It's Only Natural

The fact that Natural England (the body responsible for most biologically important areas in England and for financially rewarding their farmers for environmental protection) is to receive an extra £15m of annual funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is, at first sight, good news (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/18/natural-england-funding-boost-gets-cautious-welcome-aoe). One has to say, however, that the organization struggled to manage on an allocation of £265m in 2008-09 but this plunged  to a paltry £85.6m in 2019-20. When you also add in the damage to protected English sites of forcing through HS2, the 'increase' is almost derisory. It hardly represents a 'sea-change' in attitudes to the environment.