I’ve only had a very quick look at the government’s planning policy that was unveiled yesterday. It’s not my area of expertise and I would have to be led by others as to its overall impact. But I find it interesting to note that everyone seems to be claiming that they ‘won’ – which is…
Category: Uncategorized
Proud of…?
A week ago a poll emerged which showed that the countryside is top of the list for what makes us proud to be British. Tomorrow the government will unveil its conclusions on the future of the planning system in England and it seems that the presumption in favour of ‘sustainable’ development will remain. This pleases…
2% of people are officially stupid
2% of the public are officially stupid. That’s the only explanation for the result of a recent YouGov poll where 2% of people rate David Cameron’s government as the ‘greenest government ever’. Or perhaps, by chance, there were 35 Tory MPs in the random sample across the GB population. Given that David Cameron’s coalition government…
The home straight
You only have two weeks to join over 700 others in voting in the Nature of Harming ‘award’ – the results will be announced on April Fools’ Day. Although there is a clear leader, one candidate made a strong bid for your vote this week and it seems that another is planning to get your…
That was the week that was
I had a great time at Cheltenham and you had a great time with the excellent guest blogs here. Thank you to Matt Williams, Andrew Lucas, Sue Walker and Leo Fisher for four stimulating blogs. And thank you all for your comments on the blogs. I will come back to some of these subjects myself…
Cheltenham preview
This blog is nothing to do with nature – it’s to do with the Cheltenham Festival which takes place in the Cotswolds next Tuesday-Friday. And that’s where I will be next week – but, never fear, the blog will go on. No-one could seriously claim that which large brown horse, with a small man perched…
How is your vision?
Comments Off on How is your vision?
I guess I think I am a wordsmith, and yet a picture really can tell a thousand words – or more! The 2020VISION project aims to inspire a wide audience with a compelling case for rebuilding and reconnecting fragmented habitats, not only for the benefit of the plants and animals that live there, but for…
Cats and sparrowhawks among the pigeons
Gary Burgess posted a comment on this blog on 18 February on a rather old blog and I thought that few would notice what he had written and so I offered him the chance of a Guest Blog to air his views more prominently. I’m really glad that Gary took up the offer but I…
Nature Improvement Areas
Nature Improvement Areas are a new idea that came out of the report by Prof Sir John Lawton‘s group in 2010. From its strapped resources Defra has found £7.5m to invest in a slightly different type of nature conservation initiative – an area based, Big Society approach. No that isn’t a typo – a paltry…
It might be spring
My last two visits to Stanwick Lakes have been very spring-like, even if they were both in late February. Reed buntings were singing, if you can call that a song, everywhere, and skylarks, song thrushes and dunnocks were belting out their songs too. I heard Cetti’s warblers for the first time in quite a while….