BY TARQUIN SUTHERLAND Is the fact that we appear to be staggering blindly into a two-tier society worth crying about? It should be. Tears of remorse, maybe? Or as in ‘for crying out loud’? The comedian Geoff Norcott recently cracked a gag about the position we have found ourselves in, it goes: Person 1: “Do you regret voting for a Conservative government?” Person 2: “I … Continue reading Tiers Before Bedtime
CSM EDITORIAL BBC Director General Tim Davie’s squirming in front of a committee of MPs a couple of days ago was embarrassing to watch. Reminiscent of a schoolboy making up ridiculous excuses for not doing his prep rather than just admitting to the truth and acting contritely. Davie’s excuse for the organisation’s fading impartiality was flimsy to say the least: “I think the culture … Continue reading Cleaning the Augean Stable
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN I am acquainted with two talented painters. Both have failed. One paints works that appear unfinished and vague. The other paints pieces that seem beyond optimal – like the drawing rooms of clutterers, who display too much porcelain or dangle trinkets from over-decorative curtain finials, he overpaints past the point of optimum into an unrealistic and ragged chintz. By the former artist … Continue reading Ex Optimal
BY NICK PEARCE Loyal translators and interpreters from Afghanistan who worked with British troops merited their flight out of Afghanistan to Britain. No question about it. But those British soldiers who toiled in Afghanistan know that many of those on the recent airlift to the UK didn’t work for us because they had our values and believed in our country – they did it for … Continue reading Afghan Arrivals Trash Accommodation
BY EFFIE DEANS I used to write something on the anniversary of the independence referendum as a sort of parody of Scott’s “Waverley; or, ‘tis sixty years since”. Indyref; or, ‘tis seven years since. The idea was to compare grieving Jacobites toasting their lost cause and their king oer the water with the Scottish nationalists celebrating the fact that they got 45 (actually 44.7) and … Continue reading Tis Seven Years Since
BY JAMES BEMBRIDGE The intense smugness emanating from Twitter Blue Ticks is a scourge for which there seems no cure. When I say Blue Tick, I don’t mean the people its verification protects – mostly decent folk – I mean the sort who latch their personality onto it like some manky hermit crab scuttling into a beached bottle. A neo-feudal system has emerged with the … Continue reading Blue Ticks
BY JIM WEBSTER I used to boast at one time that in our dairy herd we had every colour of cow, other than green. Green would be far too difficult to spot when out at grass. (Actually Black and White cows, in the early morning, can be damned difficult to spot when they’re standing against a hedge line. They’re woodland animals wearing woodland camo). But … Continue reading Cowman
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN Like with most companies which Peter Thiel is linked to, PayPal is a seriously impressive operation. Certainly, it has no need to be supporting hunt saboteurs’ insipid grifts, which are so clearly bogus that one wonders how idiotic the sabs’ useful idiot following has become. Take two recent examples: PayPal has been told of these recent scams as have the UK authorities. … Continue reading PayPal a Lifeline for Scamming Sabs
BY EFFIE DEANS Until relatively recently the UK Government was planning similar changes to the Gender Recognition Act that are now being proposed by the SNP. But after listening to the concerns of women it decided to reverse course. At present it is necessary to obtain a medical diagnosis and to wait at least two years before being allowed to legally change gender. That situation … Continue reading Shame on You
BY JAMES BEMBRIDGE To whom does a child belong, the parent or the state? The government seems to have quietly dropped the inane maxim which once concluded their every demand, ‘follow the science’ – perhaps because the science stopped following them. According to the JCVI, the potential benefits that the Pfizer vaccine offers 12-year-olds are too minimal to justify exposing them to its risks. Still, … Continue reading A Vaccine Too Far
BY EFFIE DEANS A Conservative MSP got into trouble this week for suggesting that Nicola Sturgeon might be anti-English. Sturgeon was pointing out that everyone who lived in Scotland was at home here, to which Tess White replied “except the English”. For this White was forced to apologise or else be suspended from Holyrood. Woe betide anyone who suggests Popes are Catholic or that bears … Continue reading Doth Protest Too Much
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You are well and that You are getting back to normal as much as possible. One area of everyday life that has suffered particularly over the pandemic has been education. So it’s a relief to see children returning to school this week and students packing for university. They have missed out on so much not … Continue reading A Prayer for Schools
BY STEVE GRANT As the Countryman’s Weekly reported last week, a major new report by scientists at the University of Northampton’s Institute for Social Innovation and Impact showed driven grouse shooting (DGS) had positive ‘ecological, economic and social’ impacts on rural communities, including increasing tourism, employment and biodiversity and combatting loneliness. The report, Sustainable Driven Grouse Shooting? A summary of the evidence is a brilliant … Continue reading Scientists’ Harsh Words
BY JIM WEBSTER I’ve worked a lot with lorry drivers over the years. Normally we get the good ones, as the other sort don’t make it down the lanes. But at the moment there’s a shortage. Yet I can remember Bob Bojduniak of Farm Brief mentioning to me over twenty years ago that the various agricultural supply companies were telling him then that they struggled … Continue reading The Lorry Driver Shortage
BY EFFIE DEANS The SNP are going to encourage Scottish teachers to take a white privilege test. It will no doubt be a rather odd sort of test, because no matter what you answer it will turn out that you do indeed have white privilege. There will be no set of answers that you can give that demonstrate that you don’t. It therefore won’t be … Continue reading The Test that Undermines the SNP
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You are well and that You are relaxed and happy. This week I would like You simply to pray for the week ahead. That is all. Keep it simple. Keep things manageable. Do not strive to over-complicate or micromanage. Simply look forward to this time next week and pray for what You want to happen … Continue reading A Prayer for the Week Ahead
The University of Northampton – as many readers will know – was commissioned by the Uplands Partnership to produce a detailed and objective report reviewing the evidence on whether driven grouse shooting is sustainable. That report was published earlier this month. The aim of the report was to present the current evidence-based knowledge relating to the economic, ecological and social sustainability of driven grouse shooting … Continue reading Sustainable Driven Grouse Shooting
BY BEN IRVINE This is an essay about the driving role that public sector unions have played during the coronapanic debacle in Britain. It’s a long essay, but I hope you’ll stay with me, because the topic is extremely important. I’m going to reveal to you some shocking incidents that you may not know about. For instance, you may not know that the first lockdown … Continue reading The Unions & the U-turns
THE CITY GRUMP The august classics faculty of the University of Cambridge has now decided it must explain, as part of its anti-racist strategy, the “whiteness” of its plaster casts of Roman and Greek sculptures on display at its Museum of Classical Archaeology. The City Grump thinks it is high time he makes his own contribution to stamping out white as used in well-known places and enterprises. … Continue reading Whiteout
BY CAPEL LOFFT My Letter of Resignation from the Labour Party: Dear Membership Services and CLP Secretary, I am writing to resign my membership of the Labour Party. I have no illusions that the Labour Party centrally will be interested in why, but for my own sanity I want to put into writing the reasons why. I have been a member of the Labour Party … Continue reading Live Not by Lies
