad to see that the reliance on evidence mantra is being repeatedly thrown out of the window, to make sure defra and its agencies become increasingly functionless.
Owen Paterson.thought up a way for property developers to muscle in on ancient woodlands by coming up with something called offsetting.
This means that if developers plant new saplings in an adjoining area then they can grab our ancient woods. Thus Smithy Wood North of Sheffield is a test case for a motorway service station in March.
Difficult choice! Even the least inspiring of these SoSs did some good and even the most dynamic left some gaping omissions.
Perhaps some of the pre Defra SoSs had more wildlife feathers in their caps? Has combining farming and environment worked for the wildlife? Growing gulf between DCLG and Defra since planning was moved away from the environment is certainly not helpful.
Here is a view of SoSs from the little things. https://www.buglife.org.uk/blog/matt-shardlow-ceo/what-has-environment-secretary-ever-done-wildlife
Update – so far Liz Truss has not Liz Truss taken a grasp of the issue of pollinator decline and given “Britain a National Pollinator Strategy to be proud of”. We are all waiting to see if Defra do their bit of the National Pollinator Strategy and establish a statistically robust, quantitative, national, monitoring programme.
Matt
Pls delete second Liz Truss!
Thanks
Matt
The sooner we delete her altogether the better!
Liz Truss takes the worst title, pipping Owen Patterson to the post for being the NFU’s puppet. She is money orrientated and does not care about the future of the planet.
Hilary Benn has been the best so far, taking often difficult decisions for long term gain that he would not see come to fruition in his time in office. He cares about the environment, climate change and sustainable farming. He did not believe that wildlife should be sacrificed to appease farmers.
Back to the Future at Hope Farm.A article by Ian Dillon
On a different subject but nice to see this article and at least Ian Dillon the Hope farm manager agrees with me or maybe I agree with him that the large increase in numbers of birds in the fifteen years at Hope Farm is largely due to Wild Bird Seed Mixtures.It is also the most likely option that would seriously help bird numbers that farmers with the right amount financially would be likely to take up as once sown it does not disrupt farming otherwise.
I did not think anybody could ever be as bad as Paterson. I was wrong.
Somehow I doubt that the ‘prize’ for worst is likely to be much disputed, although if SoS quality is index-linked to global warming then we merely have the worst ever – so far.
But wot, no Nick Ridley?
As for what passed through the hands of the contestants during their time in charge, I really should know better, though it certainly seems that there’s not been much to cheer about in the last several years. Am I one of the 1 in 2000 carriers of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, I wonder. You all remember CJD and the utter failure of Science in Government that would ensure an evidence-led approach and the precautionary principle would underpin future policy. Perhaps the badger culls, lead ammunition and the relicensing of glyphoste (in Europe) are all ‘just a dream’ then.
Shadow SoS weren’t on Mark’s list but I rather liked this comment from the Labour party’s shadow environment secretary, Kerry McCarthy,
“Public policy should always be evidence based and guided by the best available science. There must be transparency and accountability throughout the process, with the evidence behind the policy making published and made available, so that the public can have full confidence in – or the information they need to challenge – this decision.” ,
on the latter issue. A shame that few politicians, or indeed Defra, seem to be in accord with that position.
I wonder what impact the next State of Nature reports will have. Past experience suggests that there won’t be anything to match the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act for scope, vision and outcomes (too weak though SSSI protection was). Turning Defra’s 25 year vision into something meaningful rather than the means to postpone positive action would be one step forward. Integrating natural capital and ecosystem service approaches into local economies and ‘growth’ in order to achieve biodiversity and other natural environment targets as part of sustainable development would be rather welcome too.
I wonder what ‘Robert Arvill’ would say.
Rober Arvill – wow , that was a lot of years ago! But such a valid point.
Strictly speaking, Nicholas Ridley was before the department was renamed DEFRA, but if we want to go that far back to include Ridley as the worst ‘environment minister’, we’d also encompass the two best – John Gummer and Michael Meacher.
David – indeed, Ridley was long before Defra, There have been six SoSs for defra and all are listed. Meacher wouldn’t be in the list anyway – he was a (albeit excellent) junior minister to John Prescott’s SoS.
Liz Truss is the worst closely followed by Owen Paterson. She is the mouthpiece of the NFU especially when it comes to the pointless badger cull. Does she even have a personality or just a robot?
John Gummer was the best at Maff as he cared and was intelligent and based position on facts but had a blind spot on hunting, so Hilary Benn at DEFRA was best for standing up to farmers on badger cull and thinking strategically on food and farming despite being a vegetarian I think he won the NFU round. Miluband was most cerebral but of course got moved on to higher things, always a problem with DEFRA portfolio. I disagreed with Paterson but at least his position was thought through and based on ideology. Not sure what the present SOS position is based on but certainly the worst.
Although Nick Ridley didn’t run Defra, there is the rather pleasing link that his niece is married to Owen Paterson. Man hands on misery to man.
Like MAFF – which was so discredited that it had to change its name – DEFRA goes its own sweet, empire building way..
Charlotte – welcome and thank you for your comment.
Not easy to chose a Best SOS as they were all rather mediocre. Having worked for the JNCC during both the Labour and Coalition administrations I can tell you that most Defra SOS only had an eye on the next job and Defra was certainly only a stepping stone. They weren’t going to jeopardise their political careers by stepping out of line to protect the environment.
The worst SOS is extremely hard to decide. Both Paterson and Liz Truss were hopeless but for different reasons. Paterson was guided by his ideology, which was totally inappropriate for a Defra SOS but Truss is just invisible and I suspect incompetent, but that’s why the PM put her there. To do nothing, not to shake the boat and to implement the savage cuts instigated by the Treasury. So perhaps its the PM and Chancellor we should be blaming not Liz Truss.
Brian – thanks and welcome!
I don`t think any of them are any use, they are typical career politicians, who have never worked in the big hard world. But probably Owen is the worst of a crap lot.