I wrote to my MP on the subject of lead ammunition back in August. I’m grateful to my MP, Tom Pursglove, for forwarding my letter to Defra and now for sending me the following reply from the Parliamentary Under Secretary, Therese Coffey, as follows; My response to Mr Pursglove is already on its way…
Category: THE POLITICS: Ministers, MPs, government policy
Michael Gove plugging some gaps
He’s no fool and he may be getting better advice these days too: Michael Gove is moving to plug some gaping holes in the Tory wildlife policies. And he’s starting with the animal cruelty issues. It should come as no surprise that a clever politician is doing some of the things that are relatively painless…
Brighton and #Lab17
Yesterday, on a sunny day, I went to sunny Brighton for a Labour conference fringe event organised by the Labour Animal Rights Group. Thank you to them for inviting me and giving me the chance to talk about driven grouse shooting to a friendly enthusiastic audience. Dominic Dyer chaired events with his usual style and…
Your species champions at Westminster
Westminster MPs have stepped forward to become champions for different endangered species (and a similar scheme exists in Scotland). There is an interesting article about this in the current BBC Wildlife Magazine written by James Fair. I’m quoted in the article and my point is whether these MPs will speak out for their species on…
Trusted Trustees (2) – Richard Benyon MP
Richard Benyon MP is the second in this series of blogs introducing you to the trustees, chairs and patrons of wildlife and environmental charities etc. The idea is to let you know who is running or has a senior, perhaps albeit largely honorary, position in your favourite, or least favourite, charity. The trustees in this…
Writing to your MP
I often encourage people to write to their MPs – in talks, on this blog, in Birdwatch (the October column of which I have just written) and at the weekend’s Bird Fair. Sometimes, in fact quite often, people say that they never get a response from their MP – and that puzzles me as I…
Gove the environmentalist?
The speech by Michael Gove today is just fantastic – but is it fantastical? I don’t really care whether he believes what he says or not, I just care whether he implements his quite detailed words of today during his time as Secretary of State for the Environment. Since 2010 we have had one pretty…
The new Gove – ‘I am an environmentalist’
Michael Gove’s speech ‘The unfozen moment – delivering a Green Brexit‘ is very, very good. It’s, by far, the best speech made by a government environment minister since at least 2010. Not only is it erudite and clever, it shows a better grasp of the issues than his two immediate predecessors could muster after…
A Gove for good?
Michael Gove is a consummate politician and he’s no fool either. There are also rumours that he is quite keen on wildlife and the countryside (though he has managed to keep this fairly well-hidden to date). The new and dynamic Secretary of State for the Environment is about to make a speech at WWF’s HQ…
Pro grouse shooting MPs investigated
I keep an eye on the ups and downs of the politicians who have played any part in the debates over the future of driven grouse shooting and other topics which interest me. Four MPs are being investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards – two of the four are Conservative MPs with seats in…