I hope this cartoon by Mr Carbo is unnecessarily pessimistic. It remains to be seen whether the SNP government is prepared to act on wildlife crime and unsustainable moorland management. They have acted on Mountain Hares but if they thought that was enough then they have not read the mood of the Scottish electorate nor…
Category: THE POLITICS: Ministers, MPs, government policy
Inglorious without a doubt
A spreadeagled, poisoned White-tailed Eagle on the heather of a grouse moor surely tolls the death knell for driven grouse shooting. Politicians cannot continue wilfully to ignore the scale of crime against nature that is so closely associated with the niche hobby of shooting Red Grouse for fun. At least they cannot if we all…
George Eustice speech
And transcript here. I didn’t mention it yesterday but when a Cornish farmer throws an ornithological fact into a speech it is often like former Prime Ministers claiming that they are keen supporters of football teams – unconvincing. Yesterday we had the Kentish Plover ‘fact’ from George Eustice in an attempt to get down with…
Mr Eustice of DEFRA, not useless at all
I’ve just listened to George Eustice, the Secretary of State for DEFRA, giving an environmental speech and answering a few questions from green NGOs. Mr Eustice is a farmer, a devoted (rather than an opportunist) Brexiteer and a Tory but he is quite an impressive act (which I’ve said before). This may partly come from…
Press release – RSPB response to George Eustice ‘environmental’ speech
In response to the Environment Secretary George Eustice’s Speech – Nature to be at centre of green recovery – the RSPB’s CEO, Beccy Speight said: “The pandemic, caused by a zoonotic disease, has caused the biggest shock to our way of life since the second world war. Yet the government has to date failed to…
Shooting Badgers (3)
The information on Badger culls in the 2014 IEP report were collected by observers. These are people who go out with shooters and watch and record what happens. Now it seems fanciful to me to imagine that shooters behave in exactly the same way when they know someone is monitoring what happens as they do…
Shooting Badgers (2)
The National Farmers’ Union has a petition about food standards: I want the food I eat to be produced to world leading standards. Our Government should ensure that all food eaten in the UK – whether in our homes, schools, hospitals, restaurants or from shops – is produced in a way that matches the high standards…
Shooting Badgers (1)
In the past two years, more than 67,000 Badgers have been killed under a government programme which claims to have as its aim the eradication of bovine Tb in cattle. About two thirds of these Badgers are shot (free shooting, sometimes called controlled shooting) and one third are trapped and then shot. Free shooting is…
Independence Day lessons
This video is doing the rounds of social media and brought a smile to my face. An American friend sent it to me. It’s clever and funny, and I suspect it is sufficiently well produced that it will be seen by Republican voters as well as Democrats, and therefore might influence the Presidential election. Using…
Press release from CIEEM on Johnson Speech
Response to the Prime Minister’s Green Recovery Speech CIEEM (Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management) is extremely disappointed to hear the Prime Minister’s words at Dudley this [Tuesday] morning. Despite heralding a green recovery and promising investment into a green future, the Prime Minister sent mixed messages by belittling the importance of biodiversity through his attribution…