October 17, 2025 • 62 mins
We catch up with Richard, Callum and Richard after a couple of weeks apart and explore what £35 million could achieve if spent on improving things for British wildlife. Richard P talks about some of the current funding available and the Pittman-Robertson act, whilst Richard N champions gathering baseline data and Callum provides a parent's perspective.
CountrySlide is a podcast that looks at farming, conservation and life in the British countryside.
Send us photos of your interesting trinkets that your other half wants to burn or bin as submissions to the calendar or for fun at: contact@countryslide.co.uk
Links
- Richard Prideaux's Mast Year article
- Lemur article
- Pittman-Robertson Act
- Subscribe on Patreon for extra content (you can cancel at any time)
- If you enjoy what we do, consider a one-off tip on Ko-fi
- CountrySlide website
- Negus' book tour dates can be found here
The Hosts
Richard Negus website
Callum McInerney-Riley website
Richard Prideaux website
Edited and Produced by Amy Green for Rural and Outdoor.
CountrySlide is a podcast that looks at farming, conservation and life in the British countryside.
Send us photos of your interesting trinkets that your other half wants to burn or bin as submissions to the calendar or for fun at: contact@countryslide.co.uk
Links
- Richard Prideaux's Mast Year article
- Lemur article
- Pittman-Robertson Act
- Subscribe on Patreon for extra content (you can cancel at any time)
- If you enjoy what we do, consider a one-off tip on Ko-fi
- CountrySlide website
- Negus' book tour dates can be found here
The Hosts
Richard Negus website
Callum McInerney-Riley website
Richard Prideaux website
Edited and Produced by Amy Green for Rural and Outdoor.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Absolutely stinks of dog fart in here? Is that yours
and mine can smell that? From ethics?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
What an intro?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Isn't it sets the tone?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Yeah? Exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Isn't it amazing we're all together?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Oh, it's like the Waltons, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
This feels like it's been been a long long time.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I think we should highlight right from the off that
this is working properly this week because Richard has discovered
that his Internet doesn't travel through wattle and door walls.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
True story.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
I mean, it's obviously when this house was built in
sixteen fifty five. It just shows there was no forward
planning that they thought. Hold on a second, when the
magic fairies come and send things through the ether, why
they didn't They just didn't think it's it's the problem,
(00:57):
you know. I bet the local council run.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
By carbon neutral materials.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yeah, well, do you know?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
It was quite funny actually when we had a hole
knocked through to sort of it make our kitchen and
dining room sort of meat in the middle.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
We thought it was a newer wall. But when they
were knocking it all down.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Is when they found the old tax ban hidden.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Oh, it was fascinating.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
All this the revenue, the revenue exactly, but it was
something that I hadn't thought of, but gave our builder.
He said, he said, I hope I don't get anthrax.
And I said, well, what do you mean he amthrax?
And he said, well you think he said they put
a load of old cowshit in as part of the thing,
(01:43):
and he said, and I believe amthrax never dies. And
I suddenly sort of thought there's always dust floating around
the place, and thought, I wonder what my insurance company
would say. Yes, well, unfortunately, you know that the family
died due to anthrax whilst having building done.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
He actually got the plague from the original one. The
og like COVID one is not nineteen is.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, you've gone from anthrax and now just basically the
typhoid Mary of Suffolk his patient zero, the Finningham.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
This is a true thing.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Actually, I remember when I was at Knightsbridge and I
was in the Army that somebody sort of I think
it was around the time that they wild swimming was
becoming a thing in the eighties and there's always been
an outdoor swimming area in the serpent time. What's what's
(02:43):
he doing? Yes, isling crackling, and it's callum. He's getting
it safe. Oh he's getting his blooming scissors out again,
isn't he. That's what he's doing is special comfy not okay?
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Wild swimming in the eighties.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah, was dredge.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
You wear a little tiny shorts.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
I didn't go something in there. Good god, No, that's
not my cup of tea at all. But they decided
to dredge the Serpentine until finally someone said, I really
think that's a bad idea, because you know what the
Serpentine is, you know this great big lake in the
middle of Hyde Park and everyone no, he said, well,
(03:25):
it's a plague pit. So they dug this out to
throw all the bodies with people who had the Black Death,
and they went and you know, the bubos of bubonic
plague they carry on forever. So all of a sudden
they decided not to dredge the Serpentine, largely on account
that it would have wiped out all of London with
the Black Death. So no, so that's why you won't
(03:48):
do it. But apparently it's very tary underneath that with
all the bodies.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I've just realized that I am sat in seventeenth century
cow stool, which is my office, and it was a
cow stall when we took this on, and all I
did was sweep it out and plaster it.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
So you're going to actually an I'm just.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Looking around now it does What are the symptoms?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Should I google it?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
If it's hair loss and beard growth?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
You break me to it?
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Yes, and got a very deep voice, quick to anguid.
He gets a very deep pois all of a sudden,
Oh my god, he's got anthras.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
That's the excuse exactly. It's been a while since we've
all been together, and we should probably catch each other
up and catch the audience up on what we have
been up to, because I know Callum has some things
to share. So maybe we should let Callum go first
and then we can moderate him thereafter.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I haven't got that much to share, audience. Yep, it's
going to be long one. Now, it's not going to
be Let me tell you what what I gone.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
And did did?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I gone and did some fishing. Finally I got out fishing.
Most people think it would be fishing in a capacity
of you know, have a very gentleman the afternoon, but
having children and dogs and a busy work schedule. The
fishing that I did have was always with children, which
(05:29):
I don't know if you've ever tried to be quiet
by a river with a five year old child that's
possessed by the spirit of K pop demon Hunters at
present and explained what CA Pop demon hunter is is
another time. But there's parents just chuckling because they know
exactly what I mean. But it's not quiet. It's not
(05:50):
a quiet situation and not that conducive to actually fishing.
