Yesterday's reshuffle has compelled me to return to the blogosphere. It is time to end my self-imposed (holiday-fuelled) exile.
I am generally averse to any reshuffle (of ministers or civil servants). It takes time for anyone to get up to speed with a new brief and more time to develop relationships. I remember, years ago, asking one new Defra minister after they'd been in post for six months what excited them most about their brief. The answer perplexed me: "I am still most inspired by Mozart".
But Mr Cameron has now embarked on his first major reshuffle.
So we say goodbye to Caroline Spelman and welcome Owen Paterson.
Mr Paterson is no stranger to the RSPB. Our Director in Northern Ireland, James Robinson, tells me ‘I met Owen at the Seabird Centre on Rathlin Island on a sunny day in July 2010. In the hustle and bustle of the seabird city, we chatted about the importance of the marine environment and the need to protect important areas at sea for seabirds. Owen was blown away by this seabird spectacle and it was good to spend some time with him, chewing the fat on the conservation issues of the day.’
There are many perks of the job as Environment Secretary and seeing wildlife spectacles is one of them. I hope that he has time to visit and be inpsired by some of the best places for wildlife at home, on our Overseas Territories and further afield.
Mr Paterson replaces Caroline Spelman who leaves after two eventful years. Within her first nine months she had cut her departmental budget by 30% (whilst protecting the higher level agri-environment scheme), she signed an international agreement to halt biodiversity loss but faced a public backlash over government plans to sell-off the public forest estate. As the imperative for economic growth intensified, she locked horns with Cabinet colleagues over planning reforms and review of the Habitats Regulations. She came to see herself as nature's guardian. We disagreed with her decision over the badger cull and the buzzard debacle is one to forget, but today, it is worth remembering her achievements.
Her lasting legacy will be the ambitions laid out in the Natural Environment White Paper and the National Ecosystem Assessment which showed that we were failing to realise the benefits that nature gives us.
I hope civil servants ensure that these two documents are the first in to Mr Paterson's new red box. The coalition government's ambition to "protect wildilfe ... and restore biodiversity" remains. He is likely to quickly conclude that there is a large gap between Defra's ambition and delivery tools available to him. He will need to play smart politics within European to get a good deal for fish, fishermen, farmers and wildlife from forthcoming CAP and CFP reforms. And my guess is that he will have to nail the lie that there's a choice between recovery and the environment - and use the compelling evidence from the NEA that it pays to invest in protecting ecosystems and green growth is real.
But, as Mrs Spelman learnt, the good news for Mr Paterson is that people really care about the natural environment. If he makes the right calls, millions of people will back him.
Our role? To help him do whatever nature needs.
On behalf of the RSPB, I wish him well.
This is very very weak Martin.. when its finally happened..... the wheels have fallen off "the greenest government ever" and revealed Cameron's pre election statement as a bald, bare cynical "untruth".
his new Environment Secretary has an interest in "trees" and has revealed that he cares more for "fracking" than wind power; even Lord Deben , who showed a consistent interest in sustainability under John Major's as Environment Secreatry govt must be turning on his subsidised barley acres..we are going backwards on issue after issue.
I will write to Caroline Lucas now and propose that she submits a motion of no confidence on the government's record on the environment and climate change and let us see where the Labour Party and Liberals stand.
Think you live in a conservationists dream world Martin looking through rose coloured glasses with the statement that if Mr Paterson makes the right calls about the environment millions of people will back him.Surely you mean thousands.
Unfortunately when asking loaded questions about environment people may say they care and it means nothing.
Test it out ask them to support a environment project each month for the same amount of money as their mobile phone contract.The answer means they would rather damage the environment with mobile than put money into environment.
Welcome back from "holiday exile" Martin. I think Caroline Spelman deserves much credit. She took over at an extremly difficult time and, by and large, has kept the wildlife and biodiversity ship afloat and reasonably buoyant,(with the glitches you mention), against potentially many destructive assaults, mostly but by no means all, from the direction of Mr Osborne. I fear that it was her robust stance against these destructive assaults that may have been a significant part of the reason she has been changed out.
We await, with some concern I think, to see how Mr Paterson will "pan out", because of his more right of centre views generally, but that may not prevent him being a strong champion for biodiversity. I hope he will become just that.
Finally, I wonder whether Mr Benyon will stay in his post or be changed.