Hen Harrier, Hilma. Photo: Steve Downing. Hen Harrier, Octavia. Photo: Steve Downing Hen Harrier, Heulwen. Photo: Guy Anderson. Three more young Hen Harriers have disappeared – all in areas of driven grouse shooting. See the RSPB Skydancer blog for details. Rory Stewart’s Hen Harrier Inaction Plan is working very, very badly – just as many…
Category: THE POLITICS: Ministers, MPs, government policy
Labour and rural ‘eco-zealot’ voters
This post is about the Labour Party, as seen through the eyes of one member (me) who is wondering how to vote in the NEC elections. I am being careful not to name names but I am going to give you a flavour of how I have approached my voting decisions and how frustrating the…
Jeremy Corbyn is a goal hanger.
I heard the phrase used on the radio (it must have been Radio 4) a while ago; ‘Jeremy Corbyn is a goal hanger’. It took me right back to my youth, and teenage games of football played in farmers’ fields where the goalposts were piles of jumpers, the boundaries of the playing surface were as…
Start the rewilding now Mr Gove – the people have spoken.
On a hot summer’s night the people spoke – the vote at the end of last night’s rewilding debate in London was 52% in favour of rewilding the uplands and a mere 39% against. If 52% (actually a smidgeon under) v 48% (actually a smidgeon over, and without counting the don’t knows and did not…
Farewell Brexit Bulldog!
And so we say farewell to David Davis, the Brexit Bulldog. I have quite a lot of time for Mr Davis even though I agree with him about very little. You may have noticed that I did not list him in the three Cabinet minisiters who lack moral compass. I think Davis has a moral…
Defra FOI fail
Comments Off on Defra FOI fail
Dear Defra I sent you an FOI request at 1:58pm on 9 March. You acknowledged it with an automated response at 1:59 on 9 March as follows: Thank you for your email. We have a target of replying to emails within 15 working days where a response is required, and 20 working days where…
Natalie Bennett says ‘Ban driven grouse shooting’
Natalie Bennett is a Green Party politician, and says; ‘I first learnt about the damage driven grouse shooting moors were doing to their neighbours with disastrous land management practices after the 2015/16 floods. And I found out about the carbon emission impacts of their activities. Then I learnt about the plight of the hen harriers…
Gove questioned over Hen Harriers – and spectacularly doesn’t answer!
In a bit of a coup, Rob Yorke got an exclusive interview with Michael Gove – I’m almost jealous. There are some interesting things in the interview – all words dropping out of the mouths of senior politicians are somewhat interesting, as much in what they don’t say as what they do. But Rob Yorke…
PM’s environment speech
Having spoken to several people who were present at Theresa May’s environment speech (when will we hear Jeremy Corbyn on the subject?) they all say that a striking feature of the speech was that it gained an enthusiastic reception from the environmentalists in the room and the Prime Minister visibly looked happier, more confident and…
When will Jeremy Corbyn make an environment speech?
We’ve had Theresa May’s environment speech – I’m looking forward to Jeremy Corbyn’s now (please). There are some great advantages that a left-leaning philosophy has over a right-leaning one when it comes to the environment at all times and at these times: you can attack the market for failing (which it does) to deliver for…