This book did make me laugh out loud. And that’s quite an achievement because it attempts to satirise the awfulness of the current bunch of Tories in Westminster whose collective awfulness is almost beyond parody. Almost, but not actually as this author does a great job in exaggerating the behaviour and callousness and making it both…
Tag: Owen Paterson
Defra fails nature – in the big things and the little things
If Defra were a school it would be judged inadequate, would be served a notice to improve and be put in special measures. But it isn’t, so it jogs on as the government department near the bottom of the political pecking order and with few friends in government or in the real world. Defra sprung…
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…
So, why do you want to be Secretary of State for DEFRA?
The strong rumours are that we will see a new Secretary of State at DEFRA very soon after a ‘We’re pretending that we’ve done Brexit’ reshuffle. If so, we’ll never know what Theresa Villiers might have done because she hasn’t done much of note so far except make an awful speech at the Oxford Farming…
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…
Gove v Ridley
There are lots of people telling me that I shouldn’t expect too much from Michael Gove because he is a politician. I had noticed that Mr Gove is a politician! And it is because he is an ambitious politician who needs to impress the electorate and his colleagues to advance his political career that I…
Dr Coffey’s reading list (9)
Comments Off on Dr Coffey’s reading list (9)
Dr Therese Coffey is the junior minister at Defra. When Gavin Gamble’s e-petition in favour of banning driven grouse shooting passes 10,000 signatures (and it stands at over 9600) then Dr Coffey will need to sign off a government response. In order that she does not make Defra look even more foolish than they do…
Gove the environmentalist?
The speech by Michael Gove today is just fantastic – but is it fantastical? I don’t really care whether he believes what he says or not, I just care whether he implements his quite detailed words of today during his time as Secretary of State for the Environment. Since 2010 we have had one pretty…
A Gove for good?
Michael Gove is a consummate politician and he’s no fool either. There are also rumours that he is quite keen on wildlife and the countryside (though he has managed to keep this fairly well-hidden to date). The new and dynamic Secretary of State for the Environment is about to make a speech at WWF’s HQ…
Live in Scotland? Then put pressure on the SNP.
The recent debacle in the Scottish legal and conservation system over the four-year delay in doing nothing (!) over the illegal alleged killing of a Hen Harrier is a matter for Scottish legal officers and Scottish nature conservationists to sort out with the help and support of Scottish politicians. The female Hen Harrier that…