After last night's drama, the focus for the nature conservation community now turns to the detail of the Conservative Party manifesto.
It's worth re-reading as it obviously now represents the agenda for the new Government.
Perhaps the stand out commitment is the 25 year plan to recover nature for which the Natural Capital Committee will play a leading role.
I presume that the first five years of activity will closely match the ambitions laid out in the current England Biodiversity Strategy.
We, of course, will be delighted to share our expertise and insight to ensure action is taken to do whatever nature needs. We already know from the election campaign that there will be lots of new and returning MPs with an interest in nature and in the benefits that nature can bring for society and economy. We look forward to getting to know the new ones better and renewing our working relationships with those who return. And we look forward to helping the new Ministerial team (to be appointed over the coming hours) to implement its other commitments including in the marine environment domestically and in our Overseas Territories such as Pitcairn and Ascension Islands. Internationally, we will also be looking to the UN climate change talks at the end of the year, encouraging the Government to play a leading role in forging a strong international deal.
Of course, the bedrock of achieving our environmental ambitions and of so many other objectives will be the maintenance of the strong core of conservation law—the European Nature Directives. These laws were inspired by the UK and have helped to achieve conservation objectives in a way that is compatible with sustainable development. We will urge the new Government to defend the laws that defend nature in Europe in the coming months.
Our role at the RSPB is, as I have written previously, to work constructively with whoever is in power and so will devote all our efforts to helping the new Conservative Government to be successful in achieving its ambition of passing on the natural environment in a better state to the next generation.
We clearly need the resources and political will to make this happen.
I shall reflect further on the challenges facing the new Government in due course.
For now though, as I set off for our annual weekend with our Council of trustees (this time to explore our work in the south-east of England), I hope all politicians - whether they won or lost last night - will take time out to reconnect with nature. It'll reinvigorate you I promise!