Minister for Wildlife Benyon Not Fit For Purpose

Richard Benyon, the MP for Newbury is yet another Tory millionaire who inherited the majority of his wealth rather than earning it and is currently the minister responsible for the protection of wildlife and biodiversity in the current government.

WHY!!!!!!! is my question. WHY!!!!!

He is a man who appears to brazenly ignore conflicts of interests to the detriment of the nations wildlife and to the benefit of his landowning buddies and game keeping chums. A true Tory. In his Who's Who entry, Benyon, the Minister responsible for wildlife, lists two of his interests as shooting and conservation    That's a bit like a policeman saying that on his day off he likes to do a bit of shop lifting and perhaps the odd burglary every now and then.

• Keen observers have started to notice that under his tenure, the wildlife part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has been favouring shooting interests over conservation. For example, in the spring, when Natural England, the Government's wildlife watchdog, was attempting to prosecute the owners of a grouse moor in the Pennines, Walshaw Moor, for damaging protected bogland, Defra – read Mr Benyon – forced it to drop the prosecution.  
• He wishes to implement a policy that will allow buzzards' nests to be destroyed by being blasted with shotguns with the chicks in the nest because they prey on game birds. These are supposedly protected birds of prey.
•  Benyon, a millionaire landowner who is strongly associated with shooting interests and owns both a pheasant shoot in Berkshire and a Scottish grouse moor, has declined a request from senior MPs to make possession of the poison, carbofuran, a criminal offence – as is the case in Scotland.The effect of his refusal is to make a substance which is particularly deadly to birds of prey, despite it being a banned chemical with no legitimate use whatsoever, still available to any gamekeepers who wish to get rid of raptors illegally when they are perceived to be predating on gamebirds.
• The Benyon family sold off  sand and gravel that underlies it land to a quarrying company who plan to extract 2m tonnes from an area known as Benyons Enclosure and has been sharply criticised by the local wildlife trust and local councils because of its likely impact on the local wildlife and biodiversity. The site is designated a site of importance for nature conservation and contains pockets of ancient woodland and heathland, which,according to Hampshire Wildlife Trust will be destroyed for ever

And then of course there was the hosepipe ban controversy when he was Minister for Water during the drought. It was discovered that a hosepipe was dispatching gallons of water onto his estate during the ban. He claimed it was turned on by  journalists, they said he was lying. It turned out the pipe was attached to a private borehole so the ban didn't apply, except of course the water still comes from the underground aquifers that supplies all our water.

And finally according to the Daily Mail his estate has been in receipt of £2m in taxpayers money over the last 10 years. In other words Benyon has received £2m in benefits.Or as the Tories would say 'been living a life on benefits'

So in my opinion it is obvious this man is blinded by self interest and lacks poor judgement. He is the Minister for the nations wildlife and is responsible for serving in the nations interests.Not his own interests and a small landowning and game keeping clique.

Sack Him Now !!!!!!!!!!!!