Rebecca Newsom: Are Gove’s green words taking root?

This second piece in our mini-series assessing his performance at DEFRA argues that he has taken a few strong first steps – but that real results are needed.

Sponsored Post: Mette Lykke Neilsen: Britain should support an animal welfare label for fur

Brexit offers the UK a chance to drop the EU’s confusing labelling scheme in favour of one which offers consumers the information they really need.

Vicky Ford: There are easy wins available in environmental policy

Voters, economic reality and climate change all press for further action. Here’s what we could and should do to make our land even greener and more pleasant.

Isabel Sigmac: Animal welfare. Gove has made a good start, but there’s much more to do – such as a live export ban.

Other issues to be addressed include religious slaughter, the fur trade, cruelty, puppy mills, factory farming, testing and increasing threats to our wildlife.

Monima O’Connor: Wales’s blanket ban on electronic animal collars was poorly thought-through – England should not copy it

The ban is underpinned by a failure to understand essential differences between two distinct types of device. Pets and people suffer as a result.

Iain Dale: The week in which I managed to offend Jews and Muslims at the same time

Plus: Brexodus, what Brexodus. The Gay Hussar improves. James Cleverly impresses. And: join Liam Halligan, Ayesha Hazarika and I on CNN Talk.

Hunt followers do not blame May for backing away from a free vote on the ban

At the Kimblewick Hunt in the Chilterns, they can see that now is not the time to try to reverse it.

Thomas Hogg: Let’s get a sense of perspective. May must stay – and here’s why.

I finish by imploring you to consider the effect on our Brexit negotiations if we change negotiators half way through.

Education, housing, the environment: May’s campaigning priorities. And there is an NHS row. But what about the economy?

The Government had next to no living standards message at the election. It needs one now – and to explain how it fits in with those three priorities.

James Frayne: May is right to drop her vote on the hunting ban – it should never have been in the manifesto in the first place

At best, people don’t think about the issue. But as soon as they do, they overwhelmingly support the ban. A vote would have been hugely damaging.

And the Word was made…tweet?

Whatever you believe, there is force in the claim that truth sets you free. But this Christmas, as at other times, it comes with a cost.

Renata Jones: I know that animals are sentient. My cat’s a Conservative – and she backs Brexit.

I like to think she’d vote Tory, and maybe one day technology or our understanding will grow enough to enable votes for cats.

If Gove could talk to the animals, talk to the animals. Why the Conservatives are campaigning on the environment.

With a woof-woof here and a moo-moo there, there is a new Tory focus on our feathered, scaled, winged and four-legged friends.

The animal sentience story – viral, bogus, and uncomfortably revealing

We can’t rely on our opponents to become more truthful. Tories must push back against such smears – and seek to prevent them finding currency in the first place.

Andrew Snowden: I’m proud that Lancashire County Council is the first to make a stand against non pre-stunned meat

This is not a ban on halal meat. It is an animal welfare issue – to end pain and suffering that we would not tolerate under any other circumstances.