It is a treat to wake up in Brighton on a sunny September morning like today. The sea is calm, the gulls are noisy and the joggers seem content. No-one would know that Brighton was hosting a party conference.
At night however, the story is very different. As the sun goes down, the men in suits and ladies in heels stride purposefully up and down the King's Road on the seafront diving into various hotels in search for the next fringe meeting or networking opportunity.
On Sunday night, the RSPB hosted its fringe on the State of Nature. Expertly chaired by journalist Alex Kirby, about 50 people (including many RSPB members) participated in a question time event with Melanie Smallwood, Mary Creagh MP and me. It was a good hour with questions ranging from HS2 and Heathrow, through to Higher Level Stewardship and predation, to wind farms and organic farming. It was also timely to put the Labour party on the spot - at this point in the political cycle they need to be preparing their priorities/ideas for their manifesto for what they hope will end up being their agenda for government. On issues where Labour has been in active oppositional mode, their views are clear: on horsemeat, on the proposed sell-off of public forest estate, on the badger cull for example, they have settled views. Yet, in other areas for example, especially on how to tackle the 60% decline in monitored UK species - as highlighted in the State of Nature report - their views are there to be shaped - definitely a work in progress.
So, this week, we shall be encouraging them, as we do with any political party, to be bold and reflect on the institutional, policy, legislative, funding and delivery arrangements required to kick-start nature's revival.
As this morning's news about seabirds in Scotland warn, it is clear that current efforts are inadequate to deal with crisis facing our wildlife. We need a political arms race where the parties compete with one another for the best environmental policies and then we need politicians to have the courage to implement them even in difficult economic times. And this message is a relevant today as it is to future governments. Governments north and south of the border need to step up their efforts to safeguard our sealife - getting a decent network of marine protected areas in place for seabirds would be a sensible place to start. If you need any more convincing, watch this video...67199080
Actually, for a fringe, this is a pretty decent turn out. The competition is hard - I thnk we were up against an evening with Eddie Izard and john Bishop! But I take your point about preaching to the converted. Mind you some of the questioning didn't seem that gentle at the time!
Very disappointing Martin! To attract only 50 people to a discussion on the State of Nature, and most of those already from the converted, seems very sad. How big was your venue, perhaps you only chose a small space?
It seems to me that 'Green Government' whether blue, red or yellow is dead and of no priority to the political parties. It will be interesting later this week to see the report on human contribution to climate change and whether this stimulates any political debate.