Folly for Lolly
BY JAMES BEMBRIDGE I can’t help but notice these days that some so-called freedom warriors aren’t so free minded themselves. There’s a strain of libertarianism that has strayed into slavish group-think: purity tests, routine denouncements and sensationalised exaggerations. Who are these people fooling, apart from the fools who fund their fledgling Patreon accounts? So ineffably idiotic have some Covid measures been that anyone wishing to … Continue reading Folly for Lolly
The Speech Code That Aims To Silence Us
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Mr Ambiguous-de-Spode sat in the Fellows’ Common Room at All Souls College or The Warden and the College of the Souls of all Faithful People deceased in the University of Oxford for short, browsing the photographs of the Country Life débutantes, feeling rather pleased and upbeat about things. He was trying to bring to an end an extended coffee break after … Continue reading The Speech Code That Aims To Silence Us
Decolonise Your Diet!
BY JIM WEBSTER Every so often you realise you’ve missed a trick! I was chatting to another church warden and she commented that she cannot wait for somebody to demand her church be decolonised. She’d point out that the parish isn’t worthy and she could gift the church building to those protesting. Then the church itself could meet in the local community centre where it’s … Continue reading Decolonise Your Diet!
Doom on the Horizon?
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN In 2018 Mark Carney, then Governor of the Bank of England, warned that inescapable automation and AI are to blame for wage stagnation that is like that of the nineteenth century, which helped give birth to Communism in the twentieth: “If you substitute platforms for textile mills, machine learning for steam engines, Twitter for the telegraph, you have exactly the same dynamics as … Continue reading Doom on the Horizon?
Gaelic Road Signs: Atonement
BY EFFIE DEANS About a year ago I described a trip to the Highlands and my difficulties with Gaelic road signs. Faced with a roundabout with multiple place names in a language I could neither understand nor pronounce I unjustly blamed my getting lost on the signs rather than on my own poor ability at navigation. I received some sympathetic responses from other road users, … Continue reading Gaelic Road Signs: Atonement
A Prayer for the Countryside
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine I trust that You are well. As the heatwave cools I trust that You are having a good summer and I wish You a peaceful Sunday this day. This week I would ask that You consider rural communities in Your prayers. These communities have come under attack from all sides recently. Many parish churches have been closed or … Continue reading A Prayer for the Countryside
South Africa & Tribalism
BY IAN MITCHELL Democracy, as the mad moaner Malcom Muggeridge once remarked, can work only in societies that are essentially unified. He was thinking at the time of communist regimes, but the point is still valid. We are beginning to understand that Scotland, which was tolerably unified before Nicola Sturgeon started to foment social division for political advantage, is no longer in that category. Neither … Continue reading South Africa & Tribalism
Imagining a Murder
BY ANDREW MOODY It is time to finally exorcise the demons that haunted a ten-year old’s dreams all those years ago in the shape of a caravan that burned ferociously in the forest of the night for reasons unfathomable, by imagining a murder long forgotten which occurred once upon a moonlit Provence night… True crime is a popular genre for budding writers to put their … Continue reading Imagining a Murder
Piggies Off the Market
BY JIM WEBSTER There is a lot of discussion about food waste. I came across an article with the snappy title, “The UK wastes millions of tonnes of food every year: here’s how we can change that.” The article makes some useful points: “In the case of pig farmers in the UK, this system is causing an industry-wide crisis. UK pig farms are governed by … Continue reading Piggies Off the Market
Performative Politics
BY PAUL R BRIAN Much has been made of the urban-rural split and the vote breakdown for Brexit. Broadly speaking: many Londoners and urbanites wanted to remain in the EU, while many country-dwellers and small city folks wanted to leave. Plenty of convincing analyses have been made of the socioeconomic reasons for this, but one aspect which hasn’t been focused on is the success of … Continue reading Performative Politics
Why Caring for the Environment is not ‘Woke’
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Vaporised words linger in arid self-interrogation. There is an extended silence, a short sonata of raised eyebrows and then a meaningful grin. Ibbi, an Inuit hunter, sits in my freezing hut, patting his firm bulk full of seal meat. Implausible palindromes are whispered over black coffee, and jokes are shared about his embonpoint. Thin jokes, admittedly. Here we sit hour after … Continue reading Why Caring for the Environment is not ‘Woke’
The Hard Border Checkmate
BY EFFIE DEANS While support for the SNP remains high and while many Scots support independence at least in theory, there is no question now that both face an intellectual challenge over EU membership. For this reason, the independence movement has become divided over how to overcome the challenges caused by Brexit. While the UK was an EU member it was possible to argue that … Continue reading The Hard Border Checkmate
A Prayer for Forgiveness
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You are well and enjoying the heatwave. Let us remember those who lost their lives this week in Germany and Belgium in the horrific floods. I particularly pray for Jean, a friend who lost a relative who was electrocuted in an underground car park during the floods. This week I would like to focus on … Continue reading A Prayer for Forgiveness
Ignore the Deplorables
Dear Editor, I watched a television interview with Jeremy Clarkson recently in which he said that the eco-chuggers kept on getting the law changed thus making farmers’ lives increasingly difficult. Now they are after the gamekeepers and they will be after fishermen soon too. Noone pays much attention to them except for fellow eco-chuggers who have unfortunately infiltrated DEFRA and other organisations like the RSPB. … Continue reading Ignore the Deplorables
Anti-English Hatred not Racism?
BY EFFIE DEANS The racist abuse suffered by the English football players who missed penalties was peculiarly stupid. The English football team is picked on merit. It so happens that a large number of those players are black. The manager’s judgement must be that these players deserve to be in the squad. If they underperformed other players would be picked in their place. It follows … Continue reading Anti-English Hatred not Racism?