THIS WEEK'S NGO BLOG
Alasdair Mitchell, who assists the NGO with PR, writes:
A couple of weeks ago Mr Richard Benyon, MP, visited a national park in the north of England. Mr Benyon is a minister in Defra, and national parks come within his remit.
On his visit, he was shown a piece of spectacular upland countryside. This land was being managed under several layers of stewardship schemes, with some of the land management prescriptions being designed to conserve waders and other ground nesting birds.
Mr Benyon seemed to be genuinely interested in the visit. He listened carefully, and then – looking up at the crows that were circling the crags that towered over the wader nesting fields – asked what was being done to control the corvids.
The assembled officials shuffled a bit, before explaining that there was no stewardship money in this particular scheme for corvid control.
With just one question, Mr Benyon illustrated that a very different set of people are now in charge at Westminster.
For the first time in 13 years, we now have ministers in Defra who actually know something about the how the countryside actually works. Can you imagine any minister in the last Government even noticing the crows, let alone pondering their impact on waders?
The previous lot thought it was just fine to put a vegetarian in charge of the nation’s livestock industry. That shows how much they thought of the people who live and work in the countryside.
Mr Benyon, by contrast, is a countryman. A qualified land agent, he is a landowner in his own right and also has hands-on experience of farming.
This is good news. Not because we demand any favours or special treatment (we don’t) but because, at long last, we might just get a fair hearing. And that can only be good for the countryside.