Well done RSPB! In my Birdwatch column, the political birder, for March I wrote about the e-petition started by Chrissie Harper which asks for the law in England to be brought into line with those in Scotland in respect of vicarious liability for wildlife offences. Vicarious liability is an unfamiliar phrase for those of us…
Tag: raptor haters
An everyday story of country folk
Last week, a scene in a long-running play was acted to a conclusion. The play is a bit of a ‘whodunnit’ with heroes and villains – but since we haven’t yet seen the ending there is time for villains to repent. Sometimes it’s difficult to know on which side some people are until the final…
The raptor haters? Robin Page.
Robin Page clearly is special. He has issues. When you read his own words it is difficult not to think that he has a lot of pent up anger that needs to spill out now and again (see here and here). And so it comes as no surprise that he is angry about birds of…
Raptor haters – an update
A reader of this blog contacted the Chair of the National Trust, Sir Simon Jenkins, over his apparent views on raptors as referred to in my blog on 9 July. And having been in contact with Sir Simon myself he writes ‘The piece was written before I had any link to the National Trust and certainly now…
Mad Max again
Good to see that the RSPB has had a response to Max Hastings’s article of last week published in the Financial Times, a rather moderately worded response given the poor nature of the original article. It is always a bit of a lottery whether newspapers publish responses or not. It’s frustrating if errors go unchallenged…
The raptor haters – Sir Max Hastings
The raptor haters is an occasional series of articles on people who slag off birds of prey. Just over a week ago I was sitting next to Sir Max Hastings at the Game Fair and got on surprisingly well with him but he’s gone down in my estimations, not that that should worry him too…
Butterflies, Sir David, Ingrams, Waitrose and windfalls
I’ve done my bit for Butterfly Conservation this weekend and carried out a Big Butterfly Count in the back garden. This very serious survey was postponed as when the rain fell this morning I nipped in to Waitrose in Rushden to stock up on cheap white wine and found that my local Waitrose store was…
The raptor haters – Simon Jenkins
The raptor haters is an occasional series of articles on people who slag off birds of prey. Sir Simon Jenkins is an amazingly gifted writer and obviously a very clever man. I love the way he writes and I read his articles for pleasure as well as for education. Back in May 2008, when the…
The raptor haters – Richard Ingrams
The raptor haters is an occasional series of articles on people who slag off birds of prey. Richard Ingrams finds red kites ‘menacing‘, ‘savage‘ and ‘unlikeable‘ and is ‘pleased to see a picture of a dead one‘. Every three years or so he dips his pen in poison and is really nasty about these magnificent…