But I did get out a few times because it's
that perfect time of year where it just gets cold
enough and autumn is firmly here. Although we get in
some hot days and some colder days, but I'll always
(06:12):
turn my attention to the river when it gets cold,
and we we go perch fishing and chubfishing. Chubs tend
to be the sort of fish that will feed regardless
off there's snow on the ground. The chub will still
have a go pike will still be active, and perch
are a bit more finicky, but this time of year
they start they start getting very predatory and they feed
(06:35):
on a lot of bait fish. So I went perch
fishing and I lucked out catching a two pound perch
on my last cast. As I was heading back to
the car, I just saw this little, this little piece
of concrete as it dropped off, and I'll have a
go there. I had my one and a half year
(06:58):
old asleep in my left arm and my right arm
with a fishing rod. So when I hooked a very
big perch that then needed a land in that that
I hadn't properly set up, it was somewhat of a
panic to get it in, but I did manage it
just about. No babies were dropped in the process. She
(07:19):
didn't even wake up from a nat which was good,
and I caught two pound perch. So that is basically
what I've been.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Up to life.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Big fish, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, it's a big I haven't caught a big and
like that for quite a while, despite actually trying, and
when I wasn't really trying, I got lucky. That's always good.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
It's about as good as your life can get at
the moment. That's that day, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
That's pretty much snatching Snatching a joyful moment out of
a walk actually was quite nice. The baby saw some
I caught a couple of little Chubb as well. She
thought it was really good, and then she cried when
I put them back, which was which was also quite fun.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
She wants to hit them on the head.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I don't think you'd want to eat a chub. I
do know someone that ate a chub once, and they
said it was like eating cotton worn needles. They are
the probably one of the worst. They don't taste horrible,
but they don't really have like a They look proper fill.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
It mealy, like you know when you get a Mealia
apple sometimes crunch it. That's what chubb looked like. That
would just be all wrong in the texture.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I can imagine I don't know, like Smeegel eating one,
and that would be about it. That's all I have
it by head anyone that attempted. Somebody said the other
day that Dutch people often eat like an alley cat
and a cartoon, and I can't. I can't kind of
forget that, eating whole herrings and and fish like chub
(08:53):
and things like that.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
So that's our first nationality offended. I wasn't expect.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah, well, they don't get it enough, do they really.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Well, I'm.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Quite close to the Dutch obviously geographically speaking, and also
I'm quite tall and fair head, so therefore I mean
I actually am am relatively short.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
You're a devil for clothes.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
What honestly, I I find so much as sea windmill.
I'm happy with the tulips all the time.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
But interestingly, I do know that the that it's not
the Dutch who eat sort of fish in a rather
bizarre way, but certainly the Koreans are very much into
sucking the eyeballs out of cooked fish. Because we used
to have a Korean restaurant in London right next door
(09:49):
to the barracks at High barb Barracks, and I can
remember once going in there just to see what it
was like and seeing this these Korean people and they
sort of sucking the eyeballs out of this I think
it was a cod or something like, something quite large,
and I thought, oh my god, you know, because there's
always that rumors about the dogs and stuff, but it
(10:11):
was how they ate fish that was very top cat type.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I've seen this. We had it on a what I
used to do more with a wild food and we
used to have like whole day cooking courses. We cook
various bits of game and things We used to have
trout on there, and we had a Korean lady once
who was absolutely horrified that nobody else was eating the eyeballs,
so she went around sort of nicking all the eyeballs
out of everyone's trout heads, which again wasn't on my
(10:38):
bingo card for the day.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
But interesting. I remember I got a first class fish
at a restaurant in Croatia, and the missus is barely
a pescatarian, but this was a nice fresh fish. She
was like, yeah, we'll have a bit of fish, and
(11:01):
the waiter just kept insisting on showing how fresh it
was by poking its eye like repeatedly, because once if
they're not, if they're more than like a day old,
the eye goes sort of like a gray color. So honestly,
I felt like giving him a tip just for him
not to keep poking this fish in the eye while
(11:22):
we were trying to eat. I could see the misses
over the table looking slightly horrified. And he also popped
the cheek out, which I did eat and it was delicious.
So if you've never had cod cheek or any any
fish cheek, highly recommend it. The cheek is unbelievably good.
I cannot speak for the eyeball.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
I did a bit of fishing last week plus so
the end of Septembers or blurred into October, and I'm
not sure which is which, but it went out and
there's some I've got a course coming up. I've got
to do my International Powerboat Operators something or other. So
we've been out on the boat messing around, trying to
(12:02):
make sure we don't crash into rocks so we can
go at full speed without flipping over. But we took
the rods out with us as well. And because these
my mate's got a particularly good sonar and fish finder
on the boat. We've been using it to find all
the weird little holes in the rock at low tide
so we can try and drop feathers in there. And
we found one hole sort of between Angle Sea and
the mainland at the end of the men I Straights.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
There.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
It was about I think it's about sixty meters deep
or something. This one little hole it's about it's about
the size of a cricket pitch, but there's just this
big hole there and just sort of the profile looks
like a U shape in the seabed, and then you
can just go right up to the edge of it
and just work out where it was and just drop
the feathers down the side of it. Oh, that sounds amazing.
(12:44):
You were just found like the little honey hung Yeah,
you were just bringing stuff up all the time. Meanwhile,
there's all these other little boats out there and you're
sort of you're just trying to bring them in quietly
without making a big deal of it, just trying to
hook him in.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
But what what are you what are you catchingrel?
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Mackerel and them. I'd say about only about a third
week of what we brought in was off size, and
we basically came to each but we were bringing a
lot of small fish, but a lot of fish. Just
everything was way undersized. But obviously this was where they were.
I don't know if it's like a nursery area or what,
but everything's a bit late this year for the seafish.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
It's funny the rivers, the river's changed the perch the
last few years. It's been really hard to catch them. Yeah,
and now or you catch one, you catch the smaller fish.
And I've seen a few of my friends that are
not like super keen, so I know they'll go out
they'll go out, you know, once a week or whatever,
and they've started catching bigger perch as well. And bear
(13:47):
in mind it's only mid October at this point, so
to see lots of big perch, it's just it's amazing
how how everything has changed. Because of the last two
or three years, we've not really seen much in the
way bigger fish in the river. But the perch life
cycles are only like seven years. So when you get
(14:10):
a bumper crop of biggins for a year, then you're
not going to catch anything for four years, four years stint,
and then you suddenly you'll start catching the bigger.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Ones, like getting mass years with acorns and beechnuts, except
it's it's perch, and you can read about You can
read about mass years in scribe pound at the moment
because some wonderful person with a fantastic beard has just
written possibly the finest article ever written about mass years,
and you can find a link for that in the
(14:42):
show description.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
What master is.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
If you read it on scribe pounds, callum, you'll find
out because that's got we know.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
There's an audio version. You could listen to my voice.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
You can listen to voice.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I listened to the first to thirty seconds of like
the year the wood got a boner or wherever it was.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
That's a better title, Richard. What have you been up to?
