Which is your favourite Whitehall government department? It’s got to be Defra hasn’t it? They are the ones who are going to solve England’s environmental problems including those of our wildlife. Floods, pesticides, sewage discharges, bird/poultry flu, a new agriculture policy post CAP, wildlife crime, habitat loss and degradation, overfishing, tree diseases, non-native species and…
Tag: Richard Benyon
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…
It’s always touching to get a personal reply from a Minister of the Crown
Bird/Poultry flu. A couple of days ago the RSPB sent out a strongly worded press release, which I reproduced here, which was entitled ‘Defra asleep at the wheel in bird flu emergency’. I tweeted about it later that day: I received a response from Richard Benyon himself: It’s always good to have got a Minister’s…
Richard Benyon returns to DEFRA
Richard Benyon, the toffish ex-MP returns to DEFRA as a Lords Minister. DEFRA now has two lords a-leaping and with Zac G being unpaid, it rather looks like a strange BOGOF deal. As a minister in the upper house Lord Benyon will have to answer difficult questions from the likes of Baroness Bennett and others…
#peatfreeapril
I’m one of a pile of signatories to this letter to George Eustice, Secretary of State for DEFRAomnishambles. Most of the other signatories know a lot more about peat and gardening than I do, but I can tell you that my enthusiasm for growing tomatoes, generated in lockdown last year, means that I know how…
What now, DEFRA?
Yesterday’s announcement by the Scottish government makes DEFRA look like it is still run by throwbacks to the Edwardian era. No DEFRA minister with responsibility for wildlife conservation has ever condemned wildlife crime in the terms that we heard from the Scottish government yesterday; not Richard Benyon, not Rory Stewart, not Therese Coffey and not…
Benyon review on Highly Protected Marine Areas
This review, which is quite important, was published on World Ocean Day two weeks ago. It gained a lot of acclaim at the time and this was pretty well-deserved. The group (which I said at the time it was set up, back in July 2019, looked like a good one), chaired by former Environment minister…
Species in need of a champion
The wildlife NGOs prevailed upon a few dozen MPs to act as champions for threatened species in the Westminster parliament (a similar system exists in Holyrood, and quite honestly, seems rather more active there). A list of the Westminster Species Champions can be found here. Several species champions stood down at the general election: Richard…
Election watch (11) – leaving parliament
In the excitement over who might be elected or re-elected to the Westminster parliament on 12 December we should just note those former MPs who are not standing for re-election. There are quite a lot of them – 76 in all. This includes four former DEFRA ministers: Caroline Spelman (a good Secretary of State), Richard…
Westminster update
Did you notice that we have a new Prime Minister? That’s not the only movement… Michael Gove goes (to Cabinet Office) – I’m sorry to see him go because I would have liked to see him deliver on some of his best promises. All bets are off on everything – is that any way to…