Simon Hart MP is the former Chief Exec of the Countryside Alliance. To be fair, he was probably the best CEO they ever had, or are ever likely to have, but that doesn’t mean he is in my ‘Top 10 blokes of 2015’. In an organ that I rarely even see, let alone read, it…
Category: THE POLITICS: Ministers, MPs, government policy
What nonsense from Defra
‘Bovine TB eradication strategy delivering results‘ was the headline of a press release issued by Defra on Thursday last week. Defra went on ‘The comprehensive strategy to eradicate bovine TB in England is delivering results with more than half the country on track to be officially free of the disease by the end of this…
A volunteer isn’t worth ten pressed men
The RSPB (authors Donal McCarthy and Paul Morling) has done a piece of analysis that is rather novel and very interesting. It also conforms to my beliefs of how the world works, so I like it. Using regulation as a last resort? Assessing the performance of voluntary approaches does just that. It examines UK, EU…
Liz Truss – where is your signature?
The environment ministers of Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Spain have written to the EU Environment Commissioner, M Vella, who hails himself from Malta, calling for the Birds Directive and Habitat Directive to be maintained, un-merged and better implemented. These countries represent well over half, and close to two thirds, of…
What is the UK government up to in the EU?
I was in Cley last night so I didn’t see the Channel 4 news. This interesting piece (wildlife protection to be watered down?), with Stanley Johnson (sire of Boris etc, and author of the Habitats Directive (see p88 of Fighting for Birds)), is worrying. It may be simply a language thing, although the Dutch are…
Partnership
I feel a bit Goring-like when I hear the word ‘partnership’. I’m all for partnership but only as a ‘means’ and not as an ‘end’. All too often these days, those in nature conservation talk of partnership as if it’s the only way to get things done but it clearly isn’t. I’m all for…
Guest blog – Puppet Sex and Stanley Johnson by Lyn Ebbs
By education and training I am a microbiologist and worked in the NHS and biotech sector. I finished my working career in clinical research and patient safety in the pharmaceutical industry, so am a firm believer in evidence-based science. I’ve been a member of the RSPB for many years and started volunteering for them when…
Why hate vegans?
I had a lovely Sunday – I’ll tell you about it some time – but I was a bit irritated at around 0950 on Radio 4. I don’t think I could be a vegetarian, although I do go meat-free for four days each week, and have done for about seven years now, and I certainly…
New Shadow Defra SoS on World at One
The sun was shining yesterday lunch time so I thought I’d go out and pick some blackberries – I’d been in Canterbury on Saturday and then it had rained on Sunday, so the weekend had not been a harvesting opportunity. I think others must have been similarly occupied or put off because the hedgerows were…
Corbyn watch – anthems
Speaking as one who loves a good sing – as part of a crowd anyway – I’d have been belting out the words of the National Anthem (which nation is that by the way?) with more gusto than skill if I had been in Jeremy Corbyn’s position. I miss the alternate Saturdays at Nene Park…