I complained to Defra about their handling of my FoI/EIR request on 1 September. Yesterday they replied saying how they were going to handle it – and that was fine. No complaints there. None at all. The letter even said ‘If you have any queries about this letter please contact me.’ which I thought was…
Category: THE POLITICS: Ministers, MPs, government policy
Lack of Truss
Yesterday I travelled into London for the launch of a couple of documents by Wildlife and Countryside Link (of which more later). As I walked up the steps of Westminster tube station I felt slightly nostalgic for the days when I used to spend a lot more time in this habitat and as I emerged,…
Kerry McCarthy MP – Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment
Well, this will please the Countryside Alliance! And the NFU. And the CLA. And the Moorland Association. Kerry McCarthy is a vice-President of the League Against Cruel Sports and a vegan too. Ms McCarthy spoke at the Rally for Nature last year. A copy of Inglorious is in the post to her. I wonder…
Clever
I’ve just had an email from the Corbyn campaign (you’ve already got my vote Jeremy!) – I get about five a day from the various candidates. It contained this paragraph: ‘We cannot write off rural areas as “the Tory shires”, abandoning communities struggling with issues such as housing costs, public service cuts and…
Talk me out of Corbyn
Yesterday I received my voting papers for the Labour leadership and deputy leadership elections. As you can see, I haven’t got very far in filling them in. I have to say that I am very drawn to Jeremy Corbyn for a variety of reasons – several of them bad reasons! First, he is older than…
Andy, Yvette, Jeremy and Liz
The Labour Party is having a leadership election. As a party member I get to vote in it. It’s a very difficult choice – they are all so dull! I cannot detect a smidgeon of wildlife interest in the lot of them – but maybe I am misjudging Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Corbyn and…
New Defra ministers announced
Truss, Eustice and de Mauley are back. Rory Stewart is regarded as a bit of a waste in Defra by the Spectator! Labour is expected to keep the Defra shadow ministerial team intact.
Lost leaders
The people have made their choice and we all have to live with it. The environment faces a tough time over the next five years and that means that those who care about it, not enough of us, need to raise our voices and do even more to fight for nature. I went to bed,…
Time to decide – a voter’s guide
It’s a fascinating general election which has been preceded by a tedious and shallow election campaign. None of the political parties, certainly not the ‘Big Two’, come out of the campaign with much credit. It’s been a ‘heads down’ rather than an ‘eyes up’ campaign, with little analysis, little laying out of political philosophy and…
Plaid Cymru manifesto
Plaid Cymru seems to be the party of Welsh farmers rather than the party of Wales – or Welsh taxpayers. It favours a continuation of the CAP that keeps 80% of Welsh farmers in business with direct payments. That’s pretty blatant. Plaid supports a regressive form of income support funded by the rest of Wales…