Triggered by the news that Natural England had issued the first ever licence for the destruction of a buzzard nest at the request of a pheasant shooting estate, a colleague pointed me in the direction of a blog from Matthew Taylor (Chief Executive of the RSA) about how to restore trust in public institutions. In it, Matthew says...
"Modern institutions – especially those which people believe should be expected to act in the public interest – must seek to make decisions as if they are operating in a glass box. (NB: This is not the same as arguing for total transparency. Indeed greater openness is more likely to be the consequence than the cause of more ethical organisational behaviour).
If an organisation which claims to be ethical is making decisions on a basis which the public would not understand or condone then it is ever more likely, sooner or later, that these decisions and the dodgy thinking behind them will be exposed, further eroding trust in institutions."
Makes you think, doesn't it?
Indeed it does make you think and very well expressed. This is a sad and bad day for nature conservation but I suspect heavy pressure was put on Natural England from the direction of the Government. The general public would, I believe,expect those in charge to support the conservation of wildlife in preference to sectional interests. If this was not the case we would ,over time, loose all our wildlife. This support has clearly not been provided in this case and bodes badly for the future.