Tag Archives: defra

The Voice

18 April 2019 – the overnight press releases

By The Voice | Thu 18th April 2019 - 6:45 am

Tories’ high-stakes testing culture pushing children out of school

Responding to the EPI report revealing that over 50,000 pupils who took their GCSEs in 2017 were removed from the school roll for unexplained reasons during their time at secondary school, Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Layla Moran said:

This is yet more worrying evidence that the Conservatives’ high-stakes testing culture is letting down our most vulnerable children.

The desperate drive to secure a better Ofsted grade or climb up the league tables has given schools a perverse incentive to push children they regard as difficult on to other schools, alternative providers, or let

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , and | 4 Comments
The Voice

No Deal catastrophic for livestock farmers

By The Voice | Thu 28th March 2019 - 12:35 pm

Hot off the Lib Dem press, pointing out the devastating effects of a No Deal to farmers:

Alistair Carmichael, Liberal Democrat DEFRA Spokesperson, today challenged the Government’s no deal planning which he described as “catastrophic” for rural communities.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr. Carmichael said:

Can I tell the Minister that I very much agree with him when he talks of Europe as a key export market for our Lamb producers and hill farmers. 160 of his colleagues last night voted for a no deal Brexit, including the Hon. Member who asked the question a no deal Brexit could expose lamb exports to a 12.8% plus €171.3/100kg tariff. Is that going to be good for our sheep farmers?

Responding on behalf of the Government, the Rt. Hon. Robert Goodwill, Minister of State for Fishing and Farming, said:

The best way to prevent a situation in which we have a no deal Brexit is to vote for the deal. Nothing yesterday was supported by the House. The deal is the best thing for agriculture, the best thing for future, and the best thing for a long-term relationship between ourselves and the European Union.

Speaking after the exchange, Mr. Carmichael added:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 19 Comments

Gove governing Defra is a bad move for the environment

By Andy Boddington | Mon 12th June 2017 - 7:47 pm

Michael Gove now oversees environmental policy, food, farming and fisheries. His arrival in the cabinet is part of Theresa May’s struggle to avert a leadership bid. More than ever, we need an independent government-backed assessor for the environment, biodiversity and wildlife.

Politically, we live in curious times with no certainty that the government will be stable or strong enough to survive the Brexit process. Theresa May has reappointed most of her pre-election cabinet, but she moved Andrea Leadsom from Defra to become Leader of the House of Commons. Michael Gove has been brought back to cabinet as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. We have gone from a barely noticed Defra Secretary to one that will crave attention by swinging a wrecking ball through environmental regulation.

Andrea Leadsom was a climate change sceptic and even asked Defra officials whether climate change is real. Apparently convinced by them that it was, she nevertheless supported shale gas extraction through fracking. She also backed foxhunting and selling off forests.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 16 Comments
The Voice

Welsh family farms must not be left to cultivate butterflies

By The Voice | Mon 25th July 2016 - 9:21 am

Martin Thomas

 

 

Martin Thomas, who sits in the House of Lords as Lord Thomas of Gresford, is our Shadow Attorney General. I mentioned his title because he hails from a small town near Wrexham and has been actively involved in Welsh politics since the 1960s.

So who better to call out Andrea Leadsom’s bizarre assertion that farmers with “big fields do the sheep, and those with the hill farms do the butterflies”.

In a speech in the Lords last week he said:

It is with a fine sense of irony, mingled perhaps with some contempt for farming interests, that  the new Prime Minister has appointed Mrs Leadsom, a lady who campaigned for the leadership of the Tory party on the basis of her experience in finance in the City since 1984.

In 2007, Mrs Leadsom demanded that farm subsidies be abolished. That would not be good for food production and for the environment, and it would lay waste upland Wales.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 12 Comments

Badgers moving goalposts? It’s the government that’s playing football with badger cull policy

By Andy Boddington | Thu 10th October 2013 - 10:45 am

Dead badger probably roadkillThe badger cull has always been controversial. It has set wildlife groups and animal lovers against farmers. Many argue that it is being pursued against scientific opinion. And now the cull is struggling to meet its targets. The shooters in Somerset should have delivered 1,015 cadavers but so far they have piled up just 600.