Speaker 3 (15:13):
What have I been up to? Wow?
Speaker 4 (15:14):
I've been doing lots of hedge laying surprise surprise because
this time of year.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
But also everybody drink had that exactly.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Yes, okay, and everyone I'm going to say the word.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Bill hooks because yeah, because I've actually passed over to.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Say again, but slash bill hooks.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
This current hedge that I'm working on, I've actually put
my bill hook aside, and I'm having to use a
chainsaw as well, because it's it's a funny old thing
in because he's in the fence. Everything's grown very big
and you have and to try and chop some of
this stuff around to lay it properly with a bill
hook is just masochism. So I'm using my little chainsaw,
(15:55):
which is means that my poor old arms are aching
in different places. But what I've really been up to,
which I suppose is most noteworthy, is I went to
the British Guild of Agricultural Journalists annual awards lunch and
they have a lovely harvest festival service in Saint Beds
(16:18):
Church which is on Fleet Street, which is the church
dedicated to journalists. And then after that we went into.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Didn't know there was such a wonderful Yeah, to make
a difference, is it's sadly? It's it was made quite
of arms?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Is just a pen if there's.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Any more of an ungodly journalists? Yes, it's quite, but
then that would be it.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
But no collection plate must be awful.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Yeah they steal it. Yeah, just think I'll have that
some beads. Yeah, it's one of Christopher Wren's churches. But
unfortunately the outside is currently clad in scaffold and wrigley
tin because it's being renovated at the moment a cost
of one point four million pounds. So obviously the new
(17:08):
Archbishop of Canterbury must have found some money down the
back of a cassock. And yes, so we went into there,
and then after that we went into the Stationers Hall,
which is the livery company of the stationers. So I
guess you know Marks and Spencer's and people know is
it marksus, Spencer's, wh Smith's. I'll be right, those sorts
(17:30):
of people Stationers Hall, where they then have a lovely
lunch and completely ruined by me being the guest speaker
giving my speech, and then they have an awards ceremony
after that for all the journalists and podcasters and vloggers
(17:54):
and various stuff who write in.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
The agricultural press.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
And it was very interesting to see them because obviously
these guys have got their finger on the pulse of
of of what's going on in farming at the moment.
And I heard some good insider gossip, you know, like
there might actually be Rachel Reeves maybe possibly changing the
(18:20):
inheritance tanks debarkle, which she did, and she might go
and up it from one million pounds per farm to
five million pounds per person, which will give you a
ten million exemption on inheritance tax office farmland, which I
suppose maybe good.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
May not be if you're a.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Man listen to it'd be good. But from the vast
majority of farms, then what was the point in all
of that?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Then? Wow, because it's just gonna it's bonkers.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
And this is one of the interesting things right on
that topic, is that I've just written an article for
the Writtig about what farmers want from government, because clearly
one thing they don't want is a labor government.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Ever, again that is a given.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
But I spoke to quite a number of people within
the industry and one of the things I'd found out
was that the reason that the government in the first
place put inheritance tax on farms is because some of
the bean counters in the Treasury had managed to work
out they said it was going to bring in one
point eight billion pounds per year into the economy. Well,
(19:32):
it actually turns out that some slightly more clever being
counters in actually in the real world have done some
calculations and that the cost of actually implementing it, and
the cost of the exchequer because of the decline in farming,
is going to cost one point nine cost the exchequer
one point nine billion pounds per year, and then add
(19:56):
to that a three to four hundred million pound loss
per annum because all the farmers have gone off and
have spent huge amounts of money on getting tax advice
and legal advice on how they might be able to
avoid inheritance tax, which was actually bizarrely even suggested to
(20:16):
them by Rachel Reeves that they should get decent tax advice,
which they've now gone off and done. And the accountants
said that we can make some savings here, here, and here.
So there's actually an additional three to four hundred million
pounds per anum lost because all of a sudden the
farmers have become more tax efficient, but also of course,
because they've had a decline in their own revenues because
(20:40):
of all these various horrible taxes and impositions that have
been put onto them. So well done, Rachel Reeves. You
know you have done wonders for the agricultural economy and context.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
I just did some very quick mouths. How many days
do you think one point eight billion would fund the
NHS for?
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Oh ah, I don't know. A week go on?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Three point two days? Oh my, just to give you
an idea of how that fits into the the outgoings
of the nation. Three point two days. So that's based
on twenty twenty four spending. There's a website you can
go to that tells you because it's it's basically the
website exists for every time someone has says they will
(21:30):
save this much money, you can say how long would
that fund it? For?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
How long would five pounds a month take to you know,
fund the NHS? Which is the princely sum that you
can spend if you support us on Patreon, ww dot country,
slide dot uk dot com one of those yeah, dot
(21:57):
co dot UK slash support and you can get access
to the after show and nice Twitter which is on
WhatsApp well, a specialist group that you can talk to
all of us, plus a very nice community.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
You can tell that that you don't do the ad
reads normally, do you? You can tell no, this is this
is a good time to mention this. I mean, you
were the first one to bring it up. So Amy
has given you a gold star as the only host
to remember. So you know that's another gold star pinned
on your chest.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
It's a perfect seg as well.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Let's just going to say I'm not allowed to do
any of the plugs because if I mentioned the Internet
mine a fall over, So I'm not allowed to that.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
We've sold your book already. You know, we've sold pretty
much every single physical copy of your book in existence.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
A people still believe your heads.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
The only copies left of the book now in your
your your office.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
I think that's about I think there.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Are just keeping his desk, keeping his desk from copy left.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Stone floors.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
I think I've got because it's quite bizarre. We as
part of this thing for the Guild of Agricultural Journalists,
the winners, the poor sods, received a copy of my
of my book, so they got and I was watching them,
and we sold quite a few as well while we
were there, because Claire came with me and we had
(23:21):
a little sum up machine. And it's the supplies of
running down. And I think I think the four and
a half thousand copies printed, and I think there are
now about two hundred left. And the paperback doesn't come
out until February. So you know, I dare and even
try and sort of suggest the people buy my book
(23:41):
because it is you can't.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
It's it's it's rare.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Now you can buy. You can buy some from me,
because when I came over to see you last time
in August, I just nicked a whole half palette of
books from the office when you went looking. That's what's
keeping the back of the car down. So I've been
flogging them off here for a pound. I've been signing
them as well.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yes, you just put Richard Richard what you did.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yes, I remember, so sorry about this, Sorry about the
right to tell us what you mean up to.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Which bit it's going to talk about Okay. I went
to London for work last week, the day before you did,
and there were a couple of highlights from it.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
What was the low light?
