Author Archives: Miles King

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About Miles King

UK conservation professional, writing about nature, politics, life. All views are my own and not my employers. I don't write on behalf of anybody else.

Great News: Defra decides Neonics are safe to bees after all and allows their use

Neonics are back in the news. Two days ago the BBC reported on how flea beetles were feeding on the newly planted autumn sown Oil Seed Rape, and farmers were interviewed weeping and wringing their hands, saying the end of … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Matt Ridley Prize for Hypocrisy

Just a short one today as I am away from home on the ipad, which is much more limited for using wordpress. After being accused of having no sense of irony by a climate change denier on twitter yesterday, I … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Labour commits to building 200,000 new homes a year: Great: where?

At the Labour Conference both Hilary Benn, Shadow CLG Secretary, and Ed Miliband, both promised massive new house-building, up to 200,000 new homes a year by the end of the parliament. Benn said ” … we will give communities, as … Continue reading

Posted in biodiversity, biodiversity offsetting, bungalows, housing, Labour, Lodge Hill | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

The CLA in Wales cares more about protecting meadows than CLA in England

a wildflower meadow (c) Miles King In these days where devolution is in the air, it’s worth considering how differently two UK countries use regulation to protect wildlife. This press release from the Country Landowners Association Cymru, was picked up … Continue reading

Posted in agriculture, CLA, deregulation, EIA, grasslands, Wales | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Director of Lodge Hill Developer Land Securities withdraws from becoming London Wildlife Trust trustee

Here’s an interesting story, just published in the Guardian. A Director of Land Securities, the FTSE 100 company who are the developers behind the planned destruction of Lodge Hill SSSI, was about to be appointed as a Trustee of London … Continue reading

Posted in biodiversity offsetting, Lodge Hill, SSSis | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

NFU special pleading knows no bounds

NFU President Meurig Raymond’s image is front and centre of the new NFU 2014 manifesto. He appears to have popped up from a hole, perhaps arising from an underground chamber: is this is satirical take on NFU’s relationship with badgers? … Continue reading

Posted in agriculture, deregulation, Neonicotinoids, NFU, regulatory reform | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Badgers in the mainframe? Defra’s monumental TB data errors

Back in January I wrote about Defra’s revelation that the vet agency AHVLA’s new computer had been spewing out fictitious reports overstating the number of Herd’s which had suffered a bovine TB breakdown. In retrospect it’s amazing that Owen Paterson … Continue reading

Posted in badgers, bovine TB, Defra | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

A Recipe for Disaster? Take two nature directives, add Malta and Boil until weak and tender.

I was going to write a post about the new European Commission and then I read Martin Harper’s blog and decided it more or less said everything I was going to say. So I’m just reblogging it. The only thing … Continue reading

Posted in European Commission, Malta, Nature Directives | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

55 Tory MPs believe human-induced climate change is “environmentalist propaganda”

what’s happening to global temperatures? Sometimes you read a news article and you think “that can’t be right” and it is. Yesterday was a case in point. We now know  that CO2 levels have increased at their fastest rate for … Continue reading

Posted in climate change, the far right, Think Tanks, UKIP | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Mark Reckless MP: destroying Lodge Hill will undermine national SSSI protection across the country

Part of Lodge Hill’s military past: a fictitious Newry Road with Iraqi posters (c) Miles King   Rochester and Strood MP Mark Reckless is nobody’s fool. You may remember that earlier this year I wrote about his tirade against coastal … Continue reading

Posted in biodiversity, grasslands, Habitats Directive, housing, Lodge Hill, Mark Reckless, SSSis | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments