Our petition to ban driven grouse shooting has passed 46,000 and, fingers crossed, is making good progress towards the 100,000 signatures target that will secure a debate in the Westminster parliament on the future of intensive, unsustainable grouse shooting. Thank you to all who have signed so far – 50,000 signatures is not far away…
Tag: Wild Justice
RSPB reaction (and mine) to Keir Starmer’s speech
In response to the Prime Minister’s ‘Plan for Change’ speech, the RSPB Chief Executive, Beccy Speight, said: ‘Deeply worrying rhetoric in the PM’s speech today, singling out regulators as naysayers when they can often be an under-resourced and desperately-needed defence, holding the line on protecting our natural world. The UK needs homes, renewable energy and…
Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 21 by Nick MacKinnon
Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…
RSPB replies to my open letter (3)
This blog follows those of Tuesday and Wednesday in publishing the RSPB Chair’s response to 10 questions I posed. Here are the RSPB’s replies to questions 7-10. My questions are bold, followed by Sir Andrew Cahn’s responses in blue and my comments in green. How many foxes were killed on RSPB nature reserves in each…
RSPB replies to my open letter (1)
I recently wrote to the RSPB’s new Chair of Council, Sir Andrew Cahn, with a list of 10 questions about what the RSPB is up to these days – click here. I received a response on Friday and here I post the RSPB’s answers to the first four of my questions with more to follow…
Letter to my new MP, Lee Barron
Dear Lee, May I offer my formal congratulations on your election as an MP. I’m not just being polite, I delivered lots of leaflets for your campaign and I am a Labour Party member. We have met briefly – I was one of the small group of Labour supporters who met you in Raunds library…
Open letter to the new Chair of RSPB
Email to Sir Andrew Cahn, RSPB Chair Dear Sir Andrew, Congratulations on becoming Chair of RSPB Council, although I have to say that at the online AGM I voted against your appointment, not because I have anything against you personally but because I know practically nothing about you but I didn’t much like the look…
Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 62 by Nick MacKinnon
Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…
English Hen Harrier numbers slump
Natural England has published, in more detail than in previous years (click here), the numbers of Hen Harriers nesting in England – they are down this year. Numbers in 2024 are lower than in 2023 and 2022 and only slightly higher than in 2021. This year puts an end to a run of years of…
Dear Mr Reed, 4 – your five priorities
Dear Mr Reed, welcome to your new job. It all gets real now. Yesterday you set out your five priorities for Defra; clean rivers zero waste economy food security nature recovery reducing flood risk These are good as headlines and demonstrate more strategic thought than we have seen from the Tories in 14 years. Everybody…