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Paying seven quid a pint. That was a pretty low point.
That was in Mayfair.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
It's quite cheap though, genuine I'm not taking the mick.
That's actually well, they get over ten pounds semi regular.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Well, I had a local guide I had for that
segment of the trip, but had another guide for the
rest of the day. But I'm not allowed to mention
who he is, but that bit of it I had
scry pounds very own and sometime guns on pegs. George
Brown was there. The he was They're showing me where
(25:02):
to go and what to do and who to talk to.
And then we basically had a business meeting leaning on
the window sill of a pub in Mayfair watching supercars
go by. I think when it saw the third different
gold plated Lambeou go past, you know we sort I
knew it wasn't in Kansas anymore, although there was a
place across the road which was either a gentleman's or
(25:25):
members only club or a very high level brothel, and
we weren't sure, and it was only after the day
afterwards I looked locked it up and center Georgia Link.
I went out as a club, not a brothel this time,
but it was. It's very difficult to tell from the
outside judging by the clientele going which is which. But
you know they were all wearing nice blazers and dressed appropriately.
(25:47):
So that's the main thing, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Yeah, it's not. It's not pervy if you wear a
blazer apparently.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
No, no, no. Although another thought was if you live
entirely in London, say you only live in Zone one
and two of London, and that's all you do. That's
where you go for work, and then at the weekends
you fly off to somewhere else, or you go out
to the park or you know, get you drive over
down to Cornwall or something like that. If that's all
(26:15):
you do, and that's what you grew up doing, and
that's what you do from maybe leaving university to your
mid forties early fifties when you did that half retirement.
The thing you move out to the Shires. Your view
on what Britain is and who is in Britain and
the things that matter to the people of Britain will
bear no relevance to what's actually happening outside the m
(26:37):
twenty five. I don't. I know most of our audience
won't be in London, but anyone who does live and
work there, you must know that your view on things
are completely will be completely skewed, whether you want it
to or not, because it's it's like nowhere else in
the country. It is a different country very much. Then
(26:58):
at the end of the tempt.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
I always even Essex is so bizarre, and it's it's
recently I've had two separate people say, you know, we
live a very normal life. One's a very rural person
that does very eccentric hobbies and has sort of generational wealth,
(27:21):
which again doesn't live a normal life. And the other is,
you know, Essex has a very high paying job and
thinks that they're perfectly normal, when really, when you know
what averages look like, that is not a representation of
(27:47):
modern day Britain. But I suppose that's that's one of
those amazing things that we've got such a such a
mad mix of people in here that have so wildly
different lived experiences like London's just crazy. Well that may
fair especially is mad.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
That lived experience term, which is something that sort of
came in during the and I really hate that term,
but sort of the the woke years, but it's part
of that new language, new terminology. It does actually describe
the situation very well because everyone, and I know I've
talked about this before, but everyone has their own version
(28:28):
of reality based on their experiences, based on their inputs,
based on the things they've observed, which my version of
reality is completely different to both of yours because I've
had very different experiences and I will see we could
both be looking at the same situation and see two
completely well three completely different things because of that, and
(28:48):
it makes that kind of reflex of well, this is
what's happening completely pointless because there's no definitive truth, is there.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
I think that's one of the reasons why the Mayor
of London gets so much grief from so many people
outside of London, because his normality is London. And as
you've observed yourself, Richard, it's it's weird for us who
(29:18):
live in any rural it doesn't matter whether it's in
rural North Wales or rural Suffolk or even I suppose
we're Callum living on the sort of on the urban fringe.
And it's one of those weird things is that I've
been to London more often just of late, courtesy of
the book. And I think probably that Sadiq Khan's vision
(29:42):
of London and you know how ethnic diversity, of opportunity
and uh you know when you hear some of the
things that he wants to do as far as transport's concerned,
you know, and stop cars. We don't need well, no,
you probably don't. If you lived in zone one and two,
(30:03):
you don't need a company really, I mean it's a hint.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
To be honest, even in Essex were having been in
Essex working in London, I didn't need to drive for
a long long time. So only now that I go
to shoot up and down the country and do more
rural based activities, I really didn't need to drive.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah. No, while Amy had to travel forty five minutes
to drop me off at the train.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Station, wow, exactly, I could be in London at that time.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
It takes it takes us to go and it's quite bizarre.
If you jump on the train in Stowmarket, you can
be in London in about an hour and twenty minutes
hour and twenty five because it's like four stops and
you're in if you catch the express and it's like
traveling to a different planet. But I have more sympathy
(30:59):
in a way way for Sadiq Khn't because his constituents
are these people from a different planet, and we look
at him and go, well, you're bosstard because we're equoting
his place with ours and it's not. But equally so
he is sort of seen because he's the met of
London that somehow this must be well, if it's all
(31:22):
right for London, then it's all right for you. And
and I think that's probably a malaise that goes through
so much of politics as a whole, is because these
dudes spend a long, long, long long while in their
gilded cages. You know, look at our Prime minister, look
at the Energy Minister, all Londoners more or less, and
(31:48):
they're just they really are so out of touch with
anywhere outside of you know, the s W postcodes of London,
the bloody idiots.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
So this little one that they do daft things.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
So what's this thing about lemurs.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Ah daft things? Yes, there we go, Gin, Do you
know what professional you know Arthur podcasts, eat your heart.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
I mean it was, but it still wasn't good.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
I'm just saying, Okay, so brilliant story broken by Patrick
Galbraith in his new role as the environment correspondent for
the Telegraph. And he rang me up and he said,
I want your quote. What's your opinion on this story
(32:41):
about the lemurs? And you can imagine what. I didn't
touch them. I didn't do it. It wasn't my fault. And
basically he found out a story that Keith star Keir
Starmer has Keith Keith Starmer has sent thirty five million
(33:01):
pounds of our money to Madagascar for an overseas conservation
project looking after lemurs. So thirty five million quid and
the piece is quite funny. We'll put the link in
the old show notes thing. Excuse me, but I am
(33:23):
very pleased that I've probably got the greatest quote that
I've ever given in my entire life to anywhere. And
I'll just quote mind a bit in this article. Richard Nigas,
a hedge layer and conservationist from Suffolk, said, thirty five
million pounds may seem to some like a drop in
the ocean, but if you invested that money in farmland conservation,
(33:45):
that thirty five million will bring a direct benefit back
to the people of Britain. It seems to be daft
that there is no inward investment in habitat. And then
it goes on to think, say mister Niggers said he
believe that Sakir's support in the countryside was non existent.
