Country Squire’s rural homelessness campaign continues with an interview by the magazine’s Dominic Wightman of a homeless lady who currently lives day to day and hand to mouth in a tent with her dog. She’s bright, she’s eloquent, she’s brave and really she shouldn’t be homeless in 21st Century Britain; in the sixth richest country on earth. But she is. Why? What is going wrong … Continue reading Rural Homelessness Interview
CSM EDITORIAL When you go back through British history, it’s all too often the Labour Party that has watered down a perfectly sensible law and replaced it with a rotten one that is not fit for purpose. From the 1700s, dog theft was classed as a specific crime until the Theft Act 1968 when, under Harold Wilson’s Labour Government, the dog was relegated to chattel. … Continue reading What Next For Dog Theft Punishment?
CSM EDITORIAL This week we would like to highlight a new charity called the DPJ Foundation. Agricultural contractor Daniel Picton-Jones from Pembrokeshire was just 34 and had two young children when he ended his life in July last year. His widow, Emma, who grew up on a dairy farm, said his death had been devastating and had brought into sharp focus a huge problem surrounding … Continue reading DPJ: Tackling Farmer Depression
BY ALEXIA JAMES Tomorrow is an important day for the Anti Dog Theft campaign currently pressurising Westminster. Country Squire Magazine has been a massive supporter of this campaign and, to bring down numbers, wants to see perpetrators of dog theft face bigger penalties for their crimes. We are all hoping that the MPs involved are not using the issue of dog theft as some bandwagon. If … Continue reading Dog Theft’s Double Tragedy
BY HARRIET BOWYER, UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW Low mood and anxiety are experienced by many people throughout their lifetime. Research indicates that farmers may be particularly vulnerable to these difficulties and that a significant number of farmers sadly commit suicide each year. For a variety of reasons farmers may not want to, or can’t access, formal health care services for support: the demands of work may … Continue reading For Farmers Suffering Stress
BY MARK TOWNLEY Suicide rates in farmers are the highest of any occupation. That’s an alarming statistic. The exact numbers for farmer suicides is difficult to determine because farmer deaths are often reported as hunting, equipment or farming accidents instead of suicides. Access to highly lethal means — firearms, poisons, machinery — result in a large proportion of fatal suicide attempts. There are stories of … Continue reading What Not to Say to a Depressed Farmer
BY JIM BROWNE With the sad rise of terrorism across Europe and Africa, many British holidaymakers’ favourite resorts are becoming no-go areas for travel. The Foreign Office warns travellers on its website about travelling to once popular destinations such as Sharm-el-Sheikh and the Turkish Riviera. The Angels of Sousse complained, one year on from the Tunisian massacre, that British tourists had deserted them and turned … Continue reading Facelift for UK Coastal Resorts
CSM DOG THEFT CAMPAIGN Dear Lord Chancellor, The Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP, Dog & Pet Theft During the time of the Coalition Government a petition calling for tougher penalties for dog and pet thieves received tens of thousands of signatures. The petition called for stronger and tougher pet theft legislation to increase the punishment to those involved in the theft of a dog, cat, … Continue reading Dog Theft: An Open Letter to Liz Truss
BY JANET SMITH I pulled out the Christmas stockings from the attic last night to give them a good dust off. I took them down into the lounge to place them beside the fire in readiness for Christmas Eve. Even though my husband is 46 now, he still enjoys getting a stocking and our children 14, 12 and 9 also enjoy the experience, so I hang one … Continue reading One Empty Stocking
EDITORIAL The UK Government plans to offer more details over its “legal right to broadband” plan. Ministers have pledged to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) that ensures everyone in Britain has a legal right to request minimum speeds of 10Mbps by 2020. The measure, contained in the Digital Economy Bill, is targeted at rural communities where broadband speeds are significantly worse than … Continue reading Rural Broadband Crisis
BY CHARLES GUTHRIE Right now in the British Countryside, as well as elsewhere in the British Isles, human beings are dying from broken hearts because of the loss of their dogs to dog thieves. This is not a joke. People are actually dying. They are getting sick. Some poor souls go so far as to commit suicide because they feel such overwhelming guilt for the … Continue reading Time to Stop Dog Theft
