Number 8

Ex-Environment Minister, now Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Ben Bradshaw is interviewed in today's Independent on Sunday (probably because he has moved up from 24 to 8 in the paper's Pink List).  Although he was not my favourite Environment Minister (maybe I should tell you who was some time?), because he allowed more cormorants to be killed, he makes a good point in his interview.  He is quoted as saying 'It's great being in charge of a department whose role is to spread pleasure and happiness.  It's almost as if, at a time of economic uncertainty, people need that cultural and sensual nourishment even more.'.

Well, we do need all that.  And aren't all government departments supposed to be giving us cultural and sensual nourishment?  Certainly Defra should.  The smell of flowers, the pattern on a butterfly's wings and the song of a skylark all nourish us.  Nature is part of our cultural heritage.

I feel very mixed emotions about the current enthusiasm for valuing wild nature.  In one respect it must be true that a lot of destruction of nature happens because we don't value it properly - why else would we be cutting down rainforests that are doing such a good job for us.  If only we valued them better for their carbon storage, water purification, flood alleviation and food supply then we would never cut down rainforests to grow palm oil. So a hard-nosed economic appraisal of the value of nature and wildlife seems like it could be very useful.

But the song of the skylark is difficult to value in terms of anything other than cultural and spiritual nourishment. 

And we aren't a very cultured nation or species if we don't regard the song of the skylark as being important just as Mozart's Magic Flute is, or the BBC, or the Olympic Games.  So maybe nature conservation ought to be part of Mr Bradshaw's Department's remit in Culture, Media and Sport?  Or at least we should behave as though we are all naturally cultured.