Adding something as daft as chucking money at Lema's in
(34:07):
Madagascar is just going to be met with a shaking
of heads. People will just be thinking, who are you
you moron? The lemurs might go thumbs up with their
funny sticky out thumbs. But what a British wildlife? Now
that's the question I'd like to pose. Right, it's clearly
a stupid idea. I mean, why are we doing it?
(34:29):
It's what's it called? It's colonialism still, isn't it. Starmer
is going, I'm really unpopular unfortunately in Britain, so I
go and make the Madagascars love.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Didn't have the Starmer impression, didn't.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Focused on murs.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
And it's also is John Major impression as well?
Speaker 3 (34:50):
No, John Major was more. He just talked about cricket
all the time. He had a match high ice in
that head device like that.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
It was almost it was almost a Victor Meldrey.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
He was Scottish.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
I don't believe it anyway.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
Ah No, that's actually mym Ronnie Corbett, wasn't it anyway?
Speaker 1 (35:11):
I've only just twigged Victim Meldrew is meant to be Scottish.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
Yeah, because he is Scottish in real life. He just
did his own voice, that's all. That's not acting, that's
just literally reading words out. I could do that.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
The other week and we did have Amy Amy asking
why Pierce Brosnan was doing an Irish accent in Mobland
and that point out that actually he is Irish. Yes, quite, But.
Speaker 4 (35:33):
The fact is is that why if this Irish accent
that he keeps adopting all the time for everything is
much broader than his own and it's not even a
very good Irish accent.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
I can't work this out. I mean, he's Irish, but
he can't do that accent anyway. Right back to.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Lina listening to Britain's Best Rural Podcast. Yeah, we should
have won the Journalism awards.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Danny Dire and I went to the same school, but.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
I explained a lot.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Did you really we've just been putting on for such
a long time.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
How far away are you from right now?
Speaker 2 (36:09):
What mine?
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Wait?
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Who's listed? Who's asking.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Hold on?
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Who wants some? I'm not doing deliveries tonight.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
But.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
If you get your delivery anyway, Lemurs.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
So that's where that's the cover. He's just put that
on expenses, mate, he said, Madagascar. Lemurs will just send that,
you know, the boys will bring it across in a boat.
That's the cover for Kiir. It's a big old Boris Johnson.
It's like cheese and.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Wine, million of lima.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
It wasn't a party, it was jeez and wine. So
my question to you then, who funds Columbia soon? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (36:56):
What I want to.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Know is it that's also his fozzy bearing a milibad.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
Anyway, Listen, if we had thirty five million quid, right
we weren't going to spaff it up the Madagascar wall,
what would you spend thirty five million pounds on.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
On British wildlife conservation?
Speaker 4 (37:24):
Because he has decided to cut, you know, significant wedges
out of the SFI. He has removed a lot, whether
he likes it or not, he has removed money from
out of the pockets of farmers who were doing great
things for wildlife.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
So if we were.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
Rather than giving it to Madagascar lemurs, what should we
be spending thirty five million pounds on?
Speaker 3 (37:51):
What's the what's the What would you do? Richard? First
of all, what do you spend thirty five million?
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Well, I wouldn't spend change who to a rory used
to be called Sondonia National Parks because that's basically what
thirty five millionaires is twice their budget, nearly twice in
a bit.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
It is a lot of money. Really, thirty five millionaires,
you could do a hell of a lot with that.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah, I mean we were currently with the Social Enterprise,
but I'm basically volunteering on. We're trying to do a
hell of a lot with a couple of tens of
grand And that's not how you say twenty grand is
that you don't say a couple of tens But we're
trying to do a lot of that with thirty five million.
There I could pretty much revamp every field edge and
(38:45):
butterfield margin across the entirety of Wales. When you're looking
at how to spend this sort of thing, you have
to look at who you're going to be spending it with,
because if you gave out to any government department as
a budget, they would eat two thirds of it working
out what to do with the last third initially, and
(39:05):
the bureaucratic machine eats so much money. But then you've
got planning phases, scoping, confrontations, stuff like that. And then
you've got the operational side of that, which often involves
fixed pricing, huge contracts, and the sort of people who
(39:27):
bid for things and they say, well, to do that,
that's going to cost seven hundred and fifty grand, and
you go back and you say, well that's too much.
They go all right, we'll do it for three hundred. Okay,
So you could have done it for three hundred at
the start then, but no one ever goes back to
ask for that second amount that without thirty five million.
If you gave it to the right people who cared
(39:51):
about the outcome beyond anything else, you could do a
hell of a lot with that in if you just
did it, and can tiguously across the landscape as well.
Just spread it across one place here and start here,
and we'll do this bit, and they'll do this bit next,
and this bit next, and this bit next and do
it a long line. You could restore most of the
(40:11):
rivers in Wales. Yeah with that, yeah you and you
could do it all legally, but you would if you
gave it to a big organization like we have here
in Wales. We have Natural Resources Whales, which is it's
like Forestry Commission and Environment Agency and Natural England and
(40:32):
a few other things that all rolled into one big
organization that eats money and it has it has a
terrible reputation as well for spending money and for being
accountable for it. But they've also got these really big
crusading things they want to do. Like one of the
things at the moment is the banning of release of
(40:55):
reared game birds in Wales, which is troublingly close to
actually happen. So much so and this is where I'm
going with this diversion. There's a new national park planned
for Northeast Wales, and there at the moment they're going
round and the sort of opening up village halls and
other places to do the public consultation thing where there's
(41:16):
like all these brochurees on the table and you go
around and they say this is where the boarders are
going to be and this is what we're going to do,
and we're right on the edge of it. We're not
in it, but we're right on the edge of it.
