Yep, this all seems quite likely but not certain. Despite all the flim-flam over the general election, and before from the likes of Michael Gove, Tim Bonner clearly expects the new Secretary of State at DEFRA and the new government to slash and burn environmental protection.
It really wouldn’t surprise me if they did – and I have been saying this for years on this blog about Brexit – but it’s not a certainty.
And environmental protection which no-one enforces is only as useless as environmental protection that is removed from the statute book. The difference is that government can be seen to be removing existing protection and yet people rarely notice environmental neglect.
I wonder what is top of the Countryside Allaince’s wish list? Putting Hen Harrier on the general licences?
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I see that Mr.Bonner was careful to avoid the use of the word “law”.
Well, at least the Countryside Alliance has dropped all pretence that it’s about village post offices and rural bus services, though they still like to propagate this myth in certain quarters.
Indeed – although I guess “Feudal-meat-processors-property-developers-bloodsports Alliance” doesn’t have quite the same populist ring to it as “Countryside” Alliance does it?
The government’s intention to restrict judicial review challenges against ministerial decisions is a real concern and reflects a tendency of the Johnson-Cummings government to aggressively seek to hobble all those perceived to threaten their ‘project’. On the one hand they are going after the judiciary and on the other the BBC which they perceive as being too left wing(!). These are moves from the playbook of many a populist government (look at Trump) and represent an edging towards the nature of a totalitarian state. Of course we are not there yet by any stretch of the imagination but history indicates that we should resist getting onto this particular slippery slope.
There is also the persistent muttering about judicial review itself, often coming from a certain adviser in No10. It’s easy to see how a government with autocratic instincts would be tempted down this route, but they would do well to avoid temptation because it’s not just a Westminster bubble issue. What in fact would happen would be that the government would on examination find that only very minor changes could sensibly be proposed without undermining the principle, those changes would cause an almighty row anyway, the government would be forced into concessions in the Lords and the judges would ultimately decline to be disengaged despite whatever fiddlesome changes had been made. So my prediction is another Dominic Cummings fail coming up.
Bonner is an woeful inadequate pygmy of a man full of vindictive spite against those of opposite view like Chris Packham. However with this particular government many of these things will sadly happen and lets be blunt many of our wildlife charities are quite clearly not strident enough, making it an easier task than it should/could be!
“woeful inadequate pygmy” is insulting, full of prejudice, and would get you arrested in Republic of the Congo
Perhaps if the likes of RSPB had spoken up and encouraged their mostly older members to vote Remain rather than the half hearted “look at all the issues” stance then maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess.
I suspect that had they done so they would have fallen foul of charity laws.
Jonathan – that would be the problem but it didn’t look as though any of the major NGOs put much effort into finding ways to get messages across. My recollection is that the Wildlife Trusts did the best job.
Until retirement, i had been a paid up member of the ‘ alliance’ for nearly forty years ( i still have my B.F.S.S badge), taking part in all the
London rallies -happy days – and visiting parliament to talk about
hunting, but i am glad i don’t have to pay this man’s wages.
Trapit – priceless!