The PM’s environment speech – a few thoughts from me

Yesterday  I wrote that these were some things to look out for in Theresa May’s environment speech:

• is it all about climate change and plastic or does wildlife get a proper mention?
• is it all about the financial value of being green – or is there any moral imperative?
• is there any mention of wildlife crime – and if so is it all about foreigners being naughty?
• will fox hunting get a mention? Or of any other forms of killing things for fun?
• will there be a promise to maintain protection for species and habitats post-Brexit?
• will trees be mentioned and will the impact of HS2?
• will there be an admission of failure over recent years and a pledge to do much better and will the PM praise Michael Gove for his work so far?
• will there be a statement that Defra is one of the most important departments in her government?

So, how did she do?

Here’s an amusing account of the speech from John Crace of the Guardian.  These are comments by environmental organisations.

When I read the speech I, too, thought ‘Either Gove wrote it or his team wrote it – it would sound better if he said it did when she said it!’.

This is how she did according to me:

• is it all about climate change and plastic or does wildlife get a proper mention? There was a lot about climate change and plastic, and there were good things said, but I was right that there is little about wildlife in the speech. The wildlife NGOs aren’t getting the message across well enough. How many members do the Wildlife Trusts and RSPB have? The excuse might be that the UK PM wants to look as though she is in charge of everything and she is not in charge of wildlife cosnervation in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland or it might just be that she doesn’t really care much about it.
• is it all about the financial value of being green – or is there any moral imperative?  There was some stuff about the importance of passing things on to future generations but little about just not trashing things because it’s naughty!
• is there any mention of wildlife crime – and if so is it all about foreigners being naughty?  As predicted, because it’s always like this, we did get a mention of ivory and bad foreigners but no mention of rampant wildlife crime on the grouse moors (I’ds hardly expect it but it’s not very impressive and is a long-held failing of the way the establishment including the Royal Family of course, talk about crimes against wildlife. However, this sentence was a nod in the right direction ‘Whether they are pets, livestock or wild fauna, animals deserve the proper protection of the law and under a Conservative government that is exactly what they will receive‘.  that will require a step change in approach to wildlife crimes on grouse moors then!
• will fox hunting get a mention? Or of any other forms of killing things for fun? No, even though ‘We recognise that animals are sentient beings and we will enshrine that understanding in primary legislation.‘.
• will there be a promise to maintain protection for species and habitats post-Brexit? Not really – this is a major issue for me. Although she did say ‘..we will incorporate all existing EU environmental regulations into domestic law when we leave‘ there is no promise to maintain that protection into the future – even for 5 minutes!
• will trees be mentioned and will the impact of HS2? Trees were mentioned. HS2 was not mentioned.  I’m interested in how much moorland will be rewilded by the Northern Forest.
• will there be an admission of failure over recent years and a pledge to do much better and will the PM praise Michael Gove for his work so far?  Michael Gove was praised – and rightly so. There was no admission of failure merely a grabbing at other people’s successes – the EU’s, the last Labour government’s and the work of NGOs.
• will there be a statement that Defra is one of the most important departments in her government? Yep, more or less, ‘[our natural environment] is a central priority for this government.  Well PM, it’s a good job you’ve got round to metioning at last then!  but let’s not be churlish. It’s not a bad speech because it says what Gove said it should say and he has the right political nous.

Overall?  7/10 for content and 5/10 for delivery.

And of course, there actually is a 25-year environment plan – I’m reading it to see what I think of the detail.

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