Sometimes several streams of argument begin to run together and form a river. This week there have been signs that we are at standing at the headwaters of a river – let’s hope it doesn’t trickle into the sands. The biggest political game on the block is undoubtedly Brexit – and we all know what…
Tag: Defra
Defra’s year
I asked a bunch of NGOs what they thought were Defra’s greatest achievements of 2016; The GWCT, BASC, Butterfly Conservation and Plantlife were, apparently, stumped as they couldn’t come up with anything. I also asked Defra themselves and they said they’d get back to me – but they…
British values in Defra
Sajid Javid is considering introducing the need for public office-holders to swear an oath of allegiance to British values. This blog has come across a draft of a version which might be used in Defra, indeed, some say it has been in use for quite a while: I promise on my honour to do my…
Rory Stewart – this one is in your constituency
Rory Stewart has moved on from Defra but his legacy of inactivity on wildlife crime lives on and its impacts are manifest in his own constituency. A case of dead birds coming home to roost? I didn’t have any takers for my 100/1 bet that Rowan died of natural causes. It’s hardly surprising. He couldn’t…
The grouse moor conception of national leadership
I can remember when Harold Wilson was Prime Minister – I remember my father couldn’t stand him because of something called Selective Employment Tax (funny what you remember isn’t it?) – but I certainly didn’t remember him referring to grouse moors. So I am grateful to a former RSPB colleague and reader of this blog…
The PM didn’t say this – but she should
We will see. The Conservative Party positioning on the hobby of driven grouse shooting is currently pretty much unreservedly in favour of it and apologists for it. When Defra, under the previous Prime Minister of course, responded to our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting after it passed 10,000 signatures, the then minister at Defra,…
Bit rude Ms Coffey
Dear minister I sent you a copy of my book, Inglorious – conflict in the uplands, over a month ago and haven’t yet received an acknowledgement. That’s very rude of you and Defra isn’t it? By the way, your predecessor was equally rude. Since I sent you that book, which has had rave reviews, and…
Therese Coffey left to pick up the pieces
The outgoing Defra ministers of Liz Truss and Rory Stewart, most particularly the latter, bear much of the responsibility for the shambles that is the government approach to Hen Harrier conservation in England. After today’s withdrawal of the RSPB from the hopeless Defra Hen Harrier Inaction Plan – because it is already clear that it…
Truss’s troubles
Schadenfreude is an unworthy feeling, but the fact that the Germans have a word for it and we do not is entirely to their credit, for it is a common human emotion. I thought we had seen the end of mentions of the hopeless Liz Truss on this blog as she exited to the Ministry…
The science about which Truss misled us
In a slightly shocking move last week (though I am not easily shocked) Liz Truss (formerly of Defra) announced she was not taking any notice of the report of the Lead Ammunition Group report (now published in full). She announced this after sitting on the report for 14 months, on the day a PM resigned…