This is funny – I’ve played it several times for the chuckle it brings to my lips. Play it, have a laugh and then email the Chancellor so that he might wake up to the importance of wildlife in our lives. I’d be interested to know whether you get a respsonse from your MP like…
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Well done Hawk and Owl Trust!
The Hawk and Owl Trust is a small but very good NGO, in my opinion. I was particularly pleased to see this formal and robust support for the epetition on vicarious liability on the HOT’s website. And this strongly worded piece from HOT’s President, and Springwatch heart-throb (I am told – he does nothing to…
Walking round in circles?
The CLA describe their own report on access, wittily named The Right Way Forward, as hard hitting; I would describe it as dyspeptic. The report’s Executive Summary is not very descriptive but is quite florid in its language. Almost everything, it seems, ‘defies logic’, needs an ‘injection of common sense’, is ‘unjust’ (to landowners), requires…
I seem to have joined Big Society again
I’ve recently been appointed as a member of the Anglian (Northern) Regional Flood and Coastal Committee which means that I can give up any prospect of being paid on several days a year to help comment on flood and coastal defence projects. I attended a very good induction day last week organised by the Environment…
A busy week
Congratulations to the re-elected NFU President, Peter Kendall, whose speech at the NFU Conference was described as ‘shocking and regressive‘ by one of his own members on this site on Wednesday. That farmer said he voted for the NFU in the Nature of Harming ‘award’ and writes rather harshly that ‘Peter Kendall is a PR…
Green Greeks
Comments Off on Green Greeks
Beware Germans bearing gifts may be the watchword in Athens now, but if you raise your eyes above the floor to the heavens, or just short of them, then you may see signs of green shoots of growth in the Greek economy. Or at least on the roof of the Treasury in Athens. These…
It’s mad!
Yesterday’s blog suggested a different way of paying by results for success in agri-environment schemes – regional top-ups for participating farmers if the regional farmland bird index rises. It’s a tricky thing to administer, perhaps, but it is essentially a good idea (in my humble opinion). This month’s copy of The Field – with an…
Just another member
I was up in t’northwest this week and managed to fit in a visit to the RSPB’s Leighton Moss nature reserve. I hoped to see a few good birds, remind myself of what a pretty place it is, maybe have a spot of lunch in the cafe and slip out again without being recognised as…
Habs Regs Review
Defra is carrying out a review of the regulations that implement the EU Birds and Habitats Directives. They’d like to hear from you at HDimplementationreview@defra.gsi.gov.uk . I’m glad to say that they have already heard from a large group of wildlife NGOs who have submitted their views on the nature directives – good for them!…
A reply – but not an answer
You may remember that I met my MP, Louise Mensch, before Christmas, and she agreed to write to The Treasury asking for the reasons why The Chancellor, George Osborne, announced a review of the Habitats Regulations in his Autumn Statement. Ms Mensch, being an author of some repute (whether good or ill is up to…