Now that the Party (Conference) is over…

Did you comb the speeches of the Party leaders, at their Party Conferences, for mentions of the environment? Nick Clegg did best – he said that it was the Liberal Democrats who were keeping the Government ‘green’ and had ‘saved’ Natural England from the axe. Nick Clegg didn’t mention ‘wildlife’ or ‘nature’ but he did…

Badgers, Syria and democracy

I read an interesting blog last week by Matthew Taylor about whether ‘doing something’ is seen as better or worse than ‘not doing anything’. I am emotionally a ‘let’s do something’ type of person.  If I see a mess I’d rather be doing something about it than not doing something – sometimes, even if I’m…

Wuthering Moors 36 – FoI/EIR to NE on Appropriate Assessments for Walshaw Moor

Dear Natural England This is a request under the EI Regs and/or Freedom of Information Act.  It is a simple request for copies of three documents.  It is not a difficult request to fulfill.  Please send me the information within 10 working days of this request, ie by 20 September 2013. This request refers to…

Emperor’s new clothes?

I headed off, towards the end of last week, with three chums to look at flowers and butterflies, and to drink beer and wine, and to put the world to rights. All of us could be described as senior enough to be grumpy old men, although, of course, our aim was to be happy not…