Pip Goodwin

This is, by some distance, the longest and most expensive legal letter we've ever sent. It involves a team of multiple KC and junior specialist environmental barristers. It's taken us 18 months to draft and has cost us a substantial six figure sum.

👉 Last chance to influence the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.

Yes, I know, you may be sick of reading about this or feel you’ve already written to your MP several times or are running out of energy on this long running saga - BUT - please, for nature’s sake, write one more time. 1/3

YouTube video by Bill Sutherland's Conservation Concepts Fruit, frugivores, and the ecology of seed dispersal

Which bird disperses which plant? What does bird dispersed fruit look like? Why do fruit sizes differ between regions? Why does ivy fruit in winter? How can we identify the disperser and distance carried from droppings? How did this collaboration arise? youtu.be/4vZ0w97ffRM?...

👏 👏 👏

A minor addendum: they can't provide decent WiFi during the service either. Fine-ish for the holiday crowd, but hugely frustrating if you need to work.

Meanwhile in Vosges, France, villagers have been stopped from using tap water as PFAS measurements surpass safe levels. Global action against these persistent pollutants is urgently needed. bsky.app/profile/libe...

Brexit & Brexitism: Brexit eruptions chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/brex...

Cross-government planning proposals threaten nature and must be fixed This post is by Richard Benwell, chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link The planning system must be improved for nature. When development damages protected wildlife, developers shouldn’t …

"We can’t say it strongly enough: for planning reform to succeed for both people and nature, this newt-bashing, snail-baiting, spider-hating scapegoating must stop."
Cross-government planning proposals threaten nature and must be fixed greenallianceblog.org.uk/2025/10/16/c...

How 100,000 East Anglians learned to save a life When a Lowestoft runner collapsed, quick-thinking locals saved his life. Now East Anglia is ready too

When Paul Rouse collapsed after finishing Lowestoft Parkrun, it was local bystanders who saved his life.

Now 100,000 East Anglians have the same skills — and you can too.

👉 Details of free CPR training from East Anglian Air Ambulance at the link ⤵️

Wage war on nature to build new homes: that’s Labour’s offer, but it’s a con trick | George Monbiot The government’s new planning bill is tearing down environmental protections to benefit developers. This nation of nature lovers won’t stand for it, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Today's column is about the government's huge, unprecedented assault on nature ... and about the eerie, astonishing silence of the big nature groups. The RSPB, National Trust, Wildlife Trusts have 7.5m members between them. A vast force, completely unmobilised. 🧵
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The territorial constitution: what is it and why does it matter? The UK’s territorial constitution seeks to accommodate various nations, regions and identities in a single state, and to devolve power closer to those being governed. But it also operates within th…

The territorial constitution: what is it and why does it matter? constitution-unit.com/2025/10/16/t...

Burning trees to power AI, really? This post is by Almuth Ernsting and Robert Palgrave of Biofuelwatch. Earlier this year, while greenlighting further subsidies for Drax through to 2031, the UK government signalled that unabated bio…

Burning trees to power AI, really? greenallianceblog.org.uk/2025/10/15/b...

Nature groups rebuke Reeves for ‘cynical’ 11th-hour planning bill changes Chancellor accused of removing environmental protections to win short-term growth and save her budget

Nature groups rebuke Reeves for ‘cynical’ 11th-hour planning bill changes

Good news for nature-friendly farming, and organic licensees. Gov has announced a rollover for Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier 🌳

Ministers have confirmed a year's extension for agreements expiring in December. We’ve been pressing for this stability in the absence of other schemes

bit.ly/432PH4P

The crisis engulfing Emmanuel Macron contains a warning for Keir Starmer | Rafael Behr The French president dominated the centre ground but has failed to build a legacy there. Labour is in danger of doing the same, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

Centrist governments around the world are discovering they aren't being thanked just for being more realistic than right-wing populists. A warning for Keir Starmer indeed. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This. This. This.

