Now each of you are getting used to being one in a million (and counting!) - it is time to reflect on last week. I am sorry I have taken a while to get this update together, but a lot has been going on ... not least the realisation that:
more people have signed this petition than there are hedgehogs left in the country ...
So - last Monday - 5th July - there was the long awaited debate in parliament that was caused by the wonderful response to the petition from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. The call was to try and get the hedgehog shifted from Schedule 6 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, up to Schedule 5. This is crucial if we are to see hedgehogs get the sort of protection they need to survive.
The debate was launched by Matt Vickers - the conservative MP from Stockton South and in the opening remarks he quite rightly heaped praise on my friend and colleague Fay Vass, CEO of the BHPS.
Throughout the debate - which lasted 75 minutes (full transcript here) - the support for hedgehogs was absolutely wonderful to hear. Now, I know that many of us are cynical about the words slipping easily from the mouths of politicians - but in this case, it was clear that many truly did worry for, and want to help, hedgehogs. There was no speech to match the erudition of Rory Stewart from 2015 ... but I remained pleasantly impressed that MPs turned up and spoke. Though the obsequious relationship to the chair of the debate was a little stomach-turning.
Theresa Villiers talked about the importance of the National Nature Recovery Network and Chris Grayling (I don't think I ever expected to write something positive about him) pushed this line too with the emphasis on creating corridors for wildlife ... I must send him a copy of Linescapes! He even went on to suggest that the entire wildlife protection legislation was not really fit for purpose ... and that is a good point. I worry much less about people deliberately killing hedgehogs than I do about the ravages of industrial agriculture and the push to build 300,000 new houses a year.
All the good feeling was, however, rather damped by the response of the Minister - Rebecca Pow. She was the epitome of mealy-mouthed waffle - not far from a 'Yes, Minister' sketch, but without the humour ... she spoke - sound came out, mouth moved - but very little was actually said.
I got the feeling that while MPs - the ones who bothered to respond to many of your letters - actually do care, government does not. It was treated as a not very serious issue, and possibly a bit of a waste of everyone's time.
There is a lot of work to be done - by us - to ensure that our MPs do not forget we are here - that the review of wildlife protection currently underway is also under scrutiny from us all. So please, build a relationship with your MPs, write to them, explain the importance of nature and hedgehogs in particular ... and maybe it will shock them to realsie that ...
more people have signed this petition than there are hedgehogs left in the country ...
We must turn that around.
In other news - the photograph for this update ... my first IN PERSON talk in so long ... thank you to Hungerford Summer Festival for inviting me - and thank goodness that when the heaven's opened and the green tarpaulin collapsed due to weight of water - no one got too wet!!!