The I've been sent a photo from somebody who's been
to one of the scoping things, and there there's the
page which is titled Drivers for National Park Designation Overview
(41:36):
of Key Drivers for Designation. As part of its work
to assess the case for a new National Park natural
resource as well as conducted an initial engagement exercise in
October to November twenty twenty three. The engagement report following
this designation summarize the key drivers for designation that's follows.
So this is the reason they're going to do it.
Number two, to conserve and enhance wildlife and buyer diversity.
(42:01):
A new national park would help protect and enhance the
area's rich wildlife and habitats from garden species like torny
owls and badgers. Famous garden badger.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Yeah, to my attorney, I actually ride to the badger.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
To rare flora and fauna. And then this is the
second half of the entire biodiversity section. It would offer
greater protection from pressures such as game birder rearing, and
play a role in tackling the wider biodiversity crisis. So
the only thing highlighted in the National Park's reason for
(42:42):
designation under biodiversity as a problem is game bird rearing.
So that gives you an insight sort of into the
single minded focus that you get from larger organizations when
you do spend money in this country. But also something
that will actually will be quite costly be to implement
(43:03):
and cause a lot of problems economically for the rural
for the rural economy. So my thirty five million spend
would be look at something linear and connected like headerows
or edges or riparian corridors or something like that. Start
(43:23):
at one end and work your way through until the
money ran out, spending it like it was your own money,
not like its imaginary tax payer money. That's how I'd
spend it.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
Cool, what would you spend it on?
Speaker 2 (43:34):
Col I was just trying to I look at some
of these from marketing point of view. Right, You've got
to think that there's certain animals that you spend a
hell of a lot of money. But panders don't breed
very quickly. Managed in one year in two thousand and six,
(43:55):
they manage thirty panders bread and it costs billions every year,
so you end up spending lots and lots of money
for very slow, marginal game. But people like them and
they do make money back for the zoos, so kind
of balances it out.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
It's a diplomacy tool as well, isn't there. It's used
to sort of China gives you a panda and then
you have to talk to them.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
Yeah, yeah, that was actually how I how I met
my missus.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
What China gave you a panda?
Speaker 2 (44:31):
No, I just gave her a Bacardi Breezer. Then she
had to talk to me and then and then you know,
next thing. We've got two kids and we're going to
spend five million pounds on Bacardi breezeres.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
That is a terrible giving Bcardi breezes.
Speaker 3 (44:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
No, they drink panda pops. Okay, right, sorry, you deserve that. No,
you'd have a cost benefit you'd have to do a
cost benefit analysis. Amy said, I remember handed pops.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
That's because she's poor and northern.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Yeah, I did love. Oh god God knows used to
eyes used to twitch after drinking one of those so
many e numbers in that thing. You'd like, you'd be.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Absolutely so they were squeezing them out to make the numbers.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
I went to I went to London Aquarium and they've
got there's lots of conservation stuff and there was the
old sea turtles there and I look at them and
they're quite majestic. But then at the same time, every
time I drink a coke from McDonald's for a paper straw,
I think, is it really worth it? Could? Couldn't we
(45:53):
just have the plastic ones back? I could do a
few less.
Speaker 5 (45:56):
I mean no, I don't really think that that was
just a terrible joke, but it does bear the question
of safety turtles.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Honestly, safety turtles some of the some of the things
we put money into to save. I put nature documentaries
on for my son and try and get him to
watch stuff that's not terrible, like really dopamine spiking things
on YouTube. So we watch a bit of Attenborough to
(46:30):
restore balance. And there's lots of things about the rainforest
and how quickly the rainforest is just if you look
at the periods over the years of how big it
was versus how small it is now and the deforestation
that is horrendous. If there's a way to stop some
of the deforestation and put habitat there. I'm all for it.
(46:54):
I know it's not an outdoorstep, and probably we shouldn't
be sending large sums of money when we've got habitat
to create. But you'd have to do a cost benefit
analysis to there must be huge amounts of money wasted
trying to save charismatic large creatures that probably will die
(47:16):
out in the cor that's me, charismatic large creatures.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
That that just don't you know.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
They're just not worth it, especially when you've got when
you've got you know, species close to home that are
so rapidly in the gassen. Hedgehog, right, I used to
see hedgehogs all the time. We have basically zero hedgehogs
around here. It's all one that the dog barked at
in the garden. But when I was a boy, if
(47:51):
I ever stayed out late and I walked home, you'd
probably bump into a hedgehog. How big were you'd always be?
Speaker 3 (47:58):
I feel hobbit.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
When I was is that.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
Tom thumb on the tripping over hedgehog.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
With his breezes.
Speaker 2 (48:11):
He Actually you'd always see them getting smashed by cars.
I think cars are also one of the great the
apex predators of the hedgehog huge numbers.
Speaker 3 (48:22):
I mean, look, the most sensible.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
The decline must be crazy.
Speaker 4 (48:25):
The most sensible thing, right is an interesting thing, right
You look at the hedgehog right, and yes, we know
that the badger has certainly got a role to play
in them their demise. It's not it's not so binary
as the fact we've got more badgers, so therefore all
the hedgehogs have died out.
Speaker 3 (48:45):
There's many, many other things, but.
Speaker 4 (48:48):
The thing that I would say that thirty five million
pounds could be better spent on is firstly, don't let
the RSPB Wildlife Trust or anyone like that anywhere near it.
We know that the State of Nature report produced by
Natural England and their mates with RSPB et al was
(49:08):
a complete load of bunkum, right, We know that that
was silly. So therefore what we really need to have
is some proper baseline surveying of actually the true state
of nature. And so therefore if we actually got there's
now well over one hundred farm clusters across England and Wales,
(49:29):
So why don't we go And we've already got these
farm clusters up and running. It covers a significant amount of.
Speaker 3 (49:39):
Land.
Speaker 4 (49:40):
Farmland, let's actually go and find really what they asked.
