Standing up for Nature
On Sunday evening you may have seen David Attenborough and Mountain Gorillas back in 1978 – it seems like yesterday! And the message of Sunday’s programme was that we can make a difference if we actually do the right things. The World Land Trust (of which I am the Chair of Trustees), is working with…
Natural England (yes, them again) have behaved very peculiarly in not releasing a report by the BTO on impacts of Badgers on birds (see here, here, here and here). Natural England say I can’t see the report which they cited in another document, and I complained, which meant they had to carry out an internal…
Coverage of the government ruling on whether Red Grouse shooting (open season 12 Aug- 10 Dec) and Pheasant shooting (open season 1 Oct – 1 Feb in England, Wales and Scotland) can go ahead has been phenomenal. I’ve had journalists phone me up today struggling to understand why their editor is wanting another piece on…
This is a letter sent to my MP today. This instalment brings the letter up to date with the highlighted paragraphs. Dear Mr Pursglove PROTECTION OF HEN HARRIERS You are always kind enough to respond to me and you were particularly informative and helpful in our recent exchange. Thank you. You have now posted your…
It’ll be the beaters who will bear the brunt of any laxity in precautions. Of course, head keepers, shoot managers and owners will keep a list of all involved. If only HMRC could have a look at those lists and check them against tax returns. All those cash-in-hand payments obviously get declared, don’t they?
This is a letter sent to MP today. This is the second instalment dealing with the matter of burning in the uplands (paragraph in bold). Dear Mr Pursglove PROTECTION OF HEN HARRIERS You are always kind enough to respond to me and you were particularly informative and helpful in our recent exchange. Thank you. You…
Dear Mr Pursglove PROTECTION OF HEN HARRIERS You are always kind enough to respond to me and you were particularly informative and helpful in our recent exchange. Thank you. You have now posted your response to the e-action, which was taken by 123,678 participants (including myself) and of which I was one of the instigators,…
Boris Johnson wasn’t watching Extinction – the facts last night even though his missus was, if a report, just a single sentence, in The Times today is to be believed. At the very foot of an article about how the UK would meet its net-zero target is the sentence ‘Plans to ban peat-burning appear to…
A day at the races? No. An afternoon at the football? No. Jogging with six friends? Of course not. A day on a grouse moor? Of course old boy. Rich people travelling from the towns to the uplands, drinking and shooting and then travelling home? An epidemiologist’s nightmare! The track and trace records for these…
Did you watch this yesterday evening? I did and I was a bit disappointed by it until it got onto the current and other pandemics. Yes the early part of the programme was interesting and beautifully filmed but there were rather too many talking heads whose soundbites were bookended by stunning or disturbing imagery. The…