It was an easy win – a future partial ban on microbeads – but nonetheless it is very welcome.
And understandably Defra has made quite a lot of it – wouldn’t anyone?
Have you noticed that the @DefraGovUK Twitter stream has had a definite upgrade – at least in terms of presentation.
Defra’s Twitter stream looks a bit more like that of a lifestyle magazine all of a sudden. Here’s an example of yummy food:
And there is now a definite attempt to ‘big up’ British farming.
I’ll keep that red tape image for the next food scare or environmental crisis. Not much emphasis on being a regulator of farming is there? More a cheer-leader for it?
There is a new Secretary of State…
And we should all be glad we aren’t living in the past (except on grouse moors of course).
What chance a spanking image of a dead Hen Harrier on a grouse moor appearing on the Defra Twitter stream some time soon? Nah – doesn’t look quite so good does it?
But there is scope for Friday amusement…
Your entries for a caption competition please:
My attempt: ‘Yes minister, it would be nice to show you this on a computer… Of course, with the budget cuts… ‘.
[registration_form]
“And as instructed, the posters are this much above the anticipated flood level…”
Whilst undoubtedly good news, it contrasts nicely with their approach to banning the deliberate addition of toxic lead to food products.
Caption entry
hmm, …sorry – was that a yummy cake I spotted just behind your left shoulder?
“Well thanks for coming, do give my regards to Mr Liddell-Grainger when you next see him.”
“I blame the Environment Agency.”
“… and I can reveal that our latest in-depth research has established that this is the size of Andrea Leadsome’s brain”
After the excitement of the news emanating from the Petitions Committee and commenting away like a good ‘un in the Guardian, this story didn’t quite do it for me!
What I have found interesting is my local ornithological society (100+ strong) website makes no mention of Marks ePetition and links to 9 other birdy organisations that also carry zero publicity.
Either the theory of Six Degrees of Seperation doesn’t work or these particular groups couldn’t give a 4X about Hen Harriers.
So thats why there is only 120k signatures.
Half of my brain is missing!!
I contacted a local birders group (Bradford Birders) to ask them to put information about a talk Mark Avery was giving to the Ilkley Literature Festival last year on their website. I thought their members would be interested, especially as Bradford Council is the only local council to let their (our) land for grouse shooting. This is part of the response I got.
“Also we are not a pressure group and there are sufficient organisations to join relating to wildlife matters. We leave it to our members to choose their own preferences.”
I thought that was rather curt, rude and narrow-minded. It was only for information after all. I didn’t ask for support or even make my stance known. Are they only interested in ticking off their twitcher’s lists?
Carole, thats pretty much the attitude I encountered when I suggested adding a campaigning aspect to “my” society’s core activity. “We are a recording organisation we don’t do campaigning”.
It left me wondering who they thought would campaign to reverse the decline they had spent so much time and effort documenting. I left the society after a full and frank discussion!
Maybe if Mark’s readership contacted their local bird club/society and asked them to publicise the epetition we might get a boost to the signature count?
“It left me wondering who they thought would campaign to reverse the decline they had spent so much time and effort documenting.”
Exactly! Maybe they think that the rarer birds are, the more kudos they get when they tick them off their lists. Alternately, what are they going to record when there’s nothing left? Apart from grouse that is.
I have written twice to the Secretary of the West Midland Bird Club. No reply. And and then to the Chair. No reply. Their President is Bill Oddie. That’s the next letter. Who are these people: I wanted to ask for their assistance in raising the very low level of signatures in their area. Instead, apart from the discourtesy, it begins to seem that they are part of the problem rather than of the solution.
Alan, Its dispiriting isn’t it and makes you wonder what its all about really. At least one of Mark’s readership doesn’t like our posts! I think they are very much part of the prob.
A N Other in the street isn’t going to get too concerned about Hen Harriers but can be excercised about the effects of grouse moors management on humans if my experience on the Guardian is anything to go by.
