Latest Blog Posts

Post Election Thoughts and Predictions

As I write the final results are just in and the Conservative Party have a clear, but small, 5 seat majority, which is however 99 more seats than the next...

08/05/2015

Bee’s eye view of 2015 election manifestos

Bee decline is the number one environmental concern of the UK public and we are in the midst of a slew of new and shocking evidence about the impact of...

24/04/2015

Pesticide report was Defra’s dodgy dossier

A reappraisal of a Government scientific study has raised serious concerns about the scientific integrity of the pro-neonicotinoid UK Government – were civil servants distorting science so that it supported...

30/03/2015

Brazilian Wandering Spider in Bananas – Fact or Fiction

The internet today has been thrumming with a news story about a lady from Bristol, some bananas from Tesco, and a deadly spider from Costa Rica. But what is the...

14/03/2015

Walk Wild Toryglen

As Spring starts to take hold in Glasgow the Toryglen meadow project comes to an end, but something new is bursting forth from it like a phoenix from the flame! In February,...

02/03/2015

A Close Shave for Fineshade

Last week I attended the meeting of East Northamptonshire Council at which the councillors considered a planning application from Forest Holidays – a commercial off-shoot of the Forestry Commission –...

27/02/2015

Three threatened wildlife sites – all brownfield – no coincidence

In the last few months a flurry of wildlife sites have been put in peril by inappropriate developments – Lodge Hill in Kent, Rampisham Down in Dorset and Radford Quarry...

13/02/2015

The Criminal Injustice Bill

The House of Lords has been providing some resistance, but already our legal system appears to have been badly damaged. Fears that the independence of the judiciary was under threat...

12/12/2014

Meadow maintenance and willow fencing

On 20th November, I accompanied Urban Roots’ volunteers to continue maintenance of the meadow site at Malls Mire Community Woodland. The work to be done on the meadow remains high,...

03/12/2014

NIAs – are we Improving Nature?

Nature Improvement Areas were introduced by the Government to fix wildlife in 12 areas of England. Two years into a three year project how are they shaping up. Are they...

28/11/2014