BY CAPTAIN ED SWALES Isn’t it interesting to see what gets flushed out once you put the dogs in? Following the joy of seeing so many wonderfully attended Boxing Day meets the length and breadth of the country, what was completely absent was any evidence of the alleged 85% of the population who are so rabidly opposed to hunting. That is because that figure is … Continue reading Exasperated Indeed
BY CAPTAIN ED SWALES Every rural and hunting Cumbrian certainly does. It’s part of their rural heritage. The famous early 19th century farmer and fell huntsman of the Lake District, lay undisturbed in St Kentigern’s Churchyard in Caldbeck from 1854 until one grim night in 1977, when his grave was desecrated and his remains disinterred by Mike Huskisson, an operative of the League Against Cruel … Continue reading D’ye ken John Peel?
BY CAPTAIN ED SWALES In the aftermath of the resignation of Boris Johnson, could this be the opportunity to get straight to the point that has eluded the UK rural voter over recent years and get a proper review of wildlife management law and strategy? To start delivering for the Countryside? Now, more than ever, the support for whichever party champions the cause of the … Continue reading Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man?
BY CAPTAIN ED SWALES “Have we got this right?” opined Finlay Carson MSP, the Convenor of the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee, assessing the practicality of the proposed Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill; the committee’s aim to provide recommendations to Mairi McAllan, Minister for the Environment, to move this Bill into law. That was 3 weeks ago during the earlier sessions of the … Continue reading Hunting With Dogs (Scotland) Bill – The Alternative
BY CAPTAIN ED SWALES The Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act was passed in 2002 and whilst the title of this legislation sounds admirable enough, in fact its real aim was to do nothing other than ban hunting with dogs. At least this time around in the Scottish Government’s ‘salami slicing’ process of eroding our civil and rural liberties quietly and over a period of … Continue reading Hunting With Dogs (Scotland) Bill
BY CAPTAIN ED SWALES Rural Britain is being eradicated, quietly, in the back halls of Westminster, Stormont, Cardiff and Holyrood, by the sour ingredients of a damaging cocktail of misguided urban political correctness, ‘virtue signalling’ and woke agendas. As they used to say in the Army, when unexpectedly under attack…. “Stand To!”. In reality, this threat is from a tiny minority of animal rights extremists, … Continue reading Hunting Kind
