Early Day Motion 603, which calls on the Home Office to stump up its share of the cost of the National Wildlife Crime Unit has attracted six new signatures from MPs in the last week and has now reached 114 signatures. It is now the 8th-most-signed EDM of this session of Parliament (and has risen…
Category: THE POLITICS: Ministers, MPs, government policy
Early week and Early Day motion 603
Early Day Motions are a way of raising an issue in Parliament. MPs write a few words about an issue and then other concerned MPs can add their names to demonstrate support. If an EDM gets a lot of support, particularly cross-party support, then the issue tends to be taken a little more seriously than…
Bankrupt policies from Defra
Last week George (Gideon) Osborne had to do something different because it was clear that his economic policies weren’t working (he did the wrong thing, but he did have to do something) whereas there is no sign that Defra is going to do anything different even though their policies aren’t working either. The differences between…
Public says Government is failing on the natural environment
The public aren’t stupid – they have noticed that the Coalition Government is failing on its own commitments to Britain’s natural environment. Of those surveyed, less than a quarter (23%) think the Government is doing enough to protect our landscapes and wildlife – on land and at sea. These results come from a survey organised…
The road to 10 Downing Street goes through Corby
Whoever came up with the line that makes the title of this blog did well. Labour’s return to power may well be seen to start with this first by-election victory against the Tories in 15 years. In some ways the constituency of Corby and east Northants represents a microcosm of England. Equally divided, or dithering,…
The two, or three, cultures
I had a great time at the New Networks for Nature meeting at Stamford on Thursday and Friday. This was partly because it blended art and science in a novel and stimulating way. Where else, in the space of less than 24 hours would you be able to hear about their work from the lips…
Just a thought for Caroline Spelman
The political life is a somewhat harsh one. One moment you can be at the top of the tree and the next you are almost nowhere. If you lose your ministerial job then suddenly your views don’t count and your successor’s ears are the ones into which everyone seeks to whisper. I always used to…
Plastic environmentalism
The Conference speech by the new Defra Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, will have been like discordant music to the ears of the environment movement. It would be very difficult to find many working in the environment who think that the EU is perfect but it would be almost impossible to find people who think…
Taking mud to Essex
Last week Environment Secretary Owen Paterson launched work on Europe’s largest man-made wetland nature reserve – at least so say the RSPB and Crossrail whereas Defra is noticeably silent on the matter. Luckily, there is photographic evidence of the event. In an amazingly complex and difficult project, for which the RSPB’s Chief Executive Mike Clarke…
Interesting slip
In Prime Minister’s Question Time on Wednesday the Prime Minister said that he wants all government departments to be departments for growth. The Agriculture Department should be promoting British food, apparently. Sounds like a good idea perhaps, except you don’t have an Agriculture Department PM – you don’t even have a department with agriculture in…