An open letter to the new Defra Ministers

To George Eustice and Dan Rogerson. Dear Ministers Congratulations on your new ministerial appointments.  You have an unpredictable time, but no more than 568 days (less holidays, the run up to the General Election, time off sick and being moved on or sacked) to make a difference.  Given the uncertainties of Ministerial tenure you can’t…

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…

Now that the Party (Conference) is over…

Did you comb the speeches of the Party leaders, at their Party Conferences, for mentions of the environment? Nick Clegg did best – he said that it was the Liberal Democrats who were keeping the Government ‘green’ and had ‘saved’ Natural England from the axe. Nick Clegg didn’t mention ‘wildlife’ or ‘nature’ but he did…

NFU failed to get it up!

  I don’t quite know how I missed this much earlier in the year but it’s never too late to point out the failures of the NFU (and their friends the CLA) in this, red tractor logo week (for more on red tractors come back tomorrow). In return for not having any regulatory requirements imposed…

Badgers, Syria and democracy

I read an interesting blog last week by Matthew Taylor about whether ‘doing something’ is seen as better or worse than ‘not doing anything’. I am emotionally a ‘let’s do something’ type of person.  If I see a mess I’d rather be doing something about it than not doing something – sometimes, even if I’m…