PARLIAMENT has often been compared to a bull pit so perhaps it’s appropriate to expect prospective members to opine about creatures and plants that have to fight for survival in the natural world.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust has encouraged just this by writing to the county’s General Election candidates to ask them to support their call for a Nature and Wellbeing Act.

The charity wants those elected to:

* commit to fund the restoration of 2,020 hectares of Cumbrian peatland by 2020;

* write to the Secretary of State and ask them to complete the Ecologically Coherent Network of Marine Protected Areas by 2016; and

* make amends to the National Curriculum to make caring for nature a key purpose of schooling.

So far, in Westmorland and Lonsdale only responses from candidates for the Green Party and Liberal Democrats have been received. Green Party candidate Chris Loynes declared: “My bottom line is that nature should be cared for because it has intrinsic value and other species are entitled to live and flourish just the same as us. Nature is not a ‘good view’ or ‘in a zoo’.”

Meanwhile, Lib Dem Tim Farron wrote: “I have campaigned for the protection and development of the natural environment throughout my political career and I have enjoyed supporting and promoting a number of Cumbria Wildlife Schemes both locally and nationally. These schemes have and continue to preserve, restore and sustainably develop our region’s extensive landscapes and wildlife.”

Full details of the proposed Nature and Wellbeing Act can be found at www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/general-elections-2015