Rachel Reeves signals she will break manifesto pledge with Budget tax rises Chancellor hopes to win support from Labour MPs by lifting two-child benefit cap

"Research released this month by economists at the Bank of England, the Bundesbank, King’s College London and the universities of Stanford and Nottingham underscored the economic hit from leaving the EU. Brexit had reduced UK GDP by 6-8%"

on.ft.com/4p1NoHv

Seems like an appropriate time to repost this.

Today’s office

'Small-scale fishermen using low-impact methods are...forced out by industrial vessels "that take more in a day than we can in a season...we are not asking for special treatment, only for rules that protect the ocean, reward those who fish responsibly, + give our communities a chance to survive"'.

A quarter of Britain’s native plants are now at risk of extinction

The first update in two decades to a “red list” of plants found a substantial increase in the number of threatened species
www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

John Gibbons: Saying nuclear power is better for the environment than solar is ludicrous The idea that intensive dairy farming is some kind of pastoral idyll with no impact on the environment has been allowed to take hold to the point that serious people are now suggesting nuclear reactor...

"Intensive dairying is only wildly profitable as long as the sector is allowed a free ride to produce massive pollution impacts"

The principle that the polluter should pay has long been central to environmental regulation but does not apply to dairy farming

www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

For anyone interested in Nature in the UK, this is really, really depressing reading. Despite all our efforts over the past decades (site protection, farming schemes), wild plants, an essential element of the natural world, are disappearing before our eyes. britishandirishbotany.org/index.php/bi...

High water bills, filthy rivers – and now drought. This is England's great artificial water crisis of 2025 | George Monbiot In its refusal to nationalise water, it’s clear the government operates in the interests of private capital and not of the country, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

How do you ensure a nation fails to cope with drought? Privatise its water system.

Almost everyone wants our water renationalised. Almost everyone, that is, except the government.

This week's column.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Artificial grass catches fire at Derbyshire farm in heatwave A plume of black smoke is rising from a farm in Stanton, near Swadlincote.

Artificial grass: the gift that keeps on giving.

Toxic Pfas above proposed safety limits in almost all English waters tested Exclusive: 110 of 117 bodies of water tested by Environment Agency would fail standards, with levels in fish 322 times the planned limit

- PFAS forever chemicals above proposed safety limits in nearly all English rivers, lakes & ponds, study finds
- levels of internationally banned PFOS in fish were 322 times above proposed safety limits on average

Our new article out now:

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Two exciting @bsbibotany.bsky.social field botany trips coming up in #NorthernIreland this week. For more details and booking, visit bsbi.org/field-meetin....

EBU: We don't like you using the word "Kant." Can you please tone it down?

Malta: sure ok.

#Eurovision

France getting through a lot of wheat #eurovision

Sweden to win #eurovision
Catchy tune, accordion, sausage, immense hook

I’m half an hour behind everyone else watching #Eurovision
Liking Norway

Record number of river-blocking barriers removed in Europe, report says Hundreds of dams, weirs, culverts and sluices dismantled in 2024 to help waterways resume natural course

Report: record number of river-blocking barriers removed in Europe 🙌
The gathering momentum to rewild and rewind Europe's rivers has a host of benefits:

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

this is gob-smacking:

www.ft.com/content/e025...

As the US ‘liberates’ itself from a strong economy & basic logic, this is a moment for doing the things in our control to protect people + jobs here. I raised the impact of Big Tech on politics & young people, and ensuring Trump’s ‘inner circle’ don’t get a free ride in all this

Just a wee reminder
Efforts to restrict plastic “forever chemicals” that threaten health met with a large-scale coordinated attack by multibillion £ industries that make/use them
Industry-funded research & exaggerated claims made by industry against stricter regulation
#Pollution

In 30 years, Ireland's pristine rivers dropped from 500 to just over 20 and, in 50 years, we've lost 90% of our salmon 😢🐟

Baseline Shift means we're less aware of this loss📉

Let's not accept a diminished world🛑

We must #RestoreOurWaters 💙📢

🙏 www.sashafrost.com

An Aimsir in Éirinn ☔

Changing Forget-me-not Myosotis discolor and Early Forget-me-not Myosotis ramosissima in south Hampshire today. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

The grasslands of Grangemore NR looking north towards the southern side of the Portstewart strand dune system, with the river Bann flowing between the two sites (photo credit: Jen Farrar, BSBI).

Shepherd's Cress, Teesdalia nudicaulis, is a small, white flowered plant in the cabbage family. This winter flowering annual is considered very rare in Northern Ireland and is now only found at two sites, Murlough NNR in Co. Down and Grangemore NR in Co. Derry/Londonderry (photo credit: Jen Farrar, BSBI).

Based in Co. Derry & keen to contribute towards valuable citizen science? Join @bsbibotany.bsky.social at the beautiful dunes of Grangemore Nature Reserve on Sat. 29 March to record Shepherd's Cress & other winter annuals, led by Jen Farrar. More info' & book at: www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...

Gas, not net zero, has driven up UK power bills Britain has been unhelpfully exposed to international price shocks

Gas has driven up UK power bills:
".. it is not true that renewables are the chief reasons British bills have soared."

www.ft.com/content/2f25...

It's not every day that I'm lucky enough to see, hear & photograph a flock of Golden Plover, stunningly beautiful birds.

Former Scottish gamekeeper receives pathetic sentence for digging Badger sett A former gamekeeper has been sentenced after being found guilty of two wildlife crime offences relating to the digging and blocking of a badger sett in Fife. Dylan Boyle, 52, from Avonbridge, Falki…

The maximum potential sentence available for this crime is 12 mths custodial and/or £40K fine.

Dylan Boyle got a £400 fine because apparently he'd behaved himself for 6 mths since conviction.

That'll learn him.

FFS

raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/03/18/f...

"On an island [Ireland] where 92% of agricultural land is used for meat + dairy production", these two farmers are making a real difference, producing a variety of food, highly sought-after Irish linen, and benefiting wildlife.

There *are* other, better, ways. They should be incentivised.

Absolutely brilliant paper presenting many strands of evidence, botanical, archaeological, pollen, early written records, placenames, folklore, ancient traditions and legends etc - convincing interpretation - well worth a read - saved for my reference library

Are you spotting Violets (Sweet, Hairy, Common or Early Dog) in bloom? Want to find out which is which?
Check out this handy cribsheet:
bsbi.org/wp-content/u...
It was commissioned by the ever-helpful
@botanybeck.bsky.social for #WildFlowerHour & was created by the amazing @naturelark.bsky.social!