Wuthering Moors 45

This is NE’s response to my FoI/EIR request of 10 March. The answer to Qu4a confirms the ongoing scale of the burning of blanket bog in the English uplands and the fact that it has been consented by NE. The answer to Qu 5 seems rather evasive to me. Qu10 – that’s a lot of…

Burn, maybe burn (aka Wuthering Moors 40)

The RSPB is getting stroppy about burning of blanket bogs – I like that. Burning heather on a rotation of 7-20 years is part of the industrialisation of the upland landscape of parts of the UK.  The main reason for doing it is to produce totally unnaturally high densities of Red Grouse which can then…

Toffs

A couple of days ago I suggested that the recent Defra minister Richard Benyon might be called a ‘toff’.  This was greeted by a stream of comments angry on the toffish ex-Minister’s behalf.  Let’s just get the meaning of this four-letter word out of the way first. Toff – a member of the upper classes,…

Shuffling two packs

The Government changes In Defra, out go Richard Benyon and David Heath and in come George Eustice (Con, Camborne and Redruth) and Dan Rogerson (LibDem, North Cornwall). I always feel sorry for those who are required to move on because their Prime Minister needs to adjust the left/right balance, the male/female balance, the north/south balance…

Biofuels – a burning question

Please do this today: ask your MEP to vote for the lowest possible limit on the addition of biofuels to transport fuels by clicking here and supporting Action Aid’s campaign. There is a vote tomorrow where MEPs will be asked to decide whether to limit biofuels to 5.5% or 6.5% of transport fuel volumes.  The…