What is going wrong? Defra chief Owen Paterson told the BBC: “the badgers have moved the goalposts.” Shame on badgers for not cooperating with a scheme to kill them!

This trial is not about increasing our scientific knowledge of bovine TB in the badger population. If that was the case, the government would be testing the carcases for TB. It is not. We will never know whether the dead brocks were disease carriers.

The trial is about the efficacy of shooting. And the result is that it is not efficacious.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 25 Comments

Reshuffle – Lib Dems demoted at Defra as Heath axed

By Andy Boddington | Tue 8th October 2013 - 9:02 am

David Heath has been sacked as Minister of State for Agriculture and Food at Defra. In his place is North Cornwall Lib Dem MP Dan Rogerson, but at the more junior position of Parliamentary Under Secretary.

Dan Rogerson

In his letter to Heath, Nick Clegg said:

I am very aware of the pressure on you within Defra over the last year, and I am particularly grateful to you for the clarity and objectivity you have brought to issues of animal and plant disease, your defence of environmental issues, your commitment to agriculture and rural areas, and the development of new and exciting policies to enhance our forests.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 30 Comments
Kate Parminter

Baroness Kate Parminter writes…We need more research and public engagement before agreeing to GM crops

By Kate Parminter | Thu 20th June 2013 - 10:39 am

The speech today by Owen Paterson, Secretary of State for the Environment makes it clear that he is intent on promoting the use of GM crops in Britain – and to do so by acting as a cheerleader for an industry which has consistently promised much over the last twenty years and yet failed to deliver.   It follows hard on the heels of that of the Science Minister, David Willetts, as the latest attempt by the Tories to go beyond the Coalition Government’s agreed policy on GM crops.

Liberal Democrats are not in principle opposed to GM, but we believe no …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 18 Comments
David Heath MP

David Heath MP reports back on the CITES conference and global agreement to protect sharks and manta rays

By David Heath MP | Tue 19th March 2013 - 12:55 pm

Much of my work in the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs centres on the last two parts of the title, so it’s good just occasionally to be able to make a difference on the other part of the agenda, the environment. I had just such an opportunity last week when I represented the United Kingdom at the meeting of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

I was in Bangkok, Thailand, leading a trade mission on behalf of British meat and livestock to the biggest trade fair in Asia. But the timing meant that …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 1 Comment
Mark Valladares

How to damage rural communities in several easy stages…

By Mark Valladares | Fri 30th November 2012 - 10:22 am

Yesterday, I waxed unlyrical about the effects of government on rural life, and today, I want to look at some of those effects…

The Department for Education, under Michael Gove, has changed the funding arrangements for schools, with unfortunate side effects for rural schools. This means that schools such as the one I visited recently in Norfolk will lose grant funding, and be forced to lay off staff as a result. Given that rural counties already receive less grant per pupil than …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | Leave a comment
Andrew Wigley

Opinion: Badger cull delay is good news for Liberal Democrats

By Andrew Wigley | Wed 24th October 2012 - 6:55 pm

Owen Paterson’s announcement on the delay of the badger cull is good news for badgers and for the Liberal Democrats.

The ill-conceived policy may have had the backing of significant interest groups such as the NFU – Paterson repeatedly acknowledged their efforts in his speech – but it was always going to be difficult to present and ‘sell’ this policy to a nation with a strong affection to its environment and wildlife, especially after the debacle of the proposal to sell off the country’s forests.Combine public opinion with the …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 18 Comments
Andrew Wigley

Kill the cull – it’s bad for badgers, science and the Government

By Andrew Wigley | Wed 5th September 2012 - 10:23 am

A new term and the Government looks set to walk straight into a public relations disaster. In a bid to ‘manage’ the spread of bovine TB, Defra will commence a badger cull starting in two areas of the South West – West Somerset/Taunton Deane and in the Forest of Dean/Tewkesbury. It is not just the pictures of indiscriminate shooting and maiming of an icon of the British countryside which will be so damaging for the Government; it is the fact that the cull is based on flawed science.  This is an ill-conceived policy.

