The CLA describe their own report on access, wittily named The Right Way Forward, as hard hitting; I would describe it as dyspeptic. The report’s Executive Summary is not very descriptive but is quite florid in its language. Almost everything, it seems, ‘defies logic’, needs an ‘injection of common sense’, is ‘unjust’ (to landowners), requires…
BLOG POSTS
I seem to have joined Big Society again
I’ve recently been appointed as a member of the Anglian (Northern) Regional Flood and Coastal Committee which means that I can give up any prospect of being paid on several days a year to help comment on flood and coastal defence projects. I attended a very good induction day last week organised by the Environment…
Tesco shares crashed on link-up with RSPB – every little helps
Last week the RSPB and Tesco re-announced their link up on rainforests – you’ll find a description of the link-up in the most recent Birds magazine which arrived in mid-January (pages 22-23). That link-up has already had an amazing impact on Tesco: looking at its 3-month share value you will find it peaked at 411p…
A busy week
Congratulations to the re-elected NFU President, Peter Kendall, whose speech at the NFU Conference was described as ‘shocking and regressive‘ by one of his own members on this site on Wednesday. That farmer said he voted for the NFU in the Nature of Harming ‘award’ and writes rather harshly that ‘Peter Kendall is a PR…
Guest blogs
I’m grateful to the growing number of people who have posted Guest Blogs on this site. So far, the following have occurred: ‘Mr White’ on the demise of the RSPB’s Mark Avery Peter Marren on the state of wildlife NGOs, statutory agencies and more. Ian Coghill on the work of the GWCT David Bullock on…
Green Greeks
Comments Off on Green Greeks
Beware Germans bearing gifts may be the watchword in Athens now, but if you raise your eyes above the floor to the heavens, or just short of them, then you may see signs of green shoots of growth in the Greek economy. Or at least on the roof of the Treasury in Athens. These…
Guest blog – Gary Burgess, a pigeon fancier
Hi all I’m Gary Burgess and I’m a Pigeon Fancier and would like to thank Mark for this opportunity to write this Blog. I grew up in the late sixties/seventies. It now seems such a long time ago, almost like the dark ages. I was fortunate back in those days to live in an urban…
The NFU elects…?
Comments Off on The NFU elects…?
Today the NFU Council will elect its new President, Vice President and Deputy President – except there is a fair chance that all three will be re-elected. The NFU has a very progressive voting system – in some ways. If you are the incumbent then you need to get an increasing proportion of the votes…
It’s mad!
Yesterday’s blog suggested a different way of paying by results for success in agri-environment schemes – regional top-ups for participating farmers if the regional farmland bird index rises. It’s a tricky thing to administer, perhaps, but it is essentially a good idea (in my humble opinion). This month’s copy of The Field – with an…
Paying farmers by results 2
Last week I posted a blog about paying by results in agri-environment schemes which generated lots of comments. Here’s another way that we could pay by results. Like any system, including the current failing one, this proposal has its problems of monitoring, cost, fairness etc but it’s worth thinking about alternatives when the current system…