Response from my MP

I wrote to Defra (see following blog) and my MP (see here) about the fact that Defra took over 5 months to respond to an enquiry from my MP on my behalf. I received this response: Dear Mark,Thank you for your email.I was sorry to hear that you were dissatisfied with the length of response…

Letter to my MP

Dear Mr Pursglove, Happy New Year! Thank you for the letter, dated 20 January from Defra which you passed on to me and I received yesterday. I am grateful to you for your efforts on my behalf. However, the letter was in response to your letter on 18 August when you forwarded my letter to…

Low Standards at Defra – I complain

Defra Service Standards Adjudicator I wrote to my MP on 10 August last year about the failure of Defra to respond properly to a parliamentary petition. My MP, Tom Pursglove, forwarded my letter to George Eustice (then Secretary of State, Defra) on 18 August.  Yesterday, 24 January, I received a reply from Defra (from Trudy…

The inaugural Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year Prize

Yesterday evening I attended a poetry award evening in the British Library as one of the three judges of the inaugural Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year competition. The winner was Linda France’s collection of poems, Letters to Katlia, as pictured above – and it was good to hear her reading one of her…

Rishi Sunak and the grouse moors

Our new PM does seem like a welcome relief from Liz Truss but that is more a commentary on how dire things looked last week rather than how brilliant they look now. Remember, Mr Sunak is from a grouse-shooting constituency – Richmond in Yorkshire. And he is, according to Shooting Times (a not always reliable…