The People's Walk For Wildlife 2018

Last weekend Sarah and I, along with around 10,000 others, headed for that there London town to take part in the People's Walk For Wildlife. This was an event organised by the naturalist and TV presenter Chris Packham to highlight the plight of the UK's environment and wildlife.

We all gathered at Reformer's Tree in Hyde Park in the pouring rain  -  typically, it had been a beautiful, sunny week and only rained at the weekend. But did the weather, er, dampen our spirits? No! ( Well, not too much. ) Here's Sarah sheltering under a tree with her mascot Tufty. He didn't mind the rain...
 Whilst waiting for the actual walk to begin there were talks from various naturalists, including Chris Packham and, crucially, many young people like the activist and blogger "Birdgirl" who represent the younger generation who need to be involved in any environmental movement. Even Billy Bragg turned up! Billy sang a few songs ( including one with the notorious non-singer Chris Packham ) and it was great to see him there  -  I've been a fan of his since buying his first mini-album "Life's A Riot With Spy vs Spy" waaay back in 1983, and I haven't seen him play live for probably 30 years, so it was about time! Below are Chris and Billy doing an altered version of Between The Wars, here calling for an end to this country's "war on wildlife"...

There were all sorts of people at the walk: environmental groups, families, couples, hunt saboteurs, young and old, people from all walks of life, many waving banners or wearing costumes. The biggest problem with this gathering was the lack of ethnic minorities. This was something that Chris highlighted, saying that we need to engage everyone to get the message across. It's obviously an uphill struggle and the more people from all backgrounds and cultures involved the better.

At around 1pm we headed off en masse out of Hyde Park and down Park Lane. As we walked through central London we played birdsong which we'd downloaded to our phones and it was a strange but wonderful thing to hear this lovely sound reverberating around the hotels, shops and office blocks. During my lifetime we've lost 44 million birds in this country due to destruction of habitats which is a truly frightening statistic...

As we walked down Pall Mall, through Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square, the rain eased off slightly  -  which was good  -  and we got loads of attention from the public  -  which was great! The walk ended at Richmond Terrace where we stopped to hear some more speeches and to see Chris and his young "ministers" deliver their People's Manifesto For Wildlife to Number 10 Downing Street.

( The photo above isn't mine. I "borrowed" it from the environmental campaigner Mark Avery  -  please see his website here for more. I thought it was a great pic which shows the sheer amount of people involved far better than my photos. )

Apparently the Secretary of State for the Environment, the odious Michael Gove, had been invited to speak to the crowd. He had originally agreed but, at the last minute and to the surprise of no one, said he wasn't available. Chris and his friends delivered the Manifesto to Gove's office... but, a week later, he still hasn't acknowledged receipt of the document. This is obviously disappointing, especially during the week of the Conservative party conference, when a positive mention from Mr Gove for the Manifesto could have been very useful. Anyway, this positive, peaceful and inspiring event was hopefully just the start of something big, as people came together to try and make the world a better place for our wildlife and for ourselves...