Well, this will be interesting – Ben Goldsmith will be advising Reform on its nature policies according to the Guardian – click here. Ben is a true, but quirky, friend of nature and Reform’s environmental policies were laughable at the last general election – click here. Clearly, if Reform were to challenge for power at…
Category: THE POLITICS: Ministers, MPs, government policy
Keir Starmer said what…?
I was listening to BBC R4 PM just now and this is what I heard Keir Starmer say: “Children should be able to go as far as their talent will take them. They shouldn’t have barriers. Poverty is a barrier to children realising their talents and being able to play their full part in the…
The badly valued uplands
It wouldn’t be true to say that the following was the talk I delivered at a conference in Sheffield on 1 October, but this is a close approximation to what I wanted to get across. Some of it is also in my book Reflections, some was in the Manifesto for Wildlife of 2018 and some…
The new Defra, all female, team
Following the departure of Angela Rayner, and a smallish reshuffle, the new Defra team is led by Emma Reynolds (in place of Steve Reed) and in comes Angela Eagle as Minister of State (replacing Daniel Zeichner). Mr Reed directly takes the place of Angela Rayner at Housing, Communities and Local Government – let’s hope he…
A daft quote from Defra – and an August challenge for anyone who fancies it.
This Defra quote, “Britain is a proud nation of nature lovers, and this government is committed to turning the tide on its decline after years of neglect. We are progressing plans to designate nine new national river walks, one in each region of England.” (see here) might win a prize for stupidity if only the…
RSPB reaction (and mine) to Keir Starmer’s speech
In response to the Prime Minister’s ‘Plan for Change’ speech, the RSPB Chief Executive, Beccy Speight, said: ‘Deeply worrying rhetoric in the PM’s speech today, singling out regulators as naysayers when they can often be an under-resourced and desperately-needed defence, holding the line on protecting our natural world. The UK needs homes, renewable energy and…
Sunday book review – The Tories – a tragedy by Henry Morris
This book has little to do with wildlife and its conservation, just like two of its characters, Therese Coffey and her bestie, Liz Truss. However, unlike the late unlamented Secretaries of State for the Environment, Henry Morris, is a friend of wildlife and a friend of mine so I’ll happily plug his latest excellent book…
Dear Mr Reed, 5 – who you should hear
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Dear Mr Reed, I’m sure you have heard lots of views and advice since you were appointed shadow secretary of state about a year ago. They can’t all be right! How do you decide who is talking nonsense? I remember a meeting with Ed Miliband when I was one of a group of NGO people…
Dear Mr Reed, 4 – your five priorities
Dear Mr Reed, welcome to your new job. It all gets real now. Yesterday you set out your five priorities for Defra; clean rivers zero waste economy food security nature recovery reducing flood risk These are good as headlines and demonstrate more strategic thought than we have seen from the Tories in 14 years. Everybody…
Rachel Reeves’s speech
Rachel Reeves made a speech yesterday – click here – it sounded pretty good but the devils (and the angels) are always in the detail not the rhetoric. Who could argue with this sentence? ‘Over the weekend I made clear to Treasury officials that the manifesto commitments that we were elected on will be kept…