There are, aren’t there, many types of questions? Rhetorical questions, leading questions, straight questions, difficult questions. Latin, I dimly remember from school, had particular ways of asking questions to which the expected answer was ‘yes’ and other ways of asking if the expected answer were ‘no’. I’m quite a questioning person myself. ‘Why is the…
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Carbon lady 2
I was really surprised to come across these words of Mrs Thatcher: “We must remember our duty to Nature before it is too late. That duty is constant. It is never completed. It lives on as we breathe. It endures as we eat and sleep, work and rest, as we are born and as we…
The carbon lady
Say what you like about Baroness Thatcher (and I’m sure you will) but she was arguably the first UK Prime Minister to ‘get’ climate change. Arguably in fact, she may have been almost the only UK Prime Minister to ‘get’ climate change. But there is a smidgeon of evidence that Enoch Powell was right to…
Do you tweet?
Here’s a list of nature conservation organisations with their number of followers on Twitter. To be fair, many of the organisations have several (many) Twitter accounts for particular sites or particular subjects, but those listed here are the ‘main’, and sometimes the only, Twitter accounts for these organisations. @nationaltrust 144,824 @natures_voice (RSPB) 52,785 @WoodlandTrust…
Good luck looking for signs of spring
I’ve now heard my first chiffchaff and seen a common tern too (both on Friday). This weekend should deliver lots of migrants – I hope! The cuckoos are coming with Scottish Chance on the right side of the Sahara, English Chris is keen as mustard near Dijon although the Welsh David and Lloyd are still…
Lydd – bad news
Earlier today the Secretaries of State for Local Government and Transport approved the planning application for an airport at Lydd. The Secretaries of the State have found that there is development plan support for the proposals from LP policy TR15 and that, in an area where the prospects of significant regeneration remain precarious, the proposals…
DC on the plane to Cyprus
David Cameron is hopping around Europe in the vain hope of persuading other European countries to support his wish that more of the EU rules should be made voluntary rather than mandatory. He is expected to get short shrift in Madrid, Paris and Berlin but then maybe he should be heading to Nicosia and Valetta…
There is no evidence that there is no evidence.
I’ve had a bout of man-flu recently, so I have been feeling sorry for myself and listening to lots of Radio 4 (and I’ve discovered more of the pleasures of Radio 4Extra). One of the stories that played through the last week or so was the temporary closure of Leeds General Infirmary for heart surgery. …
I hope they sink (IV)
Something for the weekend Vice Chancellor? I’m quite sure that the Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, will have been thinking about his boathouse conundrum. Here are some contributions for his weekend cogitation. It’s not going to go away – you are stick with a contentious issue. Sometimes it’s tempting to think…
I hope they sink (III)
This is the third blog on the subject of the Cambridge University Boat Club’s misguided plans to erect their new boathouse on a county wildlife site on the edge of Ely. Today the Duke of Edinburgh visits Cambridge to be at the launch of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative. Prince Philip was the Chancellor of…