They Cannot Be Serious!

The UK has made many pledges on its commitment to protect the climate and biodiversity. Natural England is the conservation watchdog, it charges, to monitor and 'police' these areas in England. Complex skill sets are clearly required to carry out these two functions (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/01/low-pay-natural-england-conservation-uk-net-zero-target-risk-prospect-union-report-aoe). The pay of Natural England's specialist working staff has, however, fallen by 20% in the last decade. Staff starting salaries are thousands of pounds lower than those of equivalents in the private and charity sectors. The UK government has progressively squeezed the funding given to Natural England for decades. They have moved to allowing sectors (like the private Water Companies) to self-report. This is now clearly threatening government ability to fulfill its environmental pledges. Either the pledges are meaningless or the government fails to understand the complexity of dealing with difficult environmental issues? Criminal behaviour is always a possiblity!