Standing up for Nature
The Lady is the oldest weekly magazine aimed primarily at women in the UK and is probably the magazine of choice for grouse moor owners who are looking for some new domestic staff. I have never, knowingly, picked up a copy and it isn’t exactly where I would have expected to find a glowing review…
Peter Cooper is a 21 year old naturalist, writer, zoology student and avid badger watcher. He has written both whimsical nature writing and ‘proper’ environmental journalism on his personal blog and for The Independent. Peter is currently going into his third year at the University of Exeter Cornwall Campus, where he is the editor in…
The Jugged Hare (49 Chiswell St, London EC1Y 4SA) did not respond in any way to my email to them about what steps they take to ensure the sustainability of the production of their grouse meat, nor did they respond on the levels of lead in game meat. I’ll assume that they either don’t know…
These fenn traps get everywhere – even attached to lambs. Where might that trap have been set to end up here?
Ian Carter has worked as an ornithologist for more than 25 years. He was involved with the Red Kite reintroduction programme in England and has a keen interest in the conservation of raptors, bird reintroductions and wildlife management more generally. He is particularly interested in what might be called the culture of nature conservation and…
Henry comes to Mayfair. He felt very much at home. Allens of Mayfair is a game dealer as well as a butcher and is thought to supply quite a lot of London restaurants with their game including grouse. I wonder whether this part of Mayfair is part of the 100 acres owned by the Duke…
Yesterday I received my voting papers for the Labour leadership and deputy leadership elections. As you can see, I haven’t got very far in filling them in. I have to say that I am very drawn to Jeremy Corbyn for a variety of reasons – several of them bad reasons! First, he is older than…
Following yesterday’s analysis of where the signatures come from to support the e-petition on banning driven grouse shooting (see here for a mention of it in the Guardian today), here is an analysis of English constituencies separated into Conservative and Labour seats, and rural and urban seats. Conservative rural 27.5 signatures Conservative urban 18.2 …
On a recent trip to London, Henry (you didn’t think he’d gone away did you?) looked in to Rules restaurant. Now Rules has a very strange attitude to customer care (see here, here, here) and although there was initial friendliness from some of the waiting staff someone looking more senior started closing curtains and…
Those who oppose the excesses of field sports are often written off as ‘lefties’ and ‘townies’ who know nothing about the countryside, as opposed to ‘real country people’ who do. I’ve never seen anything to back up this oft-heard statement, and in another life I used to point out to people voicing it that the…