Brighton - Hilary Benn's speech

Here is an extract from Hilary Benn's speech to the Labour Party conference.  This is a man who 'gets' nature.  Few politicians, there are some others sprinkled across the political parties, talk about beauty, and natural beauty, as being important in our lives.

Many of us who came down to Brighton by train would have caught a wonderful glimpse of the South Downs.

Formed over millions of years by nature’s hand, the glorious western Weald and the chalk hills are one reason why Clem Attlee’s Labour government did something unique in our history.

From the ashes of World War Two, they founded the National Health Service, created the Welfare State, and built new homes and towns amid the rubble of the old. But they also had the vision to legislate to preserve beauty.

Drawing inspiration from William Blake, the Kinder Trespassers and many others, they passed the National Parks Act into law 60 years ago this year.

And as we commemorate what that Labour government did two generations ago, so this spring were many able to celebrate – after a long, hard campaign – our decision that the South Downs will now become our fifteenth and newest National Park.

We made a political choice to preserve and protect this landscape for future generations.

For everyone.     For ever.

And why?  Because we know that the quality of our lives, our health, our happiness are shaped not just by our families and the work we do, but also by the places in which we live and by how we treat each other.

It was this Labour Government that has opened up the countryside for everyone to enjoy with the right to roam.  We’ve passed the first all-embracing animal welfare act for a century, and in just over two years’ time battery cages for chickens will be no more.

And we will now preserve and protect our seas and coastlines with the Marine and Coastal Access Bill. The first stretch of the new Coastal Path around England will open at Weymouth Bay  – site of the 2012 sailing competition – in time for the lighting of the Olympic flame.

But now that we’ve fulfilled the original dream of the National Parks’ creators, our next task is to enrich and link together more wonderful places where wildlife, bees, flowers and trees can flourish, and we can enjoy them as they do.

So I will now ask a group of people passionate about our countryside to come up with a plan to do just that so that we can realise another long-held dream of all those who care about our wild places.

So, not much detail here on how this next task, linking together wild places so that wildlife can thrive, will be taken forward. But it goes without saying that the RSPB will enthusiastically engage with this process.  Our wildlife needs to be given the ability to spread across the country in response to climate change and that means providing a green infrastructure to encourage and enable that movement.  That's the type of approach which we have championed to government for many years - perhaps somewhat similar to what the Netherlands government is already doing.  But the RSPB has also led the way in recreating habitat on a landscape scale (although our friends in other NGOs have been active too!) - we don't just talk about it we are doing it too.