BY BRIAN MONTEITH Unilever abandons woke flavoured Ben & Jerry’s – it’s long overdue. Unilever is getting out of the ice cream business to simplify its operations and save itself $870m over the next three years. But not only will it save itself a lot of dough, the move will also release it from having to explain and excuse the wacky behaviour of Ben & … Continue reading Stay Vanilla
BY STEWART SLATER Every so often the world gives you a sign. A portent that it is all about to go wrong. The ravens leave the Tower. The dead rise from the grave. Nigel Farage pairs trainers with a suit. For, whatever you think of Nige, whether, to you, he is a gammony agitator or a patriotic freedom fighter, you must admit that he is … Continue reading The Trouble with Trainers
BY CALUM CAMPBELL On moving back to the Grantown area in 2020, I made it a priority to try and photograph Blackcock the following Spring. I got the chance on a sporting estate near the headwaters of the River Spey. On doing a little research, I discovered all is not well with the Blackcock population in the UK. Hence the reason they have been put … Continue reading Blackgame Dewilding
BY EFFIE DEANS In writing about the end of the Bute House agreement I had assumed that the independence movement remained rational and would act with the aim of furthering that goal rather than destroying it. I had also assumed that Humza Yousaf had consulted with his Scottish Greens colleagues and had planned for all eventualities. That too has proven to be a false assumption. … Continue reading The Independence Movement is Committing Suicide
BY JACOB TOPOLSKI There’s a lot of chatter about children identifying with animals these days, often labelled as ‘furries’. Picture this scenario: It’s dinnertime, and one of my children drops a bombshell. Seated at the table, my son declares, “Dad, I think I’m a cat!” I gently correct him, “No, son, you’re a boy.” But he persists, citing his friends at school who proudly identify … Continue reading My Son’s No Pussy
BY DANIEL JUPP It’s easy to see how tyranny depends on forgetting. As tyranny grows, people forget that their political opposition are human beings. Tyrants classify certain groups as innately evil, and these groups, whether convenient scapegoats or actual rivals, are then a legitimate target for any kind of mistreatment. The sad truth is that whilst we were reminded constantly that right wing nationalism was … Continue reading The Radical Lure of Doing Good
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN Since appearing live for an hour on a BBC Radio 4 programme where I was asked to defend the British Countryside against preposterous accusations of being systemically racist, I (and the magazine) received around seventy communications – from members of the public and regular readers. You can listen to that Radio 4 show, Antisocial, hosted by Adam Fleming, here. Out of the … Continue reading Critical Points of View
BY EFFIE DEANS The roots of recent events go far back. The SNP changed when it first gained power in 2007 and even more when it gained a majority in 2011. But it changed most during the long independence referendum campaign that started when David Cameron agreed that there was going to be a referendum and built momentum until it reached a sort of frenzy … Continue reading And Lead us not into Temptation but Deliver us from Nationalism
BY EILEEN STUART Warning: Graphic images Following an appeal by the high-profile farmer Gareth Wyn Jones, sheep farmers across Britain have amassed hundreds of images and reports of bird attacks on lambs during this year’s lambing season. Pest birds, such as carrion crows, magpies and jackdaws, are spreading in their millions and face only one enemy: farmers with their shotguns. The problem is, farmers with … Continue reading Corvid Lamb Persecution Now Out of Control
BY ALEX STORY Eugenics is the new black. A bill to authorise medically assisted suicide is being introduced in the Scottish Parliament. The establishment appears fully behind it. In the Daily Telegraph, Lord Jonathan Sumption, a former member of our supreme court, backs the idea “on balance” as being “morally justified”. In the Times, Matthew Parris, that weathervane of British bien-pensant orthodoxy, looks forward to … Continue reading Death as a Human Right
BY NIALL MCCRAE Drowning in Berlin, mosquito-infested swamps in Michigan, and growing olives on the volcanic slopes of Iceland. It could all be reality soon, if you believe the prophecies of doom by climate change zealots and extinctionists. They tell us to ‘trust the science’, asserting that the ‘science is settled’. As a speaker at the World Economic Forum conference at Davos said, ‘we own … Continue reading Fingers in the Wind
BY STEWART SLATER There is something about the country house which speaks to the British soul. The National Union of Students may be the largest membership organisation in the land, but add together the National Trust and English Heritage and you comfortably top it. Indeed, the former has more members than all the trades unions affiliated with the TUC combined – thanks, Maggie. Millions of … Continue reading The Country House Theory of Britain
BY JACK WATSON In Hull it seems that even one of the Corporal Works of Mercy – to bury the dead – can be turned into a scam. Legacy, an independent family-owned funeral directors, established in 2010, with two branches in Hull and one in Beverley, has made the news headlines for all the wrong reasons after it was raided by police last month due … Continue reading A Tragic Legacy in Hull
BY EFFIE DEANS I had never heard of Wilma Brown the former Labour candidate who was suspended for liking various posts on Twitter/X. I had likewise never heard of the person who had gathered the various posts which can be found here. But it is necessary to point out that in most cases the posts liked by Wilma Brown were innocuous, arguable, or true. The … Continue reading The Labour Party Was Wrong To Suspend Wilma Brown
BY JOHN DREWRY Looking back to the cataclysmic events in late 2024/25, it becomes obvious what happened. But then it’s easier to rewrite history than to comprehend it as it unfolds. Yet, ‘the moving pen writes’ and as I write this, I am already rewriting history. I’m inevitably building a picture different to the real one, because I have to start from somewhere, and as … Continue reading The Day the Circus Came to Town
BY ROGER WATSON Could dick pics be useful? At last, a subject worthy of consideration by the fine minds that constitute the readership of Country Squire Magazine. We have recently seen the trouble that sharing photographs of one’s genitals can get a man into. William Wragg MP has become infamous for sharing pictures of his honourable member on the gay dating app Grindr. Quite what … Continue reading Unsolicited Salami
CSM EDITORIAL Let’s face it, Keir Starmer and his haircut would just about pass muster as transport secretary in Thatcher’s 1987 government. But he’s the only half-competent (whilst dreadfully slippery) player in a side that should have been permanently relegated in 2019. You’ll find more competent characters in the cheap offices in a Slough business park. When Wes ‘Dead-End’ Streeting is Labour’s go-to rescuer, you … Continue reading The Generally Lacklustre Election, 2024
BY JOHN NASH This week, I have been remembering a silly school joke: One evening, a policeman came across a strange fellow who was walking down the street inPenzance, throwing, in all directions, handfuls of white powder from a cloth bag. “Allo, ‘allo” enquired plod, “And what are we doing, Sir? “This here be elephant repellent, constable. Good stuff. It keeps elephants away”, slurred … Continue reading European Colonialism is Back as ‘Animal Rights’
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN There is a remote farm up on Dartmoor twelve miles from where I live where I was taken last summer on a hot Saturday afternoon by a friend. We were accompanied by two fellow fathers from our sons’ sports club. One of the fathers is a diminutive fellow who I never much liked and with whom I found I had little in … Continue reading The Cathedral of Scrumpy
BY GARY BAXTER So, Dear Friends, it seems offgen offwatt or just off-whatever-they-want-to-call-the-bollox have finally come to their senses over Thames Water. The shareholders have told them to f off as well. ABOUT BLOODY TIME! Your clown of a CEO thought he could get away with the sewage pumping, or is it dumping? You thought your clients would foot the bill for your total incompetence. … Continue reading Notes from the Actual Countryside
