Standing up for Nature
Two years ago today, near the bank of the Ohio River which forms the border between eastern Ohio and western West Virginia, there was a blow-out at a gas well owned by XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, which took 20 days to get under control. The gas well was about to be put into…
I like the Upper Calder Valley Plain Speaker – have a look at what they write about the DEFRA Secretary of State’s (now former Secretary of State’s) visit to flood-stricken Hebden Bridge – click here
Extensive use of toxic lead paint on Big Ben contributes to £19m price-hike in renovation. I’m pretty sure that there isn’t 6000 tonnes of lead in Big Ben but that amount is added irretrievably to the countryside every year. And, of course, shooters all over the country, through choice not necessity, have been shooting toxic…
Well, well, well. Off goes the Chancellor saying that no self-respecting minister would allow the PM to dictate who his aids should be, which must make Rishi Sunak lacking in self respect. It is very broad-minded of Johnson to replace an alumnus of Downend Comprehensive with a Wykhamist though. Rishi Sunak, as MP for Richmond,…
Whether or not David Ross of Carphone Warehouse fame did or didn’t pay for the PM’s £15,000 Christmas break (see here, here, here) there’s no getting away from the closeness of the grouse shooters to the government. This blog has written before about David Ross, his shooting lodge in the North York Moors and the…
While we wait for the Petitions Committee to be formed anew after the general election, and then have a meeting, and then decide on when to debate this matter, the world must look like a hostile place for the grouse shooting industry. The recent floods point again to land use in the uplands needing to…
Emma Marsh, RSPB Director England, said: The construction of this railway will destroy wildlife and HS2Ltd does not have a viable plan for how it is going to mitigate or compensate for these losses. Giving HS2 the go-ahead, without a plan that benefits nature, in the current ecological emergency, is the wrong decision. We must…
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I am delighted to welcome Ian Dunn as Plantlife’s new Chief Executive starting on 17 February. Having trained originally as an environmental scientist, Ian is passionate about nature conservation. He is a board member of UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and the Scottish Association for Marine Science, and is a…
when the Cabinet reshuffle will come and who will get the DEFRA job? when DEFRA will respond to the Godfray report on Badgers? Commissioned two years ago, published 16 months ago and no response yet. what the new DEFRA licences for lethal bird control will look like and when exactly they will be published? when…