Owen Paterson must go

Woodland scene: Burnham Beeches in Buckingshire

Owen Paterson must go, he has repeatedly demonstrated that he is unfit to be Environment Secretary .

• denies climate change exists
• has fired over 1,500 people at the Environment Agency, the lead agency responsible for flood protection
• slashed DEFRA climate adaptation team from 38 to 6 staff
• has attacked people for opposing GM crops
• authorised a mass killing of badgers
• has appointed a property developer to English Nature (or whatever name it now has)

Just asked Owen Paterson how he can claim he's taking floods seriously when DEFRA's own climate adaptation team slashed from 38 to 6 staff?

— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) January 6, 2014

The latest act of crass stupidity from this arrogant imbecile, as reported on the front page of The Times on Saturday, is to relax the constraints on destruction of Ancient Woodlands. He proposes destroying Ancient Woodlands so developers can make a fast buck, replacing each tree cut down, with one hundred trees.

Ancient Woodlands, pre-dating 1600, are all that remains of the post-glacial forest cover, one of our most valuable habitats. Woodlands, are more than a collection of trees, they are valuable habitats.

• Destruction of Ancient Woodlands
• Ancient woodland ‘could be bulldozed for housing’, suggests Owen Paterson
• Owen Paterson alarms campaigners with plan to build on ancient woods
• Minister faces green rebellion as he gives the go-ahead for developers to destroy ancient woodlands… if they plant 100 trees for every one felled

Even in flagship Tory rags Mail and The Telegraph, there are calls in the comments for Paterson to go.

Were spineless public schoolboy joke Ed Miliband up to the job, he would be tabling a motion calling for Paterson to resign, but he seems capable of little more than childish yah-boo politics and pathetic sound bites.

• Owen Paterson’s climate change scepticism ‘has blinded him to future flooding risks’, claims Labour as winter storm continues to batter Britain

Please sign the petition calling for Paterson to be fired. Please tweet and share and encourage others to sign.

About these ads

Tags: Ancient Woodland, badgers, climate, floods, Owen Paterson