There is a lot going on at the moment. And I am here to help.
If you are concerned about High Speed 2, why not read my colleague Andre Farrar's blog here.
If you are concerned about the implications of us leaving Europe you could always listen to my interview on Farming Today last week. You can find it here about 8 minutes in. I waffle a bit - but you should be able to get the gist.
If you are concerned about the future of the United Kingdom... well that's one area where I really am not going to comment.
But, if you just want to be distracted by all of this, why not simply take a moment to look at the image below.
This picture was taken by a licensed doormouse surveyor called Liz Cutting at our Wolves Wood Nature Reserve in Suffolk. It is our first record of the species in the reserve's 40 year history. As Liz says, the discovery of dormice at Wolves Wood is testament that if you have a solid block of well-managed woodland with plenty of suitable habitat, dormice will respond. And they have, which is great.
Surely one to warm even the coldest of hearts.
I wholly agree with Barcud above.
I thought your piece on Farming Today very good; your point re the high quality of EU environmental law, for fear of repeating myself, can be extended to recycling, sewage, landfill, air, climate change etc etc etc. EU environment law has been very good law driving the UK forward over the past 20 years.
Re HS2 the work I have seen re CO2 is that it increases exponentially with speed due to exponential increases in air resistance; so just as with cars at speeds over 60 on motorway so it is with trains; the faster they go the more polluting they are; for half an hour of journey time, probably lost at the Tube, HS2 is a waste of money I'm afraid (unlike barrages which have a similar carbon profile to wind farms due to their high and fast CO2 payback; 9 months on the Severn I believe).