Subscribe
Notify of
guest

18 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Andrew D
Andrew D
3 years ago

It is remarkable how uninterested the Conservative party is in conserving anything. Can they be sued under the Trade Descriptions Act? Also alarmed to hear that the National Trust has been clearing swathes of deciduous woodlands and replacing with conifers. Can this be true?

Jeremy Smith
Jeremy Smith
3 years ago
Reply to  Andrew D

Republicans in America too.
They would drill in Yellowstone if they could.

Olaf Felts
Olaf Felts
3 years ago
Reply to  Andrew D

Andrew I think that is totally unfair – I would say the Tory Party is working very hard at conserving ineptitude, stupidity, misinformation, the suppression of freedoms, and the relentless drive to destroy the environment. Their latest policy Lockdown, I’m sure will go a long way to reducing investment in the environment and combating global warming as evidence of this.

Jeremy Smith
Jeremy Smith
3 years ago
Reply to  Olaf Felts

LOL. Sadly true!

Nick Whitehouse
Nick Whitehouse
3 years ago

I did appreciate the quietness caused by the lockdown, it was lovely to hear the birds so clearly.
However I also noticed the amount of money the government borrowed to pay people who could not work.
I do not believe that the government can keep borrowing such sums without any effect on inflation or the value of the pound.
When that effect takes off, food will become more expensive – perhaps too expensive?
In choosing between eating and listening to the birds, there is only one sensible answer – and it is not listening to the birds.

William "
William "
3 years ago

A very sound answer. We all enjoyed the peaceful rural areas without noise from the passing daily traffic, but the UK must go forward by returning to work and generating necessary income for families.

Martin Z
Martin Z
3 years ago

Are those the only options?

Rod MacAllister
Rod MacAllister
3 years ago

Food “too expensive”.?

If people spent a greater percentage of their income of better
quality food and had fewer holidays, smaller tv’s, and less “stuff” we
might make some progress towards better animal welfare standards.

Vegetables are not, and will not become “too expensive”…battery chickens are also unlikely to rise in price.

Too many people in this country are obsessed with buying the cheapest
possible food they can, without a second thought about it’s origin, or
how many miles it’s travelled.

And if battery chickens, or supermarket ready meals do rise in price,
then oh dear – learn how to cook a meal and eat something that’s
cheaper.

It is possible for the birds to continue singing without the population starving to death.

malcolmwhitmore18
malcolmwhitmore18
3 years ago

We also noticed how much cleaner the air was and reflected that the problem our society has is that unless people work they do not have enough money to carry on with the existing way of life.
The issue is that continuing with this process is wrecking the planet and it is necessary to change both what we eat and how we give people enough money to live without them needing to work in ways that wreck the planet.
We have increased our productivity by a factor of 3X since I was a boy and it is time to realise the benefits of automation and improved technology by changing the way we live. We must take the opportunity of reducing working hours, consumption levels and the madness of GDP targets if our civilisation is to survive beyond 2050.

Kathryn Richards
Kathryn Richards
3 years ago

Perhaps if food became ‘more expensive’ we would not have a population where 62% of adults are overweight and 25% are obese.
525,000 NHS admissions were obesity related in 2015/16 and is responsible for 30,000 deaths a year, and that was before Covid 19.
There is only one sensible answer, and that is for people to learn to cook, and eat less. Then we can all still listen to the birds which are essential for a healthy environment.

Robin Lambert
Robin Lambert
3 years ago

The ”Conservative” Govt.doesn’t Conserve Villages in Leicestershire,there are Plans for Massive housing sprawls,turning areas into ”Dormitory” towns and affecting drainage..The Standard of MP,Lords,Cabinet ministers have gone down over last 28 years since John Minor Major?….Before Ministers new their portfolios and civil servants Were Politically neutral,as per Judiciary,Police,BBC .mirrors decline..These Chumps Are in love with Bezos,Gates&Soros Mass immigration,low wage ‘Slave’ economy…Would people traffickers have been allowed under Wilson,Thatcher?…But Johnson unfortunately looks increasingly like A one term Pm,with idiot Starmer in the Wings for 2024!.

Keith Payne
Keith Payne
3 years ago

I believe swathes of deciduous woodland was replaced by the Forestry Commission with conifers in the 1950s and 60s but I am not aware of this happening in recent years. Planting loathsome conifers in some upland areas is fine, particularly if they are properly managed or used as a nurse crop for developing a more mixed and open woodland appropriate to the area but unfortunately in many instances they have just been left unmanaged.

However, I agree with the main tenet of the piece and I do not see why if the willingness is there, mixed farming systems cannot be used to rewild parts of the countryside. It would also help to develop a sensible land use policy in the UK so that the most productive parts of the country were not continually build upon.

Jeremy Smith
Jeremy Smith
3 years ago

“Why, in a country that, measured statistically, is the most nature-obsessed on the planet, is this being allowed to happen?”
What does that mean?
Germany has more forest (as % of land mass) and even apex predators (wolves). Italy has wolves and bears and more forests.
And let’s not talk about recycling.

Roger Inkpen
Roger Inkpen
3 years ago
Reply to  Jeremy Smith

It was a rather vague line – I’m guessing it’s from a survey on the lines of “how obsessed are you with nature”!

Bit unfair to compare us with Germany or even Italy. Even in the most remote parts of the Highlands there is some kind of farming like sheep or grouse moor. Some might say – let the farming give way to the wolves and bears, but that would remove the livelihood from those places.

Roger Inkpen
Roger Inkpen
3 years ago

I guess the tension for the govt if it focuses on the natural world is with the ambition to simplify the planning process. Whether the traditional Tories from the shire will win over the new Tories from the ‘red wall’ areas is a moot point.

It may be that we have more conservation charities than most countries, but I wonder if some of their supporters are really just people who want to preserve nature in aspic as a leisure resource, to give them somewhere to walk the dog. Are they really that bothered about the natural world and ecosystems? I don’t have a problem with creating wilderness and nature reserves far from where people live, but these places should be left to nature as much as possible. Don’t encourage people to get into the car, adding to traffic and congestion, and parking problems when they get there, take a picnic – and leave the inevitable rubbish. If they want to visit remote places, try to get there sustainably.

What we really need – and finally some of the conservation charities are recognising this – is local places for nature. Somewhere you can walk or cycle to, ideally along green corridors. Get to think and interact with the nature around them. And not just in the ‘countryside’, but in urban areas it’s even more important.

Martin Price
Martin Price
3 years ago

Are “fly fishermen in the Tory shires” a large part of the swing vote in the UK?

Mark Corby
Mark Corby
3 years ago
Reply to  Martin Price

No, they are almost extinct.

Jeremy Smith
Jeremy Smith
3 years ago

It is depressing how “conservatives” in USA/UK are so opposed to protecting nature. Is anything more important than conserving the environment for future generations?