If you spent that thirty five million quid on getting
a reliable baseline survey with what we need to do
is a fairly straightforward thing. It's not like you're going
to have to go and we've got the data on
our one. We haven't had to use countless drones and
(50:01):
lied are and stuff like that. We just use human
beings who are decent naturalists who can count and identify
what they're looking at. So if you spend that thirty
five million quid on baseline surveying as much land as
you possibly could, yeah, that's a good one, then you
would know actually where we're at. And then you might
(50:22):
go and say, okay, the hedgehog population in Essex is
declining or is non existent. Let's go and look at
the reasons why, and then you can start mitigating and
you can start working out, because otherwise you get these
one size fits all policies where oh, well yeah, you know,
people go, oh, there's no curlews. Well that is quite true,
(50:44):
but there's lots of places where the curly never was anyway.
I mean, gray partridges are not going to be in
heavily wooded areas, right, so therefore there's no point going
to say, right, we're going to go and concentrate on
the gray partridge and bring them back. Well, gray partridges
never actually exist. This did that often in I don't know, Surry,
because the whole place is covered in trees.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
So baseline, to be fair, I said, I said, hedgehog,
But what good is bringing? You know, you could spend
a million quid bringing the hedgehog back to my town
and then they all get run over by cars because
it's more populated than ever. So unless you can whereas
I'm reflecting on times when the hedgehogs were in the
(51:29):
street and you could see you could see them, you know,
around gardens. I mean we could help by not having
AstroTurf in everybody's garden and actually having hedgerows and stuff.
But the point is it's whether the money is well
spent to bring creatures back in specific places. So yeah,
(51:51):
I think that analysis of where you could spend a
little money and have a big packed that is the
crucial thing for well Amy's. Amy's got some suggestions. The
water bowl headshog, hazel, dormice, black grouse, kappa kaylee and bees.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
Bees bees bee.
Speaker 4 (52:18):
Here's an interesting thing, right, this is a good thing
for you, callum right, get your kids to watch. I
wouldn't usually go and promote a BBC show other than
Farming today, but if you watch Hams's Hidden Wild Isles,
that's some Hamsa. He who won Strictly Come Dancing is
(52:39):
a very very very talented Oh yeah yeah, a big,
big black guy with amazing dreadlocks down he right, there's
a new series out which where he's got Hams as
Hidden wild Owls and the first ones in spring. He
comes to Suffolk and he goes to my neighbors, the
Barkers Westhorpe, who I've often spoken about, and they're looking
(53:03):
there at the brown hair.
Speaker 3 (53:06):
Now a.
Speaker 4 (53:07):
It's fascinating because even they can't find the Leveretts because
they put up these drones with thermal on and they
can't find the leverts. They can find hairs, I mean,
because they're literally the place is crawling with hairs. The
whole county here has got hairs everywhere. But they can't
find the Leveretts. And that's because they don't send out
(53:30):
much of a heat pattern, and even their fancy drones gone.
Speaker 2 (53:33):
From now they didn't have hick micro It's probably no.
Speaker 4 (53:38):
But anyway, what they so, what it proves is that
because but and he was honest enough, because they didn't.
Speaker 3 (53:46):
See it.
Speaker 4 (53:47):
He was He wasn't saying well, there's clearly lots of
leveretts about, because there's clearly gazillions of hairs here. Yet
if you believe the narrative which is pushed out by
the brown hair is in decline, well it ain't in
suffer and you can watch that if in reality on
this hams as while hidden wild OL's program. But I
(54:08):
think it's something whereby if you were to spend that
thirty five million, you're going to find out things that
should be there in certain parts of the country and
then you can start mitigating for it.
Speaker 3 (54:22):
You know.
Speaker 4 (54:22):
Is it because of habitat decline? Is it because the
farming practices have buggered it up? Is it because the
hedgehog is not able to move around because everyone's putting
up wooden fences? Is it because the I don't know,
for example, that the honey bee has now so prevalent
that is actually making certain bumblebee species. You know, you
(54:47):
get some honest answers, not produced by a bloke with
a bloody lidar or a drone, and not produced by
some flipping charity that wants to go and already have
the priests posed idea. Everything's very nearly dead and the
only way that we can bring it back is by
donating more money to our appeal for insert this here,
(55:10):
And I think that thirty five million pounds could be
well spent administered by Not Natural England because they're clearly useless,
So let it be administered by I don't know if
someone this broke, because me, I'll administer it.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
There you go, I'll put my hat in the ring.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
Well, I'm going to add a bit on the top
here because following on from last week's disastrous episode with
Kat Frampton, and we will have cat on again to
go through the topic properly and just talk about farming
on Dartmore because it was some really cool stuff she
talked about there that I won't give away here, but
we will have Cat back on. One of the things
we talked about in there was that complete lack of
(55:48):
baseline data because there's such an over reliance on I
think it was just said on the episode when Amy
was allowed to talk briefly the local ecological record keeping
and record keeping organizations that if people aren't submitting records,
then that thing doesn't exist in those places, and it's
(56:08):
very difficult to get an overview of what is actually
happening from that data. So weirdly, this is something that
the Yanks do better than us. So they have something
called the Pittman Robertson Act, which is it was set
up in nineteen thirty seven, but it's an eleven percent
tax on firearms, ammunition, stuff related to shooting and hunting,
(56:33):
and that is ring fence. So you buy ammunition and
a gun in Montana saying you're eleven percent tax on
their stays within Montana and funds their state wildlife services.
One of the primary things it's funds is baseline and
then continual monitoring of species numbers, so radio tracking and
(56:56):
stuff like that. Because the idea is that almost all
the hunting in the States is wild game one type
of another. There's very little released hunting. There's some high
fence stuff in Texas some places like that, but most
of it is wild game. So you everywhere is grouse shooting. Basically,
(57:16):
you have to have the habitat in order to have
the things to be able to hunt. They issue the
hunting licenses based per year based on the number based
on the surplus. Basically, you know how many surplus animals,
how many white tailed deer, how many elk whatever can
you shoot? And then the locations where you can shoot
is given out as well as you have parcels of
(57:37):
land and you have sort of numbers of there are
five hunting tags for this parcel of land in Montana
or Idahoa somewhere where you can shoot elk this summer,
well this summer wouldn't be in the summer this season.
