On the Inglorious 12th, the opening day of the Red Grouse shooting season, Luke Pollard, shadow DEFRA Secretary said: The government has failed to cut wildlife crime and a decade of austerity has left these birds [protected raptors] vulnerable to poaching, with fewer police preventing poaching and fewer officers able to catch those responsible. We…
Tag: Defra
Mr Eustice of DEFRA, not useless at all
I’ve just listened to George Eustice, the Secretary of State for DEFRA, giving an environmental speech and answering a few questions from green NGOs. Mr Eustice is a farmer, a devoted (rather than an opportunist) Brexiteer and a Tory but he is quite an impressive act (which I’ve said before). This may partly come from…
Shooting Badgers (2)
The National Farmers’ Union has a petition about food standards: I want the food I eat to be produced to world leading standards. Our Government should ensure that all food eaten in the UK – whether in our homes, schools, hospitals, restaurants or from shops – is produced in a way that matches the high standards…
Shooting Badgers (1)
In the past two years, more than 67,000 Badgers have been killed under a government programme which claims to have as its aim the eradication of bovine Tb in cattle. About two thirds of these Badgers are shot (free shooting, sometimes called controlled shooting) and one third are trapped and then shot. Free shooting is…
Benyon review on Highly Protected Marine Areas
This review, which is quite important, was published on World Ocean Day two weeks ago. It gained a lot of acclaim at the time and this was pretty well-deserved. The group (which I said at the time it was set up, back in July 2019, looked like a good one), chaired by former Environment minister…
BASC writes to George Eustice
BASC is asking DEFRA to take notice of them – that’s usually what BASC press releases are about. This one has an inherent flaw in it though, although I expect that they will get away with it. What is that flaw? BASC asks DEFRA to take account of shooting’s conservation benefits when considering what to…
DEFRA non-exec board member describes general licences as ‘appalling’
Well said Ben Goldsmith! If only Ben had some influence on DEFRA… Hang on, isn’t there a Zac Goldsmith who is a DEFRA minister? I wonder if they are related. And isn’t there a Ben Goldsmith who is a non-exec DEFRA Board Member? Could that be the same person? But seriously, thank you for speaking…
A letter from Defra
I’m grateful to my MP, Tom Pursglove, for getting this letter out of DEFRA. Sounds great doesn’t it?
DEFRA’s very clear explanation
This how DEFRA explains its position on legislation to end burning on deep peat – it should be on all peat, just as the Committee on Climate Change recommended. 54% of pre-existing consents to burn remain – that means that only about a half of landowners have agreed voluntarily to any change. You may remember…
Prentis regards rewilding as an evil
It’s interesting to see the new DEFRA minister Victoria Prentis being so chummy, almost flirting, with Tim Bonner at a Countryside Alliance do – the video sound quality is rather poor. But I was glad to hear that in the middle of central England, Ms Prentis had had more letters against driven grouse shooting than…