Last week’s news

It’s quite difficult to get past the headlines to understand the details of the EU budget agreement.  Yes the budget has been capped thanks to some good negotiation by plucky David Cameron but what does that mean – particularly for the environment? I bought the FT, Independent and Guardian on Saturday and found them no…

Bitterly disappointed, hugely disappointed, shameful, pitiful, appalling, lamentable…

Bitterly disappointed, hugely disappointed, shameful, pitiful, appalling, lamentable…  That’s how the Wildlife Trusts, Marine Conservation Society and RSPB described Defra’s announcement that it was consulting on designating just 31 of 127 marine sites selected by a lengthy, inclusive and costly process involving hundreds of people.  Further progress might be made next year. Defra described this…

Bankrupt policies from Defra

Last week George (Gideon) Osborne had to do something different because it was clear that his economic policies weren’t working (he did the wrong thing, but he did have to do something) whereas there is no sign that Defra is going to do anything different even though their policies aren’t working either. The differences between…

Come on chaps!

I’ve been thinking, off and on, about the marine wildlife riches around Pitcairn Island since the meeting at the Royal Society last week. It was wonderful to get some comments on this blog from Pitcairn Islanders too. I hope it’s not too presumptuous to think that the case for strong protection of the marine wildlife,…

Public says Government is failing on the natural environment

The public aren’t stupid – they have noticed that the Coalition Government is failing on its own commitments to Britain’s natural environment.   Of those surveyed, less than a quarter (23%) think the Government is doing enough to protect our landscapes and wildlife – on land and at sea. These results come from a survey organised…