Who do they follow? Liz Truss

Liz Truss is the Secretary of State at Defra and the MP for Southwest Norfolk.  Her Twitter handle is @trussliz. She has 21,500 Twitter followers (including me) and follows 940 Twitter accounts (not including me). Ms Truss’s Twitter account gives little evidence that she is interested in the environment at all. She follows no national…

Who do they follow? Rory Stewart

Rory Stewart is the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at Defra and the MP for Penrith and the Borders.  His Twitter handle is @RoryStewartUK. He has 24,500 Twitter followers (including me) and follows 590 Twitter accounts (not including me). It’s sometimes amusing to stroll through someone’s Twitter follows.  They are usually a varied bunch and…

What nonsense from Defra

‘Bovine TB eradication strategy delivering results‘ was the headline of a press release issued by Defra on Thursday last week. Defra went on ‘The comprehensive strategy to eradicate bovine TB in England is delivering results with more than half the country on track to be officially free of the disease by the end of this…

Liz Truss – where is your signature?

The environment ministers of Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Spain have written to the EU Environment Commissioner, M Vella, who hails himself from Malta, calling for the Birds Directive and Habitat Directive to be maintained, un-merged and better implemented. These countries represent well over half, and close to two thirds, of…

Lack of Truss

Yesterday I travelled into London for the launch of a couple of documents by Wildlife and Countryside Link (of which more later). As I walked up the steps of Westminster tube station I felt slightly nostalgic for the days when I used to spend a lot more time in this habitat and as I emerged,…

New Defra ministers announced

Truss, Eustice and de Mauley are back.  Rory Stewart is regarded as a bit of a waste in Defra by the Spectator! Labour is expected to keep the Defra shadow ministerial team intact.  

Lost leaders

The people have made their choice and we all have to live with it.  The environment faces a tough time over the next five years and that means that those who care about it, not enough of us, need to raise our voices and do even more to fight for nature. I went to bed,…

Defra – what are you for? 1

Defra – what are you for these days? You seem to lack energy (and direction and even any ideas). The performance of Defra has been woeful under the coalition government. Apart from the introduction of a small amount of money for Nature Improvement Areas (of which we have heard very little since) what has Defra…