I complained to Defra about their handling of my FoI/EIR request on 1 September. Yesterday they replied saying how they were going to handle it – and that was fine. No complaints there. None at all. The letter even said ‘If you have any queries about this letter please contact me.’ which I thought was…
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Water matters
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Water Matters is the other document launched by WCL at yesterday’s event in Parliament (click here for agriculture vision). I liked it a lot; it’s punchy. I like punchy! The Blueprint for Water partnership (which includes many of the usual suspects and also Salmon and Trout Conservation UK (note change of name), the Institute of…
Farming fit for the Future?
This is the vision document for farming launched at the Wildlife and Countryside Link event yesterday lunch time. It’s certainly worth a read. The Wildlife Link organisations which signed up to this document (including the National Trust, RSPB, Wildlife Trusts, Woodland Trust, WWF, FoE and many others) would like to see farming which is: Better…
Lack of Truss
Yesterday I travelled into London for the launch of a couple of documents by Wildlife and Countryside Link (of which more later). As I walked up the steps of Westminster tube station I felt slightly nostalgic for the days when I used to spend a lot more time in this habitat and as I emerged,…
Don’t follow the Dodo
I was lucky enough to attend some of a celebration of the first 50 years of the University of Kent at the weekend. The Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology held a conference on the future of conservation in Kent. There were some very interesting talks and I’ll just touch on a couple of them….
Speaking in Maidenhead on Thursday evening
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I’m speaking to the East Berks RSPB group on Thursday evening – in Maidenhead at 730pm (doors open at 7pm). I’ll be speaking a little about Behind the Binoculars, a little about Passenger Pigeons and a little about why we should ban driven grouse shooting. And the meeting is open to non-RSPB members (£4) as…
Kerry McCarthy MP – Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment
Well, this will please the Countryside Alliance! And the NFU. And the CLA. And the Moorland Association. Kerry McCarthy is a vice-President of the League Against Cruel Sports and a vegan too. Ms McCarthy spoke at the Rally for Nature last year. A copy of Inglorious is in the post to her. I wonder…
Thank you, Tom Pursglove
I am grateful to my MP, Tom Pursglove, for a rapid response to my letter and for contacting Liz Truss at Defra on my behalf. I’ll be interested to see what she comes up with. I suspect there will be no reply until Defra has got around to responding to the e-petition on banning driven…
Thank you from Chris Packham
Chris Packham has released a short video to thank the people who have supported him after the Countryside Alliance demanded that the BBC should sack him. It’s worth a look – it’s only a bit over six minutes long. As well as thanking the 70,000+ people who signed an e-petition to support him, Chris asks…
A friendly challenge to Martin Spray (WWT) and Mike Clarke (RSPB)
(This blog is long!) Dear Martin and Mike Your two organisations deserve huge credit for the role that they have played in getting us to a position where the prospect of lead ammunition being banned, on human health, animal welfare and nature conservation grounds is very high. This has taken years, and consumed years and…