I was very pleased to see that High Peak returned to Labour on Friday. The seat looked winnable, although a bit of a stretch, and clearly it was. The former Conservative MP, Andrew Bingham, had consistently voted for increasing restrictions on campaigning, against benefit improvements, for cuts in welfare spending, against gay rights, against measures…
Author: Mark
Born Bristol, UK
Educated: Cleeve House School Bristol, Bristol Grammar School and Downing College Cambridge
Ph.D. University of Aberdeen, Winter activity of pipistrelle bats.
NERC post-doctoral Research Fellow, Edward Grey Institute, Oxford University
Former Conservation Director of the RSPB, 1989-2011
Where was the environment?
Discussion of environmental matters was largely absent from the general election campaign. This may be for the real but unfortunate reason that the environmental doesn’t hold much sway in elections. For those of us who are strongly motivated by environmental issues we have to realise that we are a rather small minority. But accepting that…
Farming Today? No thank you.
I received this email a little while ago from Farming Today: Dear Mark, We’d like to interview you this afternoon for BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today programme about the appointment of Michael Gove as Defra Secretary. Would you be able to go to a radio studio sometime between 1445 and 1545 this afternoon? It will…
The new Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Conservative manifesto promised that ‘Once EU law has been converted into domestic law, parliament will be able to pass legislation to amend, repeal or improve any piece of EU law it chooses‘. But they wouldn’t do that would they? The Conservatives wouldn’t start to dismantle the Birds Directive or the Habitats and Species Directive…
Oscar Dewhurst – Hoopoe
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Oscar writes: Sorry for the lack of photos on here for the last 3 months – I’ve just finished my university finals so have been focused on those, but they finished a couple of weeks ago so I’ve got a while off until I start my Master’s in October so should have some time…
Sunday book review – Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth
Scientists tend to be pretty sniffy about economists: economics seems like the pseudo-science which explains anything after it happens and yet predicts nothing about to happen. So why would anyone want to think like an economist? And yet economics is about values and about what sort of world we want to live in – something…
Tim Melling – Rufous Hummingbird
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Tim writes: Rufous Hummingbirds are a western North American bird and breed further north than any other species of Hummingbird. This one is a male showing off his iridescent throat which is created by interference colours not pigment (like rainbows or oil in a puddle). I photographed him very early morning in a dark forest…
An Unreliable History of Birdwatching (11) by Paul Thomas
Saturday cartoon (recycled) by Ralph Underhill
Previously published in September 2015. But what might the general election result have looked like without the massive media hostility?
Just for the record
And: Brighton Pavilion – Caroline Lucas wins with 52% of votes. Very pleased. Bristol East – Kerry McCarthy wins with 61% of votes. Very pleased. Calder Valley – so close! Only c650 votes in it, but Josh Fenton-Glynn comes second to Craig Whittaker. Corby – Beth Miller ran Tom Pursglove close but my MP…