I have limited experience of these groups in the UK. My local one is the Marylebone Birdwatching Society, which has a membership across north London. They replied to my email and promised to post something but (unless I missed it) did not. Maybe they are quite diverse, though I fear the reply that Carole got may not be unusual (from those that reply of course.)
Good to know that despite all the cuts and the state’s withdrawal from environmental protection there’s still money sloshing around for Defra to provide free advertising for the ‘yummy food’ industry and tell us all how many of us owned fridges.
How about another statistic – 95% of British adults have never seen a hen harrier due to the govt.s total failure to address wildlife crime?
“Today we’ve announced plans to phase out microbeads because the scientific evidence suggests they harm the environment. Yesterday we announced plans not to ban lead ammunition because the scientific evidence suggests it harms the environment. Er…”
Caption competition: “Minister, this is how far your nose will reach if you tell me one more time that DEFRA is doing its absolute best to protect the hen harrier”.
“I’ll keep that red tape image for the next food scare or environmental crisis. Not much emphasis on being a regulator of farming is there? More a cheer-leader for it?”
And what exactly is the problem in supporting a UK industry ? Not everyone shares your view that constant critism combined with actually no practical ability is the preferred route, thankfully.
Julian do keep up. Everyone recognises the utility of providing the same pointless data to several pointless agencies so they can keep it in a pointless database before pointlessly discarding it and think of the pointless jobs that would be lost if these pointless agencies had no pointless work to do so it’s very important not to make any progress at joined-up data management otherwise they would all have to be re-employed pointlessly redacting random sensitive details from responses to pointless FOI requests at which point morale would really begin to suffer because staff would realise how really pointless their unproductive taxpayer-funded lives had become. That’s the point.
No problem with support, but uncritical support including of unsustainable and environmentally damaging intensification makes Defra part of a problem not part of a solution.
Just my hunch but I think you’d struggle to find a reader of this blog who wouldn’t want all UK farmers to have a secure and sustainable livelihood and to see the success of home grown food in these islands. However the jury isn’t out on whether intensification of agriculture has resulted in massive declines in wildlife, (see forthcoming State of Nature report). Ultimately agriculture will reap what it sows (see what I did there) as the goodness is leached out of the soil for good.
Meanwhile other environmental problems such as lead ammo and the raptor bloodbath in our uplands are ignored or dismissed. Hard to know what the ‘e’ in ‘Defra’ actually stands for, it certainly doesn’t seem to be ‘environment’.
The day finished on: 121,007
Today’s signatures: 206
Saturday 3rd September finished on:119,288 (+211 signatures)
Sunday 4th September finished on: 119,455 (+227 signatures)
Monday 5th September finished on: 119,608 (+153 signatures)
Tuesday 6th September finished on: 119,950 (+342 signatures)
Wednesday 7th September finished on: 120,457 (+507 signatures)
Thursday 8th September finished on: 120,801 (+344 signatures)
The week’s signatures: 1990 (102% increase over last week)
Daily average: 284
The constituency average is currently: 186
11 days to go.
“It was a genius facade. Once we emptied the Environment Agency of its staff we then could use the facilities for installing updates to our new generation Tory cyborgs. These new cyborgs will deny all truth and serve their masters without showing any sign of shame!”
Caption: Yes, well, these ‘datas’ of yours are all very well, but it is now government policy to make decisions based on what we know in our hearts to be right.
I wonder how the bird groups who won’t even advertise a talk think the birds they watch got there ? I suspect there are virtually no birder members who aren’t regularly watching birds in places ‘political’ birders like Mark have fought to preserve or create. They should stop and consider just how much of the natural environment they enjoy would still be out there were it not for the campaigning of RSPB and the like, and the research, protection and habitat creation behind many of the best birding places in Britain. And the birds that are missing ? the responsibility, perhaps, of the people who would not get involved and throw their weight behind protecting our countryside.
“And if we get data you don’t like we’ve got one of these brilliant rat bot things that eats it before anyone can FOI it.”