A Defra Minister has heaped praise on the environmental lobbying organisations inauspiciously dubbed the ‘Green blob’ by Owen Paterson.
Environment Minister Lord de Mauley distanced himself from his former colleague when asked at the Conservative Party Conference for his view’s on Mr Paterson’s parting shot on leaving office at the ‘power and irresponsibility’ of the ‘self-serving’ green blob.
“I am not Owen Paterson,” he said. “Owen is an honest guy who says what he thinks but we shouldn’t be afraid of constructive challenge. If it wasn’t for constructive challenge we would make the wrong decisions.
“I think members of what I like to call the green lobby do us a service and they have shown us what is possible with lobbying. There are lessons some of us - on all sides - could learn lessons from that.”
Asked about direct action, for example, the trashing of GM, he said he had noticed an improvement.
“Things have got considerably better. I have noticed an improved level of knowledge among the public. We are moving gently in the right direction but we could do a lot better,” he said.