Tuesday’s session where the Secretary of State for Defra chatted to the Efra Committee about general licences was puzzling and fascinating. I’ve listened to it three times now and I’m not entirely sure what is going on. Here is the link to the session. If any readers of this blog wish to help me by…
Tag: Defra
Therese Coffey – unsuited for her job
The latest in a series of fumbling performances by the biodiversity minister. Would Therese Coffey ever have got her job if there had been an interview which explored the candidate’s knowledge and suitability for the role? It’s a relief that as a Parliamentary Under Secretary we only pay her £96,375 for such consistently sparkling performances….
Farmers Weekly corrects itself – after a nudge
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Farmers weekly, online, published a slightly irritating article on Wild Justice’s legal challenge over the General Licences last week. We sent them the following letter early today, and had a nice chat with them, and they’ve changed the article in response to our letter. Here’s the letter; Your article on Wild Justice’s legal challenge of…
Only farming ministers have to have some knowledge of their subject
I’m catching up on news items here as I’ve been away from my home computer and driving around the UK, or so it seems, for weeks. Robert Goodwill is the new Minister of State in Defra with responsibility for farming – he is a farmer (although his main crop seems to be dead people). Conservative…
The General Licences
Have you ever read the General Licences? Help yourself, here they are: GL04, GL05 and GL06. So the reasons why you might be able to kill birds under these licences are quite sensible. They include serious damage to crops and livestock. They include the prevention of disease. And they include the conservation of fauna and…
What Defra thinks is great…
If you are hanging around at reception in the entrance to Nobel House, Smith Square waiting for someone to come and take you to your meeting within the Defra HQ you may glance around and see lots of rather naff posters depicting what Defra thinks is great. Here is a selection (apologies for the poor…
Long-serving Defra minister George Eustice resigns
George Eustice has resigned from the government and from his post as Minister of State in Defra. That post is more senior than Therese Coffey as a Parliamentary Under Secretary and less senior than Michael Gove as Secretary of State. Eustice has been a Defra minister since October 2013 – an exceptionally long time (first…
Countryside Alliance clash with Defra policy on grouse hand-outs
The Countryside Alliance is giving Chris Packham a little rest and is turning its nastiness towards Tony Juniper, Michael Gove’s proposed new Chair of the hapless Natural England (who will appear before the Efra committee on Tuesday). According to the Sunday Telegraph, campaigners representing ‘farming, countryside communities and businesses‘, (though only the Countryside Alliance is…
Excellent consultation
This consultation is a cut above the average – it’s on an important subject, with great implications, and it looks as if government is taking it very seriously. Or have I been fooled? I would welcome guest blogs on this subject from those with more knowledge than myself (a large number of folk!). The idea:…
Defra – political purgatory?
I couldn’t help smile at Jeremy Paxman’s opinion of Therese Coffey in this article from last year. But it was Paxman’s remark that Defra was… … a place of political purgatory, where ambitious politicians suffer torments in hope of preferment somewhere else https://www.ft.com/content/17bedfec-da71-11e7-a039-c64b1c09b482 …that really caught my eye. We’ve had some shocking ministers in Defra…