The Committee on Climate Change made a written submission to the Environmental Audit Committee inquiry into soil health in January this year. In it they wrote: ‘The English uplands are dominated by blanket bog and heathland habitats, which tend to have highly organic and peaty soils. When in good condition, peat bogs actively soak up…
Tag: grouse shooting
Your task, should you choose to accept it…
Your task this weekend, should you choose to accept it, is to submit evidence to the inquiry on grouse shooting – for details of how to do that see here. ‘Submit evidence’ sounds a bit scary doesn’t it? How about ‘Send your thoughts’ instead? You could do that couldn’t you? Look at Question 1 –…
I worry about them…
This is Brian – Brian is another Hen Harrier who has gone missing in his first few months of life when travelling around the driven grouse moors of one of our National Parks. You can read about it here and here. I’m a bit worried about some other Hen Harriers. First we have Finn… …no,…
Chris Packham and the nasty brigade
Chris Packham has come through a BBC investigation unscathed it seems. Hooray! But Ian Botham seems not to have forgotten the trouncing that Chris Packham gave him on the Today programme (back on 11 August) as he was quoted in the Sunday Times, ‘This decision is a risible whitewash. Yet again it shows the BBC’s…
Here’s a puzzle for you
That’s a rather smart looking building in the North York Moors isn’t it? I wonder what the blue plaque says? Aaah! National Lottery. Sport England? What sort of sport goes on up there I wonder? Shall we look up the planning permission? Here it is. It’s a shooting hut which shall only be used by…
Did you write to your Labour MP? Firm Briefing 18
Around 120 of you have told me that you have written to your Labour MPs on the subject of the debate on driven grouse shooting that will happen on a Monday afternoon after the 18 October (date tbc). So far, some of you have had responses from c22 Labour MPs but another 68 or so…
State of the parties and Firm Briefing 17
You’ve been very busy with firm briefing over the last few weeks. Just over 500 of you have written to just over 300 MPs (and let me know – new correspondence arrives every day). According to what you have told me, for that is all I have to go on, this is the breakdown of…
Sunday book review – the Ethical Carnivore by Louise Gray
Louise Gray is a former Daily Telegraph environmental journalist. She writes well and this is a book that all should read – but it isn’t simply a duty, it is a gritty pleasure. Louise set off on a year’s journey only to eat meat that she had killed herself – despite being close to being…
Firm briefing 16
If you received this letter from Defra via your MP, and many of you have, you could write back and ask for better information. That’s what I’ve done and you might find my letter a useful model to follow. Dear Mr Pursglove Thank you for the response from Dr Coffey that you sent me….
Firm briefing 13 – the BASC firm line
A new line has begun to appear in some standard letters being sent out by MPs, overwhelmingly by Conservative MPs, in response to your letters to them about the debate on driven grouse shooting. I suspect that these are designed to be used in responses to BASC members but have found their way into replies…