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 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 ROBIN JACKS It was disappointing that Philip Hammond only made a cursory reference to the ‘countryside’ in this week’s budget. The Treasury’s coffers would be in an even more parlous state of affairs without the UK’s thriving tourism, farming and food industries. There were hopes from the countryside, amongst other announcements, for infrastructure guarantees on flooding defences. The countryside is on the frontline when … Continue reading Flooding Forgotten
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
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
