Caring Conservatism is not quite dead ...

 .. though Tory governments from Margaret Thatcher's onwards have almost extinguished it. 

There was a Backbench Business Committee debate on public access to nature, launched by Green MP Caroline Lucas, in the Commons last Thursday. Apart from some well-deserved criticism of the government for not doing enough, there was rare cross-party agreement about the benefits of opening up the natural world. The absence of a time limit also made for some well-developed arguments.

I was particularly struck by the contribution of Richard Graham, the Conservative member for Gloucester. He began by remarking how easy it was to escape from the city to well-known beauty spots like the Cotswolds and the Malvern Hills. But his main theme was how the council and local activists had managed to bring nature into the city. At times, he sounded like a Liberal Democrat.

Colleagues have made points about people from ethnic minority communities who live further from nature than others. That is true in some parts of the country, no doubt, but in a city our size of only 5.5 square miles, where we have a primary school that has more than 50 nationalities, we are all very close to the extraordinary combination of the canal, the hill, the river and the lakes. The question is, does everyone have equal inspiration and drive to go and find, use and draw pleasure from those great natural assets? That is where schools play a major part.

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At Matson and Robinswood, towards the great hill, we have done a huge amount. When I say “we”, I mean everybody collectively. Nobody should try to take individual ownership, because we must encourage everybody to create and to take individual and collective community ownership to make these projects sustainable and successful for more generations. Matson Park has improved, as has Haycroft Drive. We can see similar trends across the constituency of allowing more wild flowers and meadows, with paths through them. That greatly increases the amount of insects and birds that we can all see on our walks or cycle rides around the city.

 Part of the success of an active wildlife trust is stimulating friends of parks organisations, whether that is the Friends of Gloucester Park, the Friends of Tuffley Park or others. There are more such groups and the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust co-ordinates them. There are sessions where they can share best practice, look at how best to access new seeds, talk about tips on planting, and look at the management of friends’ groups, so that the finances are in good order and the governance is safe and accountable. All those things add to a greater sense of ownership. It is less about, “Why hasn’t the council done this, that or the other?” and more about, “What can we do, as friends of the park close to where we live, to help improve the state of the park, to litter- pick it ourselves and to take much more ownership and joy in what is being done?” 

 That can include restorative justice. Some 18 months ago, I planted 20 cherry trees—the sakura tree—donated by Japan in Gloucester Park. Just as they came into blossom, in spring last year, sadly all 20 of them were cut down by an individual. That was captured on CCTV and we know who the individual is. I am going to ask him to come and plant another 20 trees, which have again generously been donated by Japan. We will do that this autumn. I hope that the individual involved will come and take ownership and want to protect these trees, rather than to attack them, forever after.

Richard Graham was a Remainer. Sadly, his voting record on social issues, including cuts to various benefits, followed the government line. For that reason, Gloucester (largely unchanged in the new boundary disposition) may well change hands at the next election. Labour has, however, handicapped itself in constituencies like Gloucester in proposing a return to centrally-imposed house-building targets and a willingness to infringe greenbelts.  It is to be hoped that Liberal Democrat housing policy for England, currently being developed, does not follow suit. (Nor should the Welsh Labour government or, especially, its supporting MSs Jane Dodds and Plaid Cymru.) There will be many wavering normally-conservative voters, appalled by the state in which successive Tory administrations have left the economy and therefore minded to switch their vote, who may be put off from doing so.