If you live in England and Wales, but not in London or Greater Manchester, you will have the chance to vote for your police and crime commissioner a week today. P&CCs are charged with ensuring effective and efficient policing of a police area. Wildlife crime is part of that role – certainly not the most…
Category: THE POLITICS: Ministers, MPs, government policy
Rory – will you do better this time?
I hope I’m not being too presumptuous in assuming that our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting is likely to get to 10,000 signatures fairly soon – after all it is already at 9645 signatures. If it gets to 10000 before 1230pm Friday, which looks very likely, then it will have reached that mark on…
Best and worst at Defra – what you think
There have been six secretaries of state at Defra since it came into existence in the wake of the foot and mouth disease outbreak in 2001. Defra was born out of the thought that MAFF was too inward-looking and that farming wasn’t that important really but was a bit of a problem. Prime Ministers also…
Liz Truss – why are you suppressing the scientific evidence on lead?
It wouldn’t surprise me if Defra made a shockingly bad decision and failed to reduce the environmental risks of lead ammunition – they have been subject to energetic lobbying from the shooting industry and rather limp pleas from the two environmental NGOs who should be making the running (WWT and RSPB). It is clear that…
Nature Club by E Truss (Senior Prefect) as imagined by Jonathan Wallace
St Margaret’s School (school motto Fides in mercato) Nature Club By E Truss (Senior Prefect) Gosh! Hello everyone! I’d just like to say how thrilled I am to have been put in charge of the school wildlife garden! It’s a great responsibility and I shall do my very best to…
A bit of a round up
five MPs were treated to a day’s shooting by BASC, to the value of £772 each. The five MPs were the chair of the all-party shooting and conservation (ho! ho!) group, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (Con, Cotswolds), Bill Wiggin MP (Con, North Herefordshire), Sir Edward Garnier (Con, Harborough, former Solicitor General), Graham Brady MP (Con, Altrincham…
Who do they follow? Liz Truss
Liz Truss is the Secretary of State at Defra and the MP for Southwest Norfolk. Her Twitter handle is @trussliz. She has 21,500 Twitter followers (including me) and follows 940 Twitter accounts (not including me). Ms Truss’s Twitter account gives little evidence that she is interested in the environment at all. She follows no national…
Who do they follow? Rory Stewart
Rory Stewart is the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at Defra and the MP for Penrith and the Borders. His Twitter handle is @RoryStewartUK. He has 24,500 Twitter followers (including me) and follows 590 Twitter accounts (not including me). It’s sometimes amusing to stroll through someone’s Twitter follows. They are usually a varied bunch and…
Environmentalists for Europe E4E
This looks good: a new website and group called Environmentalists for Europe. The website is rather slow – perhaps it is being inundated with people joining? Follow on Twitter at @Env4Eur Like on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EnvironmentalistsForEurope/ It’s good to see cross-party support from the likes of Lord Deben, Baroness Young, Caroline Lucas MP, Richard Benyon…
Natalie Bennett calls again for ban on grouse shooting
Comments Off on Natalie Bennett calls again for ban on grouse shooting
After visiting Walshaw Moor and the flood-hit town of Hebden Bridge, Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett, reiterated her party’s call for a ban on grouse shooting. Bennett was reported in the Daily Telegraph as saying that intensive grouse moor management is ‘incompatible with 21st-century needs of flood prevention‘ and called it a ‘conservation disaster‘. She…