The speech by Michael Gove today is just fantastic – but is it fantastical? I don’t really care whether he believes what he says or not, I just care whether he implements his quite detailed words of today during his time as Secretary of State for the Environment. Since 2010 we have had one pretty…
Tag: Defra
The new Gove – ‘I am an environmentalist’
Michael Gove’s speech ‘The unfozen moment – delivering a Green Brexit‘ is very, very good. It’s, by far, the best speech made by a government environment minister since at least 2010. Not only is it erudite and clever, it shows a better grasp of the issues than his two immediate predecessors could muster after…
A Gove for good?
Michael Gove is a consummate politician and he’s no fool either. There are also rumours that he is quite keen on wildlife and the countryside (though he has managed to keep this fairly well-hidden to date). The new and dynamic Secretary of State for the Environment is about to make a speech at WWF’s HQ…
Seriously rattled – and rightly
In a long rant the Countryside Alliance shows just how rattled it is by the challenges to driven grouse shooting. It’s all the usual stuff, in fact it’s quite a useful refresher course in the Alliance’s lack of solid arguments on the subject. But it’s interesting to think about why the grouse shooting folk have…
The Gove Test – some thoughts
The ‘Gove test’ for the environment is ‘If we want the UK’s approach to environmental protection and enhancement to be seen as the best in the world, what does that mean and what does it look like at a local, national and global level?‘. I’m offering a wide range of organisations the opportunity to publish…
The Gove test
Michael Gove visited Rainham Marshes on Thursday and had a chat with the RSPB. That looks good and is good. He set the RSPB a little bit of homework which was ‘If we want the UK’s approach to environmental protection and enhancement to be seen as the best in the world, what does that mean…
Today fails to ask Defra Secretary questions on environmental protection
Michael Gove has just run rings around the Today programme (at 08:10, 2hours 10 mins into programme) in his first interview as Environment Secretary. He was asked about funding for farming and pointed out that he agreed with the Conservative election manifesto. That was hard! But he did say that he was meeting the NFU…
The new Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Conservative manifesto promised that ‘Once EU law has been converted into domestic law, parliament will be able to pass legislation to amend, repeal or improve any piece of EU law it chooses‘. But they wouldn’t do that would they? The Conservatives wouldn’t start to dismantle the Birds Directive or the Habitats and Species Directive…
Brexit – so that’s all very clear then?
If the general election is about Brexit then we should by now have a clear idea of what will happen to environmental protection and agricultural policy after Brexit. In particular, we should have a clear idea from the Conservative Party, although Labour (the only realistic alternative government (even though, in places other parties’ candidates may…
The party manifestos and the environment – a round up
When I vote next Thursday, I won’t vote on solely environmental grounds, but it will be a significant factor in my choice. I hope it will be a factor in your choice too. There is a massive difference in the approach to the environment from the Left and Right of politics which is very clear…