Environment Secretary Therese Coffey has left the [DEFRA] building, again, and has left the Cabinet, too. Good riddance.
The last time she left DEFRA was in 2019 and I wrote this about her departure.
My opinion, shared by many of my friends and colleagues, of her massive underperformance in her previous role at DEFRA and her most recent role as Secretary of State for the Environment, hasn’t changed. Apparent indifference to environmental challenges will be her legacy.
Coffey’s self-congratulatory resignation letter to Rishi Sunak is the epitome of this quote by Swami Paramananda:
Fools dwelling in ignorance, yet imagining themselves wise and learned, go round and round in crooked ways, like the blind led by the blind.
There’s so much laugh-out-loud material in her letter, not to mention an off the scale score on the delusion rating, but perhaps the most telling line will be this:
“While there is more I could write about what I am proud of having achieved in government, I have always been most proud in representing my constituents of Suffolk Coastal and acting on local issues“.
I wonder if she’s referring to any role she might have played in these shenanigans, currently the focus of a Wild Justice investigation? More on that shortly…
Sunak’s response to Coffey’s resignation is here:
And what of her successor, Steve Barclay? Described on the news channels this evening as having been ‘demoted’ from Health Secretary to Environment Secretary (why on earth is this role considered a demotion??!), I’ve failed to find any evidence of his experience, or interest, in the environment.
Conservation and anti-conservation organisations alike have been falling over themselves to send him congratulatory tweets, which seems a bit odd. Who congratulates anyone on a demotion, perceived or real?
I’m kidding. Of course it’s obvious why they all want to ingratiate themselves because Westminster’s environmental policy has, for years, been based on handing out favours for mates, not on actual scientific evidence or even common sense.
Will Barclay be any different? I doubt it, but he at least deserves to be given an opportunity to demonstrate his intentions.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Suffolk Coastal eh! I lived there until recently……..New nuclear power station being built right next to old one……right next to RSPB Minsmere.
Also removing a eautiful woodland wildlife zone nearby……apparently gathering up all the creatures and topsoil and depositing it all somewhere else…….yes, honestly!!!
Pity Richard Benyon is not kicked out also.
Simply the worst Environment Secretary I’ve known
I would expect to see the new guy in his wellies out with owners / agents / keepers on a grouse moor smiling for the camera before too long. As election approaches the Conservatives will do all they can to encourage their many disillusioned voters to bother turning out to mitigate a wipeout, and shooting is one of the few issues that consistently bring them out. Come springtime, when the fells aren’t such a barren moonscape, we will likely see a few constituency Conservative MP’s doing the same.
I challenge all your readers to suggest a suitable DEFRA candidate from the Conservative and Labour benches. Few, I fear, have the broad ability or experience that combines and supports food production and conservation in a balanced way. It is a tough call.
At least government can select a Defence minister from the military and a Foreign secretary from the diplomatic corps.
One should really appoint staff based on experience and ability. Doesn’t often happen in any government whatever the colour; too much a**e licking and back stabbing across the board.
Sir Chris Packham by bestowing on him a Baronet
I think a hearty cheer is well-deserved for Coffey’s resignation from Defra. Cheered me up on a bit of a gaffaw-a-minute day. She has a PhD in Chemistry from UCL, but as far as I could tell, applied no scientific method in any of her deliberations concerning the environment.
The jury has to be out on Steve Barclay. His background is history and law, a gap year with the Army, and – apparently – a love of rugby. His constituency is rural Cambridgeshire, centred on March, with (at least) two (smallish?) pheasant shooting estates/businesses at its fringes.
The King’s Peach :-) included the much postponed Bill to Ban Live Exports – the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill, as well as other commitments on animal welfare and the environment (hedgerows and water quality). But the timing of the next election may usurp all plans.
See
https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/kings-speech-2023-agriculture-natural-environment-and-animal-welfare/
Please do not’ big up’ this woman by describing her absence of action and painful lethargy as under-achievement.
The woman was a complete and total disaster as SoS and her legacy will be felt for a very long time.
Give Steve Barclay a chance! Wise advice from Ruth.
After his performance at Health? Let me think about that…
Barclays wife on the board of Anglian Water another Tory ‘we only look after shooting syndicates, landowners and farmers and don’t care about the environment’ Minister for the Environment
Looking forward to an early general election