Lead into Darkness?
BY MARK CRUDGINGTON Have the British shooting public been led into a miasma of confusion that may lead to the end of the shooting of live quarry as we know it? In modern cancel culture the opportunity to “ban” time-tested methods to assuage a “green” agenda seems increasingly common. In the case of lead in ammunition there have been reports produced for years on the … Continue reading Lead into Darkness?
The Deteriorating SNP Argument
BY EFFIE DEANS During an election campaign, the last thing the SNP wants to talk about is independence. The core SNP vote is obsessed with this and it is the primary motivation for these voters to choose the SNP. These people will overlook the SNP’s performance in Government. Indeed, they don’t appear to care if the SNP rules well or poorly. If only the SNP … Continue reading The Deteriorating SNP Argument
Slippery Slopes
BY PAUL NEWALL Some years ago, when the Blair government was trying to create an ID card system, I had a role that touched on alcohol sales. An ID system could – on the face of it – be used to remove most doubts about the legality of alcohol sales (only the buyer’s sobriety was left to be judged by the vendor) so it could … Continue reading Slippery Slopes
Happy Easter 2021
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, Happy Easter to You and Your nearest and dearest. Easter is the greatest of all Christian feasts, and the happy season of Eastertide lasts 50 days from Easter Day until the Feast of Pentecost. St Gregory of Nazianzus said that Easter was ‘like the sun among the stars’ of the other festivals. It is the heart of the sacred … Continue reading Happy Easter 2021
Lads
BY JIM WEBSTER I remember an old farmer commenting about lads ‘helping out.’ “One boy is one boy. Two boys is half a boy, three boys is no boy at all.” I know of a couple of farms round here that used to get a lot of lads ‘helping out.’ With village farms where the village was a community, not a dormitory suburb, it was … Continue reading Lads
Roadkill Stats UK
Hundreds of animals are killed on UK roads each week. Only a small amount of those are reported – the rest are sadly left as roadkill. A new report by GoCompare has analysed the UK’s latest Roadkill Records data, to reveal Britain’s most dangerous areas and roads for wildlife, the animals most commonly involved, and the worst months for incidents to occur. Six badgers and … Continue reading Roadkill Stats UK
View, But Don’t Touch!
BY A COUNTRY AGENT When doing this job it can often be all too easy to forget you are dealing with someone’s most prized possession. Their home, which they have entrusted you to sell, is usually one of the largest assets they have. It is a core part of their life, it reflects their personality and the way they live and as such it should be … Continue reading View, But Don’t Touch!
Locked Down in India
BY RAMA KASHYAP The news of the deadly virus spreading its tentacles all over the globe started trickling in to Chandigarh from January last year, creating fear amongst the people in the country. The reality hit us really hard when the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 24 bringing life to a standstill. It was an exceptionally tough period marked by panic and anxiety, not just in … Continue reading Locked Down in India
My English Country Pub
BY DR KAUSTAV BHATTACHARYYA In a recent book on Anglophiles, I came across the essay on English pubs by George Orwell, ‘Moon Under Water’ which was irresistible and charming. George Orwell is the quintessential British writer who covered all things British from the ‘Empire’ to the ‘Pubs’ with felicity and in plain, simple and comprehensible language. The essay is about an imaginary country pub named … Continue reading My English Country Pub
Alba
BY EFFIE DEANS In theory Alex Salmond’s new Alba Party is good news for independence supporters. Let’s assume that support for independence is 45%. Well if the SNP wins 45% of the vote in the constituency seats, it will win nearly all of them. But this means that it will win few if any list seats, because the number of constituencies you win is part … Continue reading Alba
A Prayer for Palm Sunday
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You are well. I welcome You to a one-hour abbreviated Palm Sunday as Holy Week gets going across the globe. Today is the first day. What is Palm Sunday and why is it considered important? On Palm Sunday Jesus arrived in Jerusalem to crowds and cheers. His triumphant entry into Jerusalem has been celebrated on … Continue reading A Prayer for Palm Sunday
The New Countryside Roar
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN The countryside versus the town is a phony battle that has been conjured repeatedly over the ages, mostly as an excuse by opportunist charlatans and self-preservers who generally had a foot in both. Nonetheless, there is something increasingly perverse about those who rarely leave the perimeter of the M25 casting judgement on those distant swathes of green where their crops are grown, … Continue reading The New Countryside Roar
The Left is Always Right
BY BEN PENSANT The last two weeks have been the most joyous for progressives since that glorious fortnight when Jeremy Corbyn RATTLED the BBC by accusing them of airbrushing his beret. Because the disappearance and murder of Sarah Everard gave principled leftists a rare opportunity to do what we do best – exploiting dead people to score points against something we don’t like. Or rather, four things: … Continue reading The Left is Always Right
Quiet Heroes
BY JIM WEBSTER Six days shall you labour and on the seventh rest. Except when I took this photo (featured) it was Sunday morning, and we were pretty much guaranteed showers the day after and heavy rain on the Wednesday. So the reseeding had to be done now. And time off in lieu? That’s not an agricultural term. After they’d finished ploughing, just out of … Continue reading Quiet Heroes
What’s Eating British Capitalism?
THE CITY GRUMP “Current existing systems massively reward high status well connected people” As usual Dominic Cummings hit the nail on the head when answering a question on checks and balances in front of the Science and Technology Committee last week (I sometimes fantasise over what could have been achieved if the Blessed Margaret had worked with Cummings instead of our current dissembling PM). I … Continue reading What’s Eating British Capitalism?