Yesterday Woman’s Hour (a BBC Radio 4 programme – click here and listen after 23 minutes) got together Minette Batters of the NFU, Marian Spain of Natural England and Beccy Speight of the RSPB on the pretext that there are a lot of women running the environment. In the case of the NFU that is surely a misprint for ruining the environment?
It was a missed opportunity and a very lame few minutes. We learned very little about any of the issues, and very little about the role of women in nature conservation.
Beccy Speight was very good, in this latest of her media appearances, Marian was very bland and Minette was pretending that the NFU is a force for good in nature conservation.
The NFU was not challenged at all on the industry’s environmental record so the BBC hasn’t read the State of Nature report and what it said about the impacts of agriculture on the environment. Instead, without any questionning at all, Minette was allowed to give the impression that agriculture is basically family farms looking after the land and the farm animals that happen to hang around on it. This remark is priceless…
We run, essentially, a National Health Service for our livestock
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0009ky1
…in the context of the hissy fit of the NFU over TESCO’s recent advert for vegetarian sausages! It’s an interesting model for the NHS with enforced euthanasia at its end. No challenge from Woman’s Hour host though…
Beccy’s ‘difficult’ question was that the RSPB was in financial difficulty and had had some bad press recently and she dealt with these points very efficiently by sliding off them very skilfully without saying ‘yeh, everything was great under the first woman to run the RSPB, Barbara Young, but then we had a couple of men and now the women are back in charge to sort things out again’ which would have been a real laugh. She did well and it’s interesting that both peat bogs and Hen Harriers came up in this broadcast.
I wonder whether Natural England ought to be allowed on programmes like this to say how wonderful the Environment Bill is without any challenge whatsoever. Natural England shows no independence from Defra whatsoever and so Marian praising the Environment Bill which has been slammed by environmental organisations is akin to giving government an advertisement on the BBC. Marian’s ‘difficult’ question was about the row between Natural England and RSPB (no one else apparently) over brood meddling of Hen Harriers where Marian came out with this;
We are at the moment carrying out an experiment as to whether working with gamekeepers will help remove any feelings they have that they need to kill Hen Harriers.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0009ky1
Yuk!
This piece wasn’t a bad idea, but for the listener coming new to the subject it would have given the impression that everyone is on the same side on environmental issues and not have illuminated those issues very much. Much as I am keen on the Hen Harrier issue it’s a bit niche for this type of treatment.
The BBC generally struggles to find interviewers to ask the right questions with even a modicum of knowledge of the environmental issues and this is simply another example of that general malaise. The most prominent example in what is called real politics is the falure of the media to tackle the environmental issues around Brexit with any rigour.
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I’m afraid I gave up on the utterances of the NFU some time ago as they are part of the problem in our countryside and certainly not involved in solutions, represent less than half of farmers mainly big business farmers and are certainly not in the true sense a union.
As to NE for me in many ways BM actually happening ( particularly to a pair I thought a colleague and I found) was and is the last straw. Even as an experiment it is totally beyond reason. they have no independence from DEFRA these days and our wildlife and habitats are the poorer for that.
The gender of people at the head of organisations is much less relevant, even irrelevant than the job they do although as I recall Barbara Young did a damned good job at RSPB.
The notion that ‘working with gamekeepers will help remove any feelings they have that they need to kill Hen Harriers’ brings to mind a cosy AA type meeting with said Gamekeepers sitting around in a circle saying ‘Hi I’m Wayne and I kill Hen Harriers’. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.
I would rather listen to the buzzing in my ears than to Woman’s Hour. I have never, on any snippets I catch, ANYTHING to tempt me to conitnue listening to the programme.
But I might give it a flick through on the basis of this blog to see if my opinions of it are still justified.
Having listened a couple of times. Not sure about this 13 minute feature. I think I agree that it is pretty lame. The range of topics coverd was somewhat adhoc…. a bit about what each does, worrying lack of knowledge and insight (or poor briefing?) from the presenter, especially on the upland issues.
Then cuts to soem really wishy-washy stuff on women being atthe fore of protests, especially locally to stop trees being cut down by councils, etc, because of their inherent empathy, and onto how the oputdoors is good for wellbeing, and how women have always known this because they run families. Total drivel! I’m afraid its designed to reinforce the values of what I presume are the main listeners to this programme, white, middle-class, middle-aged or older, southern-England listeners who dont need to be out gratfing to earn a crust in the filthy reality of broken britain. Radio 4, go find the real conservationists out there
As you say Mark a very lame woman’s hour and as you also say the BBC are absolutely devoid of scientific and nature conservation kowledge and ability. Quite frankly they are pathetic in these areas in so many ways. I agree Becky Speight did well. However the programme was mostly god and motherhood stuff.
What a cheek the NFU have trying to sound on the same side as the RSPB and NE when their record shows they oppose almost every proposal to benefit wildlife that is put forward and they sit firmly on the side of driven grouse shooting and the host of environmental damage it does. Take the very recent project to reintroduce the white tailed sea eagle on the Isle of Wight. Firmly opposed by the NFU..
As you say Mark the ignorance in the BBC in their lack of ability at times to really get to grips with the issues of science, the environment and conservation is quite frankly pathetic and at times scary.