UK plastic waste exports to developing countries rose 84% in a year, data shows Campaigners say increase in exports mostly to Malaysia and Indonesia is ‘unethical and irresponsible waste imperialism’

UK plastic waste exports to developing countries rose 84% in a year, data shows

Trust asks residents to help shape new wildlife vision Norfolk Wildlife Trust is calling on South Norfolk residents to share ideas for a long-term wildlife recovery plan

Want cleaner rivers, more meadows, or new woodlands?

Norfolk Wildlife Trust wants South Norfolk voices in its survey....

School history lessons minimise the role of women, report finds Campaigners say key stage 3 curriculum plays to misogny and teaches a ‘false version of the past’ The role of women in history goes far beyond Elizabeth I or Anne Boleyn, according to a campaign that seeks to add more female lives and achievements to the curriculum taught in England’s schools. Research by the group End Sexism in Schools found that women were largely absent from history taught in key stage 3, the first three years of secondary education in England. Monarchs were among only a handful of women mentioned by name alongside the suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst and Emily Davison. Continue reading...

School history lessons minimise the role of women, report finds

New Defra secretary Emma Reynolds has a big ‘to do’ list but a chance to make some publicly popular moves Emma Reynolds has become the tenth UK environment secretary in a decade, joining the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) at a critical time for environmental protection. She won’t be short of advice as her officials navigate a lengthy submissions queue and journalists speculate on the reason for her appointment and her priorities.

New Defra secretary Emma Reynolds has a big ‘to do’ list, but a chance to make some publicly popular moves, writes senior fellow @ruthchambers.bsky.social in our latest blog 👇

‘Labour has failed to communicate any message over anti-migrant protests’ | The News Agents The England flag has been weaponised in protests across the UK by masked groups angry at the number of asylum seekers entering the country. This unrest has been fuelled by the hard-right, but Labour h...

www.thenewsagents.co.uk/article/labo...

Falafel

Scleranthus perennis ssp prostratus Prostrate Perennial Knawel in Breckland this weekend with #NorfolkFloraGroup #wildflowerhour

The right to protest on the environment must be restored Five years ago, I reflected on the role that civil disobedience and protests have played in the environmental movement and the worrying direction of travel prompted by the backlash to Extinction Re…

greenallianceblog.org.uk/2025/08/14/t...

Shocked to find River Lark at Worlington Hythe, sublime a year ago
x.com/numenini/sta..., now very sick, silken skeins of Water-crowfoot replaced by thick brown layer of algae & cyanobacteria. Yet quite a few fish persist up at Kings Staunch, mainly Perch & Chub (including a monster). #MySwim 🧵1/8

I found this x+y=xy colour mix rather pleasing. Hargrave roadside nature reserve with rock rose, wild basil and crested cow wheat still hanging on.

YouTube video by The Daily Show Peter Beinart - "Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning" | The Daily Show

This is so good from Jon Stewart and Peter Beinart.

youtu.be/X5kXCdzt_us?...

The Supreme Court’s judgment in Shvidler: Lord Leggatt’s Liversidge v Anderson moment Today’s Supreme Court’s judgment in Shvidler v Foreign Secretary addresses key issues about the role of courts generally and appellate courts in particular when it comes to applying the propo…

The Supreme Court's judgment in Shvidler: Lord Leggatt's Liversidge v Anderson moment publiclawforeveryone.com/2025/07/29/t...
Worth reading to the end if only for the "grit in the oyster" line!

Trump’s latest plan to undo the ‘holy grail’ of climate rules: Never mind the science The administration’s approach, led by White House and Justice Department officials, would focus on a legal rather than a scientific rationale for repealing the so-called endangerment finding.

The Trump administration plans to argue that federal law does not require agencies to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, in a move designed to derail virtually all US limits on climate pollution.

How magical thinking came for net zero critics Badenoch shows the temptation of just putting all this climate unpleasantness behind us

My column in tomorrow’s paper: on the magical thinking that has emerged on net zero and what drives it: