[Hornbeam]

No Paul - it's not an illusion. Take bumble bees for instance - they are in serious decline. Where can they feed safely in the agro-chemical countryside? Sure they can get drunk on oil seed rape flowers for a brief period, but what then? Compare that with the long season of flowers in city gardens and parks and on brown field sites awaiting development. Same for honey bees and there is an interview with a prize winning beekeeper in Lambeth.

Set aside was a damp squid and will soon be overturned by the mania to grow even more rape for bio-fuels. Green cities are essential as the countryside becomes ever more hostile to wild life.