The decision by Defra, one of the few …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 34 Comments
Kathryn Parminter

Baroness Parminter writes… Food for thought

By Kathryn Parminter | Wed 27th June 2012 - 4:21 pm

Defra has today launched its Hospitality and Food Service Agreement. This is a new voluntary UK-wide agreement with caterers, pubs, hotels and restaurants to reduce food and packaging waste by 5% and to increase the rate of recycling, composting or anaerobic digestion to 70% (it’s currently around 47%). While we as Liberal Democrats should welcome this and recognise the positive environmental impact it will have, the Government could and should be going much further on food.

Food production and consumption play a key role in public health, the UK economy, and in enhancing natural capital. Everyone should have access to …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 12 Comments
Kathryn Parminter

Baroness Parminter writes… Protecting buzzards

By Kathryn Parminter | Thu 24th May 2012 - 2:53 pm

Many of you will have seen the news yesterday that common buzzards may be at risk following anecdotal evidence from the shooting industry that buzzards, which usually scavenge dead animals, may be eating some of the 40 million young pheasants that are released each year for shooting.

My colleagues on the Lib Dem Defra backbench Committee and I have been very clear that we oppose measures that would harm a protected bird of prey that’s only now recovering after decades of decline, and we’ve been making this case to Defra ministers. We believe the focus should be on tackling …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 12 Comments
Paul Walter

Opinion: the Lib Dems should have have more influence over the environment, food and rural affairs

By Paul Walter | Tue 22nd March 2011 - 4:03 pm

Recently, I have started taking an interest in the government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). My MP is one of their ministers. He seems to spend an awful lot of time on marine affairs, coastal defences and the natural environment. So, as a good citizen, I feel I ought to take an interest. For example, recently, I read through all the questions and answers at Thursday’s the DEFRA session in the House of Commons. Well done Andrew George and Duncan Hames for speaking. But, apart from their three queries, it was a Tory controlled zone.

DEFRA is unusual …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 1 Comment
Tony Greaves

Tony Greaves writes: seeing the wood for the trees

By Tony Greaves | Fri 25th February 2011 - 1:49 pm

Why did the Government drop its proposals for the Forestry Commission (FC) and the forests and woodlands it manages? I thought it would happen but I was astonished by the speed of it. It comes down to three things. An ill-considered and foolish policy. Incompetent presentation. And a stupendously successful and largely under the radar campaign which burst through with stunning effect.

The Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) included a target of £100million from selling around 15% of the national forestry estate in England. This is the most that can be sold under existing legislation. But over the summer DEFRA Ministers …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 11 Comments
The Voice

Canal cuts are nuts, says Huhne

By The Voice | Mon 27th November 2006 - 12:00 pm

WebsiteA new campaign against Defra’s environmental budget cuts, which has meant a 7% cut to British Waterways funds in the last year with the loss of 180 jobs, has been announced.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary, Chris Huhne MP said:

“These redundancies show Defra’s budget cuts beginning to bite. Our canal networks will suffer as a result, together with a whole range of environmental and rural services.

“These cuts put our canals and waterways under threat, impacting on a wide range of users including boat owners, holidaymakers, anglers and ramblers. Canals are also …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | Leave a comment
Advert



Recent Comments

  • David Symonds
    One of the things that Liberals used to believe in was the concept of industrial democracy. Although Trade Unions have their place in society as a pressure gro...
  • Geoff Reid
    Mark is probably right in suggesting that no legislation is going to sort out the anomalies of employed/self employed status. I spent my 38 years as a full-time...
  • Nigel Jones
    Flexibility in employment is a key issue and a complex one including working part-time, where sometimes people do the same work as full-timers but on a lower ra...
  • David Garlick
    For me the climate story began in the 1960's. Great article and yes I have periods of depression about it but Rodrigo is absolutely right in that the best way ...
  • Marco
    Chris Moore - Yes those seats require a lower swing but would be 3 way contests between Lab Con and Lib so people might not be persuaded to vote for us. Also in...