Thread by @docrussjackson

The daughter of multimillionaire Old Etonian, Ben Goldsmith, died in a quad bike accident when she was 15, a reminder that those we may judge harshly, or disagree with, can face tragedies & difficulties. Ben seems decent, & is a dedicated environmentalist.
theguardian.com/environment/20…

The son of financier James Goldsmith & Lady Annabel Goldsmith, Ben is founder & CEO of London-listed investment firm Menhaden, which focuses on the theme of energy & resource efficiency.

He's been a funder of the Green Party, including giving them £20,000 in 2004 & 2010.

In subsequent years, Goldsmith has also contributed to the @Conservatives, as well as individual candidates, including Conservative MP Michael Gove.

Goldsmith is chair of the Conservative Environment Network (CEN) which he co-founded in 2010.

The CEN seeks to raise the issue of environmental protection up the agenda of the UK Conservative Party.

By 2021 the CEN parliamentary caucus had grown to comprise more than 130 MPs.

In 2013, Goldsmith said that a Zionist is simply someone who believes that the Jews have a right to have their own state in Israel, & therefore described himself as an "ardent Zionist."

In 2016 he campaigned for his brother Zac Goldsmith, who was running for mayor of London.

Ben was a key signatory to a petition sent to PM Theresa May & Michael Gove urging them to ban all crop spraying & pesticide use in UK rural residential areas.

He's also used his personal wealth to support philanthropic & political environmental & sustainability projects.

After his daughter's death, Ben found spending time in nature making environmentally friendly changes to his farm gave him ”a sense of joy & meaning & hope that perhaps was absent elsewhere because we were living with the terrible darkness of having lost (his daughter) Iris”.

“And so for me being able to spend time in nature and even better having the privilege of being able to participate in the restoration of nature, was the most important thing in my life at that time, and remains so today because I feel that that’s the purpose of my life.”

Goldsmith realised that many people do not have the privilege of easy access to nature that he does.

He says he has since convinced London’s @UKLabour mayor, Sadiq Khan, to set up a rewilding taskforce to bring nature to underprivileged communities in the city.

“I think there is a terribly underappreciated and pernicious #inequity in this country when it comes to access to nature. I think all human beings viscerally need contact with nature, even if they don’t fully know it themselves.

“I realised how unfair it is that people who live in the city often don’t have access to nature at all, particularly those that come from ethnic minorities and from lower-income backgrounds.”

“There’s no reason why there shouldn’t be vibrant nature in the city; we should have wild, colourful, beautiful nature woven right through the fabric of our cities, people should have access to nature where they live, no matter where it is that they live.”

Although many @Conservatives sympathise with landowners on the subject of public access to nature, Ben Goldsmith has become sympathetic to the right to roam.

“I think there is an issue in terms of people’s ability to access the countryside in this country.”

“And that issue (the right to roam) is no more pointedly illustrated than when you see beaches crammed with people like sardines, because the only place they can go is the beach. Now I find those pictures really depressing.”

theguardian.com/environment/au…

“The French and the Spanish fan out into their countryside in all directions when the weather’s nice, and they have access in all kinds of different ways. And so I think finding a way for people to access the countryside in a more fair and open way is really important.”

In this at least, Ben Goldsmith is at odds with many of his colleagues, who have railed against new nature-friendly farming payments and said eagles are not welcome in their constituencies.

“I disagree passionately and wholeheartedly with those elements of the Conservative party which are backward on the need to restore nature in our country,” Ben recently said, 'with genuine annoyance' according to the @guardian.

“I take particular objection to the way that they (some @Conservatives) use valid concerns around things such as food security, or the culture of rural society being under threat by nature recovery… and their arguments are completely without merit.”

“I think they’re disingenuous and dishonest and wholly wrong. And I think they’ll be left on the wrong side of history as these things advance.”

Goldsmith hasn't ruled out backing @UKLabour in the next GE if it puts out a stronger proposition than the @Conservatives for nature.

“I will vote for the candidate that is the most ambitious on nature and climate in my constituency. It’s by far the biggest issue, and I would absolutely spend my money on and give my vote to anything that’s going to advance that agenda.”

Ben Goldsmith, whose brother Zac is a Tory peer and minister, was on the board of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs until last year.

He found it an eye-opening experience.

“When I joined the #Defra board, I was horrified to discover the degree to which the National Farmers’ Union and also the industrial fishing representatives were able to influence government policy.”

“There was an old boys’ club and a bit of a revolving door approach, whereby they all knew each other and anyone who dared stand up to those two industry representative groups was cowed into submission very quickly.”

“We are winning. A lot of the rage we see in the papers and on social media today from those interests is coming about because they know that their influence is starting to wane”.

“Their grip is loosening, and the British public, and journalists and politicians are waking up to how absolutely trashed nature is and how things really do have to change.”

Since his bereavement, the leading Conservative has dedicated his life to the environmental cause, and this month he's published a book about Iris & nature - 'God is an Octopus', which documents his search for meaning after his daughter’s sudden death.

theguardian.com/books/2023/may…

“In the aftermath of losing Iris, when everything seemed to be blackness & darkness, & I couldn’t really imagine finding any kind of meaning or hope or joy, or light or colour in anything, I found that my love of nature carried me in a way that I wasn’t expecting.”

❤️🙏