Troubled Manchester United are calling in the counsellors at the urging of their former star Sir Bobby Charlton, now a club director But it has nothing to do with recent misfortunes. At the same time, human pressure on the seas is increasing.The report follows growing demands from environmentalists for the Government to set up a network of “marine national parks” and “no-catch zones” around Britain.. Plans to grow GM maize in Britain are on a knife edge this weekend after a strong revolt in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. In some cases, ancient habitats such as coral beds have been devastated.In a report released today, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has accused the Government of failing to act effectively, despite powerful evidence that fish stocks and marine habitats are being devastated.The MPs have urged Tony Blair to set up a cabinet sub-committee to deal with marine issues, and to speed up plans for a new marine Bill to streamline and modernise laws on protecting the seas.Existing laws are too fragmented, they conclude, and a confusing number of government departments and agencies seem to control what happens at sea. Rare sea life and ocean habitats around the British Isles are being destroyed because ministers are failing to protect the marine environment, an all-party committee of MPs has warned.
Deep-sea trawling, marine pollution and marine industries such as oil exploration have caused widespread damage, the committee says. What was even worse was that he had displaced a friend and ally of Mr Blair. And what was worst of all was that it had happened because of the invasion of Iraq, a topic from which Mr Blair and Mr Gordon Brown alike are anxious to divert our attention Notoriously, the Spanish are an excitable people But we are not as calm as we once were, not by any means.

There was no knowing where it might all end.Luckily, Mr Robert Worcester, the famous poller of public opinion, was available to provide reassurance. He appeared on BBC television news to tell us that, as the Conservatives had supported the war in Iraq – if anything, even more zealously than the Government had waged it – there was no danger that the electors would start voting for the Opposition, as those fickle Spaniards had so recently done.My own opinion is that pollsters should not act as comforters for any government. Nor should the BBC broadcast their views, certainly not with the prominence it gave to Mr Worcester’s opinions. But then, the Corporation has been behaving very oddly in its post-Hutton phase. It has even been plugging a series on Mozart by playing music (even if arranged by Mozart) actually composed by Handel.But this is to fall into the English fallacy in controversy: not to ask whether what so-and-so said was true but whether he had any business saying it. Neither do they hoot.¿ The first barn owls appeared two million years ago.¿ Wild barn owls rarely live for more than five years.¿ Despite their name, they do not only live in farmyards. Their habitat includes rough grassland, woodland edges and hedgerows.For more information, visit .uk.

The trust is calling on the Government to re-think highway planning policies and to plant continuous hedges and lines of trees on verges to deter owls from flying low over roads.A spokeswoman for the Highways Agency said it was committed to minimising the impact of the trunk road network and to reducing the level of deaths in the barn owl population.Old Hushwing¿ The barn owl is also known as the white owl and “Old Hushwing”, a name derived from its silent flight.¿ An adult barn owl is about 13in tall and has a 34in wingspan.¿ Barn owls mainly feed on voles, shrews and wood mice.¿ Contrary to popular perception, barn owls cannot see in the dark. The fact is that 75 per cent of all barn owls encounter roads Britain’s barn owls annually produce 10,000 young. Every year, between 3,000 and 5,000 of these young are killed on the roads.”The greatest toll, according to the Major Road Research Project, carried out in conjunction with Birmingham University and the British Trust for Ornithology, is on juvenile barn owls. They are more active than adult birds and frequently fly low over roads while moving between wooded areas. Of equal concern is that the juveniles that die on roads are birds that would otherwise almost certainly have survived into adulthood.The Barn Owl Trust argues that responsibility for reducing the death toll lies with the Government and planning authorities. There is a chance that the barn owl could disappear entirely from some parts of Britain. There are only a few pairs left in the Home Counties, and that is an area with lots of major roads.”I was quite amazed at the findings.