BY BEN O’ROURKE In the summer of 2023, United Utilities was named one of the country’s top polluters. Newspapers published charts ranking it alongside other water companies. Pubgoers sipped at frothy pints while spewing about scummy spills and angry activists and celebrities took to social media to fume. In days, there were few people in the country who hadn’t heard about the scandal. Not long … Continue reading The Haweswater Report
BY GARY BAXTER As I sit in a hotel at Dartford near that poxy bridge watching traffic and more bloody rain falling I decide to have a look at social whatever they call it this week to find EVERY 6 ARTICLES that money grabbing lot the RSPB are busy rattling their tin for funds. This time with pictures of English Partridge and more claims our … Continue reading Notes from the Actual Countryside
BY SARAH GREENWOOD A response to ‘Labour wants to fully ban fox hunting’ as seen in the newspapers of late. Obviously, the Labour Party hasn’t learned any lessons from its recent history and appears hellbent on making the same mistake that Tony Blair made and came to regret. It appears only Blair regrets anything, because the current wannabe cabinet possesses what they say they don’t … Continue reading Labour’s Countryside Bunkum
BY GARY BAXTER Last week I went to see Charlie Jacoby at a gathering of likeminded folk not too far from home. It was nice to see so many people there for an evening of fun. While there I was described as the second most angry falconer and field sports enthusiast in the country. Well I know I have much displeasure with those utter dipsticks … Continue reading Notes from the Actual Countryside
BY BERT BURNETT I read the Times article below with an equal mix of amusement and incredulity. (Please click on image to read) Now no doubt it will be farming practices which get the blame rather than thieving BBC presenters. When things start to disappear that’s the easy way out. Of course, we all know that there is something more obvious going on. In the … Continue reading Vanishing Kestrels & Baffled Scientists
BY BERT BURNETT We keep hearing this soundbite … “Scotland is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world, and our country’s biodiversity has been altered by centuries of habitat loss, fragmentation and management changes.” But where is this decline taking place? It’s not on managed moors be they Highland, Perthshire, Angus or Southern. These areas abound with a complete package of waders, … Continue reading RSPB Fails & Anti-Shooting Bluster
BY MARGARET ASHWORTH I am not sure if I have ever seen a stoat. Since we have been in Lancashire I have glimpsed one or two animals which could have been stoats but at a distance they could equally have been weasels. Many people will know the unhelpful saying: one is weasily identified, while the other is stoatally different. This is a weasel (Mustela nivalis): … Continue reading On Stoats
BY MARK CRUDGINGTON Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP, DEFRA Dear Mr Barclay , I am a master gun maker who has for the last 18 months been communicating with your predecessor concerning the proposed ban of lead in rifle and shotgun ammunition against which I am totally opposed. I have also communicated with DEFRA, the HSE, my MP, The Prime Minister and various organisations. In … Continue reading An Important Letter for Steve Barclay
BY JIM WEBSTER A growing number of people in the charity sector have been complaining about banks. I’m not talking about banks ‘unbanking’ people they disapprove of. Although why usurers, whose profession is frowned upon by all the world’s major religions, have suddenly become the guardians of decency, is beyond me. I’m more talking about the problems charities have had getting any sort of service … Continue reading Adopting a Charitable Attitude
BY BERT BURNETT Dear Editor, Something is fundamentally wrong in ‘conservation’ circles. We have seen huge increases in raptor populations over the last half a century, some species the highest ever recorded. Kites, buzzards, goshawks and sparrowhawks are all on the rise. We have raptor lobbyists claiming eagles are in trouble through persecution when in fact their numbers have apparently risen by approximately 35-40 pair … Continue reading Raptor Agitprop, Wader Persecution
BY ROGER WATSON In China it appears you can take the peasant out of rural areas, but you cannot stop them being a peasant. Early in the last decade China initiated a project to move 250 million people from rural areas to the cities; from shanties and small houses to the high rise apartments that characterise so much of their urban environment. In fact, since … Continue reading Urban Peasants
BY GREG LATHAM This is the result of my day on the Hill last Thursday: The gentleman who shot the stag first came to me in 1993. So, he has been coming to stalk deer in Scotland for the past 30 years. Over that time, he has rented self-catering accommodation, hotel accommodation and, for the last fifteen years or so, a Highland Lodge. Always bringing … Continue reading Deer Stalking Notes
The Editor of Country Squire Magazine, Dom Wightman, defends the British Countryside on British Thought Leaders. Continue reading Dominic Wightman: British Thought Leaders
THE CITY GRUMP Emblazoned across the front of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth is the slogan “Ignorance is Strength”. I was reminded of this the other day, when through the letterbox landed a leaflet from the Gatwick High Command headed “One step closer to a brighter future-for everyone”. And what does this brighter future hold for all of us? A second runway, by their own calculations, … Continue reading Gatwick Inspired by the Ministry of Truth?
BY GILES BRADSHAW The Wild Justice Director Mark Avery has given qualified support to disobeying the Hunting Act. He believes that it is “fine” provided that: I’m going to assume this is also the position of the campaign group to which he belongs. And I think this is a reasonable position to hold. I’d like to give qualified support to Avery’s qualified support of hunt … Continue reading Breaking the Hunting Act is “fine” says Avery
Scientists and practitioners criticise ‘dangerous’ attempts to ban controlled burning on heather moors. A group of prominent scientists and practitioners have said there is ‘no clear scientific consensus to support a blanket ban against controlled vegetation burning on heather moorland’ and that ‘policy decisions are being influenced by special interest groups who regularly ignore or distort evidence in order to outlaw the practice’. The Future … Continue reading Future Landscapes Forum
BY BEN McCARTHY Dear Squires, This week I noted with interest how Mark Avery of the campaign group Wild Justice turned his nose up at a recent ‘unsettling’ image of the Mendip Hunt Sabs: “It recalls, too readily for me, paramilitary action” is an odd quote from Mr Avery. The other 2/3 of Wild Justice are comprised of outspoken hunt sabs who’ve been posting these … Continue reading Expose the Terrorists Among Us
BY ANDREW TETTENBORN Monday’s judgment of the Court of Appeal in the Dartmoor wild camping case, which went against the landowners, will form a small footnote in the law books (“The word ‘recreation’ can include camping”) and be pasted in large letters on the trophy wall of such organisations as Ramblers UK and the Open Spaces Society. But it is rather more important than … Continue reading On Dartmoor Wild Camping
BY MARK PIERCE When we think of invasive species in the UK, our minds often go to non-native troublemakers like Japanese Knotweed or American Mink. However, there’s a lesser-known issue lurking in certain areas: invasive native predators. Take the stoat, for example, a familiar face in the UK but not typically found in some regions. Let’s delve into the peculiar case of the stoats invading … Continue reading The Stoat Conundrum in Orkney
BY JOHN NASH Australia experienced a terrifying Black Summer in 2019/20, when massive bush fires burned some 35 million acres, destroyed an estimated 3 billion vertebrates (perhaps driving a number to extinction), wrecked scores of irreplaceable rock paintings, wiped out 3000 buildings and, sadly, 47 people died. The tragedy may have cost Australia as much as A$80 billion. Now research has revealed the cause of … Continue reading Cool Burning
