Good and bad news for bees as reported in today's Guardian. Bad news is a study by the University of Sussex that demonstrates the effect of the high application of fertilisers (i.e. NPK) on agricultural grassland. Their test bed was a swathe of permanent pasture at Rothhampsted, Hertfordshire which has been studied for over a century. Flowers have been reduced as much as fivefold thereby halving the number of pollinators particularly bees.

 Good news is that the government has refused the use of the neonicotinoid pesticide Cruiser NB for the first time in five years. In 2018 it was banned in the EU but the Conservatives authorised its use on sugar beet on an annual 'emergency' basis post-Brexit.

 Professor Dave Goulson at the aforementioned University of Sussex has stated that one teaspoon of the chemical is toxic enough to kill 1.25 billion bees. Furthermore he has noted that "Just before the ban we were applying 110 tonnes of neonics to the British landscape every year".