A piece I wrote for The New European

3 Replies to “A piece I wrote for The New European”

1. I wish that the pessimism of this piece were unfounded but I fear it is not. The politicians who led the campaign to leave the EU have not done so in order that we can adopt better, tougher protection for wildlife and stricter rules preventing pollution but for the exact opposite reason, so that they can – as they see it – unshackle business from the red tape which holds it back.

   As we turn our back on the Single Market we will be in desperate need to secure a trade deal with the US and who can doubt that Trump will take full advantage of our position of weakness in order to force through a deal that maximizes US gains at the expense of UK concessions? We will be obliged to swallow a deal that allows US corporations to do what they wish and to challenge any environmental, safety or social protections that inconvenience them. We will have “taken back control” only to hand that control over to a bunch of corporate lawyers working for Monsanto et al.

   It was interesting that the article was illustrated by pictures of two species that do not occur in the UK – the eurasian lynx and the mediterranean monk seal. For me that highlights another issue of concern. I do not only care about the well being of wildlife within these shores and our withdrawal from the EU radically reduces our influence on issues such as the use of vulture-harming veterinary products in Spain, the trapping of migratory birds in Malta and Cyprus and other problems which may now be said to be legally, none of our business.

   1. It is an excellent article – thanks, Mark – and I agree with all you say here, Jonathan – unfortunately.

      As we are ‘a nation of animal lovers’, some Brexit politicians tried (and in some cases, successfully) to persuade people to vote to leave by dangling the carrot of our getting back control of AW legislation, such as being able to refuse to export animals live.

      It’s only the EU which makes us participate in this cruel trade, apparently. We would never do it otherwise.

2. “It has to be said that the nature conservation movement…was somewhat hamstrung by charity law in intervening in such a political issue, and so the message of trouble ahead was not strongly conveyed to the millions who are members of such organisations.”

   I’m sure you are correct Mark. A couple of days before the referendum I received a call asking if I would like to join an event at a local Wildlife Trust reserve. A visit was planned by some “high profile” politicians in the Remain Bus. I was told that Conservation organisations, under Charity Commission regulations, were advised not to be seen to advertise for one particular side or another, but that members of local groups would be welcome to attend.

   We were told that the bus would carry the PM (someone called Cameron, if my memory is correct), Caroline Lucas, Stanley Johnson, Harriet Harman and perhaps others. In the event the PM jumped ship to visit a more important forum in his nearby constituency. We were a small, but hopefully supportive, group and both Caroline and Stanley were impressive and knowledgeable and our hopes were high. They stayed with us for some time and got involved with a group of youngsters who were having a learning day run by the Wildlife Trust and Stanley Johnson decided to stay on and explore the Reserve which was a newly acquired area of unimproved lowland wet grassland. We were joined by staff members from both the WT and the RSPB who were there just to see that we behaved!

   Jonathan Wallace, as always, talks a lot of sense above.

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