VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I have been thinking, this week, about the quiet rebellion of doing nothing. In a world that constantly demands more—more productivity, more output, more engagement—the act of simply stopping feels almost dangerous. We have forgotten how to rest. We treat our Sundays like any other day, filling them with chores and errands and the endless scrolling of screens. The … Continue reading A Prayer for the Gift of Rest
BY ALLISON LEE The Ryedale Show is held annually on the last Tuesday in July; this year, it fell on the 28th. Established in 1855, it is a traditional agricultural show run for the farming and local communities, and it truly has something to offer everyone. Though much smaller than the Great Yorkshire Show in Harrogate, Ryedale remains highly popular. Set against the picturesque Duncombe Park … Continue reading The Ryedale Show
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD The Arday scandal is a chance to ‘restore’ academia in Britain Following the tragic death of Jason Arday, the Prime Minister has called for a period of reflection. I agree. We need to reflect on how we can avoid such a tragedy happening again and how we can restore the intellectual rigour of academia in Britain. Instead of removing the systemic … Continue reading From DEI to Dystopia: Reclaiming the University’s True Purpose
BY NIALL MCCRAE Passing Port Talbot en route to Pembrokeshire for a family holiday, I gazed across the vast complex of furnaces, chimneys and warehouses, all lying silent since the Net Zero axe was wielded by Ed Miliband (until recently Keir Starmer’s minister for energy rationing). Most of the heavy industry of South Wales has disappeared, leaving rundown towns with high streets occupied by vape … Continue reading Who Rules Best? Lords of the Manor or Marxist Milibands?
BY CALUM CAMPBELL Let’s cut straight to it. The Cairngorms National Park is shouting from the rooftops about a 30% increase in capercaillie numbers this year. They’re claiming their £12-13m Emergency Plan is working. But scratch beneath the surface and you’ll find something rather inconvenient. Kinveachy Estate – which is part of Seafield and Strathspey estates – saw their capercaillie numbers leap from 25 to … Continue reading Greenwashing Lek Counts?
BY ALEX STORY The Progressive haunts our public square. You will find him effortlessly promoting his creed on our screens, our universities, the HR departments of our largest companies, our civil service and our parliament. He is part of our “new establishment“, according to Andrew Neil, the veteran broadcaster. He is everywhere. You know him because he tells you, shamelessly, when he introduces himself. He … Continue reading The Progressive
BY SEAN WALSH Just to be clear, it is not the people who brought the truth to the Arday situation who are responsible for his death. That is an absurd, back-to-front claim. It is like blaming the specialist who spots the cancer for not saving the patient, even though he is the only one who tried. But precisely because it is an absurd and back-to-front … Continue reading The Cruel Mercy of Truth
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I have been thinking, this week, about the creatures who walk beside us through our days. The dog at our heel, the cat on the windowsill, the horse in the paddock, the sheep in the field. They ask so little and give so much. They do not care for our titles or our bank balances. They do not judge … Continue reading A Prayer for All Creatures
BY ALLISON LEE To many people, bees and wasps are nothing more than annoying stingers that ruin summer barbecues and seem intent on causing pain. But in reality, these insects are environmental powerhouses. Most are vital pollinators or highly effective pest controllers, so before you reach for the swatter, it’s worth pausing to consider their value. We all know the importance of the honey bee, … Continue reading Beyond the Sting
BY DR ALEX BARATTA As George Bernard Shaw famously said, “It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him”. In 2026, this quote still has arguable validity, though it’s perhaps not about hatred per se. Rather, accent bias is more to do with believing that certain accents are a bad fit for specific professions and … Continue reading Accent – The Last Taboo in Britain
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN There is a madness peculiar to the over-educated, chronically online progressive—a psychosis of over-correction, not always malice, though the post-Widdicombe-Kirk strain is real and includes those capable of more than mere cruelty. It is the fever of a machine built to measure injustice, running so hot it melts its own circuitry. Thankfully, we are hearing its death rattle. But death rattles can … Continue reading The Eradication of Difference
BY JAMIE FOSTER For devotees of sporting art and country life, the arrival of autumn in London brings a notable highlight. From 29 September to 16 October 2026, the Rountree Tryon Gallery in St James’s will host Hound & Horse, a selling exhibition that celebrates the enduring bond between man and his two most loyal companions through the lens of artistic genius. This is no ordinary … Continue reading Hound & Horse: A Sporting Art Exhibition at Rountree Tryon
BY JOHN MUSGRAVE Wednesday 12th August 2026 marks the start of the shooting season – the Glorious Twelfth. A fulsome fusillade heralds a country sports bonanza of traditional hunting. Plumped-up plumage, early harvests, golden fields and runaway support look set to make this a stonker of a season. The message is clear: get up and get after it. The struggle to save hunting – whether … Continue reading The Glorious Twelfth
BY MANRAJ ATWAL The King is dead; Long live the King! Or so the media declare as Britain faces up to its seventh Prime minister in a decade. The seemingly ritualistic axing of our head of government has been accompanied by all the usual rites. The choir of voices declaring “The grownups are back in charge”, the scuttling of MPs as they preach the virtues … Continue reading Devolution Is a Deflection, Not a Diagnosis
Games With a Penny Stake: How to Stretch the Evening at Games Not on GamStop, and Not Hold a Funeral for the Deposit in 7 Minutes Continue reading Games With a Penny Stake
CSM EDITORIAL Amidst a political landscape saturated with gaffes, scandals, and the dystopian reality of an unelected Prime Minister in Andy Burnham, one might expect the Conservative Party to be capitalising on every Labour misstep with ruthless efficiency. The resignation then reappointment of Louise Haigh amidst her fraud conviction, the myriad of CV mistruths emanating from the inexperienced Labour frontbench, and the sheer illegitimacy of … Continue reading A Gift to Death-Spiral Labour
BY NICHOLAS ENGERT Few can deny that living in Britain today is a profoundly depressing experience. The country is in a parlous state – broken, bankrupt and with no sense of direction for the future. The culmination of twenty plus years of government by a progressive, credentialed class steeped in woke ideology which combines stupidity with gross incompetence has dragged the country down to a … Continue reading The Kiftsgate Antidote
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN Albert Speer, Hitler’s armaments minister, escaped the gallows at Nuremberg by convincing the court he had known nothing of the Holocaust. It was in his 1971 BBC interview, where his evasions were most apparent. What does Speer’s later life reveal about the gap between public performance and private torment? Drawing on historical scholarship and the testimony of those closest to Speer, the … Continue reading The Architecture of a Lie
BY SEAN WALSH I think we need to get a sense of proportion and concede that, utterly shocking as it is, the Jason Arday affair is not the worst thing to have ever come out of Cambridge University. Can we agree that Kim Philby’s circle of traitors, which came close to handing the country over to Stalin, was worse, even if marginally? Although these days … Continue reading Truth, Not Credentials
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I have been thinking, this week, about the invisible threads that stitch our communities together. The cup of sugar borrowed and returned with thanks. The gate left open for the postman. The nod of recognition from the tractor driver as he passes. The fruit left on the wall for whoever might pass by. These are the small, unspoken covenants … Continue reading A Prayer for Good Neighbours
