Tomorrow’s Rochester and Strood by election will see a victory for UKIP and an absolute trouncing of the Labour candidate. That’s a shame (for we Labour party members). However, this result will signal a wake-up call for all politicians in the UK. It is pretty tricky for David Cameron and the Conservative party. I’m not…
Tag: david cameron
Boris aims to lead the shooting party…
…was a headline in the Evening Standard yesterday (Londoner’s Diary). The Tory supporters of Uxbridge are in for a real change when the birdwatching Sir John Randall is replaced by bird-blasting Boris Johnson next May (other candidates are available but may not get a look-in). Boris has been off grouse shooting it seems. A Twitter…
People’s Climate March – London 21 September 2014
Emma Thompson leads off the People’s Climate March in London on Sunday afternoon. Vivienne Westwood and Peter Gabriel also attended. There are reports of 40,000 people joining the march but it felt like a smaller event than The Wave five years ago to me. There wasn’t a very obvious NGO presence – the occasional Panda…
To all green blobs out there
It’s two and a half weeks since Owen Paterson went out with a rant about the Green Blob. It was a fairly remarkable outburst at the time and re-reading it hardly lessens the impact. Paterson’s hatred, for so it seems, for those who devote their lives to the environment is quite shocking. It’s also shocking…
What’s up at Natural England?
This blog has learned that the new Chair of Natural England, Andrew Sells, has been taking a strong line on the consultation over the General Licence. He doesn’t seem terribly keen on the consultation at all – or is it the views of the public in response to the consultation that he dislikes? Or is…
In the words of the song…
…I can see clearly now the rain has gone! I can see all obstacles in my way… We wish Owen Paterson clear vision for the months ahead. 1. Climate change is real 2. Fixing bovine tb cannot be done by a cull of badgers alone 3. Culling badgers is quite likely to increase the…
Wildlife defence in England – a hollow force?
During his/her annual speech last night the Chief of the Environmental Defence Staff was horribly misquoted as saying; I can understand, completely, that in times of slightly lower national richness we must clobber the environment for all it is worth. I have, of course, no argument with our ‘greenest ever Prime Minister’ on that score. …
Wildlife MP of 2013 – you choose
Wildlife doesn’t have a vote. If the interests of wildlife are to be served, then those interests need to be voiced by us and by our representatives in the various parliaments around the UK. Here is a list (alphabetical order) of six Westminster MPs who have made an impact on wildlife during 2013. Who would…
A badger isn’t just for Christmas but…
Ralph Underhill and I have got together to bring you this set of three highly festive and wildlife-friendly Christmas cards. We thought that you might like to send them to the following people: Peter Kendall The National Farmers’ Union Agriculture House Stoneleigh Park Stoneleigh Warwickshire CV8 2TZ ————————————————————————————————————————————— Owen Paterson, Secretary of State George Eustice,…
Four tories
I was quite shocked by Owen Paterson’s performance on the Today programme on Tuesday in response to the Nature Check report (click here to listen, at 01:34 and 17 seconds). That is, shocked in the sense of outraged rather than surprised. The gist of Paterson’s comments was that the views of the 41 organisations signing…