Defra – dire, egregious, failing, risible and adrift.

It’s more than 18 months since the current ministers walked confidently into Defra’s headquarters at Nobel House after the May 2010 General Election (with one change of Lord in the interim).  I’m glad that we have not seen too much chopping and changing of ministers under the Cameron (Clegg) coalition government, as that rarely leads…

A tonic for gin bush

As a kid in the mid 1960s, Sunday mornings would consist of going to church and then coming home to a roast lunch whose delicious smells filled the house while Desert Island Discs, with its originator Roy Plumley, played on the wireless before we sat down to eat.  My father would have on his suit,…

Casual but calculated anti-environmentalism

‘Government should switch its focus from bio-diversity and concentrate on farm productivity if it wants to make the most of British agriculture’s potential as an engine for growth‘  Peter Kendall, the President of the NFU,  said on Wednesday. Kendall continued with this most callous, calculated and casual statement ‘The point is we haven’t got a…

Indulgence

I’ve been rushing about and don’t quite have time to write a proper blog today – plenty more coming in the next few days though! – and you did get two blogs on Tuesday, so please indulge me when I just post most of an email that a reader of this blog sent to me:…