4 Replies to “Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill”

  1. If our politicians have spent years discussing Brexit and nothing else, doesn’t that show how little we need them?

  2. Slightly OT. I was reading the free Daily Telegraph in my local café this morning and having a good laugh at the political coverage, when I spotted Botham’s latest attack on the RSPB – a disingenuous piece based around the stoat eradication on Orkney. Chris Packham is given both barrels too.

    The RSPB has gone to endless trouble to explain to anyone interested why the introduced stoats need to be eradicated but as we all know, killing things is not popular. Hedgehogs on the Uists and Ruddy Ducks also come to mind.

    I enjoy your blog, Mark, but it would be great to see more championing of some of the unpopular things conservationists need to do to preserve and enhance biodiversity in our man-modified world. After all, you did quite rightly lead the way on Ruddy Ducks – something which many birders don’t accept to this day.

    1. Bob W – well I have blogged about Stoats on Orkney twice. And although I would am perfectly happy to be linked to Ruddy Duck control it wasn’t me in RSPB who led the way (I was Head of Research at the time so wasn’t leading , but was certainly in favour) and it wasn’t the RSPB who led really either. I’d say that WWT led and we (the RSPB) supported the programme (and got most of the flak). The RUddy Duck cull was also funded by UK government with large contributions from the EU (because it was designed to help the endangered White-headed Duck) too. Interestingly, one of the main (but obviously not the only) reasons given for opposing the cull from birders was that it could bever work – it has worked! That doesnt affect the moral issues involved, of course.

      1. Thanks, Mark. RSPB certainly got most of the Ruddy Duck flak – the lack of support from some other organisations and prominent conservationists was notable.

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