Nature Boy

Since venture capitalists have done so much for the economy, the Government has decided to give one of them a crack at the environment. Andrew Sells, the new chair of the statutory wildlife and nature watchdog, is the candidate favoured by the badger-busting environment secretary, Owen Paterson, who believes that climate change is rather jolly and wants to let developers build wherever they please provided they plant a tree or two somewhere else. According to the Government, Sells lives on a small farm in north Wiltshire, where he apparently spends all his time planting trees and conjuring acres of wildlife habitat out of the cold, sullen earth. As one would expect given a lifestyle so worthy of St Francis of Assisi, Sells donated almost £80,000 to the Conservative Party before the last general election, and gave a further £31,500 to the campaign against the alternative vote. By a further benign coincidence, Sells has also been chair of a housing development company, so his expertise in protecting natural resources will come in handy for the Osborne election bubble.