I’ve had a couple of fairly long drives through the countryside in the last week. There are some quite good-looking crops in these parts – unfortunately some of them are crops of black grass. Considering the awful autumn, wet winter and soggy spring it’s surprising that some of the fields are looking so good. Many…
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The quiet man of Defra?
What is the point of the Liberal Democrats exactly? And what is the point of David Heath? Who is David Heath, you might ask? David Heath is the single Lib Dem Minister in Defra and he is the middle-ranking Minister between the boss-man Owen Paterson (excellent at giving out prizes to pork pie people we…
Defra – drowning not waving
There are 653 days until the next General Election and since a week is a long time in politics this a very long time to go. However, most people will probably already have made up their minds on this coalition government and it will take distinct jolts , changes or events (dear boy) to alter…
Sunday Book Review – Britain’s Freshwater Fishes by Mark Everard
We talk about fishermen (and rarely of fisherwomen) but we don’t talk about fish-watchers as we will talk about bird-watchers, do we? Why is that? There isn’t a Royal Society for the Protection Fish nor a Fishlife nor a Fish Conservation. Yes there are organisations which do some good work for our fishy friends…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill – the simple-minded
It’s the weekend of the Game Fair, so spare a thought for all those people walking around in tweed in this hot weather – although you’d, maybe, think they had more sense. There will be a lot of talk about lead ammunition – it’s a big thing this Game Fair. The shooting organisations are belatedly…
That RSPB TV advert – what I think
I think that the RSPB TV advert is a welcome gamble by the RSPB – I’m sure they’ve done lots of research to make it less of a gamble but it’s still a gamble. Rumour has it, though I haven’t checked, that it’s a £2m gamble. What would a ‘big win’ look like if this…
Results of poll on RSPB TV advert
This little poll attracted 571 responses. Thank you to all who took part. Your comments on the TV advert were varied and fascinating. The comments were generally less positive towards the advert than the voting – people who like things might take a few seconds to vote but don’t go out of their way to…
Emperor’s new clothes?
I headed off, towards the end of last week, with three chums to look at flowers and butterflies, and to drink beer and wine, and to put the world to rights. All of us could be described as senior enough to be grumpy old men, although, of course, our aim was to be happy not…
Last chance to vote here
Today will be your last chance to respond to this short poll on what you think about the RSPB’s new TV advert. The results will appear on Thursday and some thoughts from me on Friday. There are over 100 comments from readers of this blog so far – and about 400 responses to the poll. …
Ralph Underhill cartoon and CAP nonsense from farmers (just pretend it’s Saturday)
The CAP coalition, led by the NFU, the CLA and the TFA, met at the Great Yorkshire Show on 9 July to reinforce their simple message to Government: Keep sending the cheques! The CAP coalition claims to represent the interest of the rural economy but is actually largely a bunch of recipients of taxpayers’…