Voting with Nature in Mind

On Thursday, Assembly and Parliamentary representatives will be elected in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales while residents in the English cities of Bristol, Greater London, Liverpool and Salford will elect a Mayor.

There are many issues to bear in mind for the forthcoming elections. Personally although I care about many issues, top of the list for me are always environmental issues and nature / biodiversity.

Do your local candidates care about nature? If you're in Edinburgh, what do your local candidates think about the plans to smother large parts of Edinburgh's Green Belt in concrete? Do your candidates care about the value of greenspaces for our physical and mental health and well-being? Do they care about the ecological value of woodland and other green areas?

Scottish Environment Link is asking all candidates in the Scottish elections to sign up to the Wildlife Proclamation. 

The Woodland Trust is encouraging people to ask their local candidates in the elections across the UK, their views on woodland. You can find out more here.

**

Also forthcoming is the UK Referendum on whether we should stay in the European Union or leave and go it alone. Again there are many issues to take into account, but as an environmentalist, I will be strongly voting to stay in the EU. EU legislation offers strong (though not perfect) protection for our most valuable natural heritage and has also lead to improvements in water quality across the country. In addition, EU laws offer very important protection for human rights and employment rights. Yes, the EU is imperfect, but it does stop some of the worst excesses of our ignorant government. I'll write at least one longer blog post on this topic before the Referendum.