View from the riverbank: it's the right time to be a cynic

The green movement is increasingly directing the property world – and just about every other aspect of life.

So how pleased should we all be by a press release issued last week by the Royal Borough which tells of an exciting new initiative to increase biodiversity?

It states that cattle have been introduced to a site called Battlemead Common, north of Maidenhead. Almost 40 cows are there until next Spring, doing something called conservation grazing.

According to the Royal Borough, this is ‘an effective and sustainable way to maintain and improve certain habitats and is used successfully across the country by various wildlife and conservation charities’.

Sounds great. But hang on a minute. Aren’t cows the root of all environmental evil? Aren’t their emissions destroying the planet? Any such talk is absent from the Royal Borough’s press release.

Could those telling the world that farmers must give up their land so that we can eat bugs and processed ‘plant-based’ products tell the Royal Borough that their initiative is contributing to the demise of the Earth? Does Greta Thunberg know?

If people simply accept every apparent environmental initiative without question, we won’t become more sustainable, just more docile.

Just as people unthinkingly jump onto the net zero bandwagon without considering what it really means, they might have to jump off it when they get blamed for the deaths of the poor, the old and the young this winter. It could be like some of the high-profile lockdown supporters who now say they knew all along it was a mistake.

It seems governments find it easy to lead their population along but those populations often end up paying the price.

Many of those who banged their pots and pans for the NHS, can’t now get a GP appointment. And those Ukraine flags are fast disappearing from people’s Twitter bios as more begin to realise some of the weapons their tax dollars are funding are ending up being sold to gangs.

Developers seek to meet green requirements to try to get planning permission so perhaps it’s not in their interests to question those objectives.

But if they really believe in the green direction almost all governments are following, perhaps they should offer an explanation as to whether 40 cows in Maidenhead is a good or a bad thing.

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Another day, another Prime Minister. Given the problems lying in wait, it could be another short-lived tenure.

So far many of the promises made have been received positively. But that happened with the new PM’s predecessor – and his predecessor too.

The planning system continues chaotically and may now be lower down Government priorities due to more pressing concerns. If there was at least a single-minded approach to simplify the system, it might make something happen.

No reforms will please everyone but recent Prime Ministers have been too frightened by polling and by-elections to do anything effective. And their approach didn’t do them any good.

But more than anything a PM, accountable to the public and open to scrutiny and a media asking direct, poignant questions would be a refreshing change. Well, we can dream.

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