That is all dictated by that state's wildlife department, and
that is funded in part by attax on the stuff
(57:59):
used to it. So what are we meant to be?
Speaker 3 (58:02):
Like?
Speaker 1 (58:02):
Ten billion or something is a value of shooting if
you believe all those surveys, which not sure I do
believe everything, but it's a very nice number. So if
you did an eleven percent levee or a ten percent
levee in that on just on the guns and the
stuff and everything sold at the game fare, what would
(58:24):
that yield what would be able to come from that.
I mean, there is an argument that's effectively what already
happens on good shoots. But there are these mechanisms we
could use, we could use to fund conservation in the UK.
There are these other models. You know, people keep saying
about the NHS, we could fund it using the French
system or the Australian system or whatever. There are other
(58:45):
models of doing wildlife conservation which doesn't involve just giving
tens of millions of pounds to a charity.
Speaker 2 (58:51):
Correct the rug licenses.
Speaker 1 (58:54):
Yeah, it's the closest thing to the closest.
Speaker 2 (58:57):
Thing you can possibly get. That. A lot of that
money goes back to the EA, and the EA for
all their thoughts, they do do positive things and they
generally they're pretty good. I mean, yeah, whenever we've had
so we had a group on Facebook called the Perch
Posse and yeah, and at one point one of the
(59:23):
guys spotted a few fish dyeing, gave the someone else
dropped in and said, yeah, I'm going to go back
down there. In like twelve hours, a few more fish died.
Call was made by several members into the EA, and
within twenty four hours they came down and put pumps
down with air ass because the oxygen has crashed in
(59:46):
the water. So their quick response probably saved a lot
of fish out of out of this particular section of
the river. So you know that must cost a lot
of money. That was a lot of our our rod
licenses going into our very specific local piece of river.
So they do do They are quick on hand, and
(01:00:07):
they A lot of people have a lot of negative
things to say about the EA and the money wasting
and stuff, but all in all good eggs and it's
a it's a well funded thing. Maybe we need something
like that for nature and conservation. Every time you buy
a bag of peanuts in the supermarket to feed the
birds back into.
Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Toppenssh happens.
Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
Do you know what, I think that should have been
our outro.
Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
I think we have.
Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
Hit I think we have hit autism.
Speaker 4 (01:00:51):
I think we've hit the thing there is that we
could have used that thirty five million pounds and then
it should have been matched funded by a levy on
the alleged ten billion witch shooting's worth to the economy. Right,
we sometimes somehow have to find that ten billion where
(01:01:13):
it actually is and get match funded. Another thirty five
million from that, so they then got seventy million which
goes into baseline surveying England and then Wales can do
the same and Scotland can do.
Speaker 3 (01:01:32):
Care there let's vote for exactly traitors.
Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
So what have we done? Did we offend the Koreans?
Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
I think we just we just highlighted.
Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
We just we just said they like the eyes. We
said that Dutch people eat like a cartoon cat. Well,
I say we was me specifically mean and I guess
the Scotts.
Speaker 4 (01:01:57):
Yeah, we've just fought the Battle of Flodden here, So
there we go. You know, we've we've done quite well. Really,
we've offended very few, relatively speaking. We've offended the Scottish
National Party. Well never mind a that serves them right
for wanting to go and have their village.
Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
I think it's another great episode.
Speaker 4 (01:02:19):
There we go, We've done well. Our work here I
think is done. It must surely be time to go
to the after party.
Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
I think it is. The after show now is coming
up in three two
Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
One
Absolutely stinks of dog fart in here? Is that yours
and mine can smell that? From ethics?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
What an intro?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Isn't it sets the tone?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Yeah? Exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Isn't it amazing we're all together?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Oh, it's like the Waltons, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
This feels like it's been been a long long time.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I think we should highlight right from the off that
this is working properly this week because Richard has discovered
that his Internet doesn't travel through wattle and door walls.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
True story.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
I mean, it's obviously when this house was built in
sixteen fifty five. It just shows there was no forward
planning that they thought. Hold on a second, when the
magic fairies come and send things through the ether, why
they didn't They just didn't think it's it's the problem,
(00:57):
you know. I bet the local council run.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
By carbon neutral materials.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yeah, well, do you know?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
It was quite funny actually when we had a hole
knocked through to sort of it make our kitchen and
dining room sort of meat in the middle.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
We thought it was a newer wall. But when they
were knocking it all down.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Is when they found the old tax ban hidden.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Oh, it was fascinating.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
All this the revenue, the revenue exactly, but it was
something that I hadn't thought of, but gave our builder.
He said, he said, I hope I don't get anthrax.
And I said, well, what do you mean he amthrax?
And he said, well you think he said they put
a load of old cowshit in as part of the thing,
(01:43):
and he said, and I believe amthrax never dies. And
I suddenly sort of thought there's always dust floating around
the place, and thought, I wonder what my insurance company
would say. Yes, well, unfortunately, you know that the family
died due to anthrax whilst having building done.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
He actually got the plague from the original one. The
og like COVID one is not nineteen is.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, you've gone from anthrax and now just basically the
typhoid Mary of Suffolk his patient zero, the Finningham.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
This is a true thing.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Actually, I remember when I was at Knightsbridge and I
was in the Army that somebody sort of I think
it was around the time that they wild swimming was
becoming a thing in the eighties and there's always been
an outdoor swimming area in the serpent time. What's what's
(02:43):
he doing? Yes, isling crackling, and it's callum. He's getting
it safe. Oh he's getting his blooming scissors out again,
isn't he. That's what he's doing is special comfy not okay?
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Wild swimming in the eighties.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah, was dredge.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
You wear a little tiny shorts.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
I didn't go something in there. Good god, No, that's
not my cup of tea at all. But they decided
to dredge the Serpentine until finally someone said, I really
think that's a bad idea, because you know what the
Serpentine is, you know this great big lake in the
middle of Hyde Park and everyone no, he said, well,
(03:25):
it's a plague pit. So they dug this out to
throw all the bodies with people who had the Black Death,
and they went and you know, the bubos of bubonic
plague they carry on forever. So all of a sudden
they decided not to dredge the Serpentine, largely on account
that it would have wiped out all of London with
the Black Death. So no, so that's why you won't
(03:48):
do it. But apparently it's very tary underneath that with
all the bodies.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I've just realized that I am sat in seventeenth century
cow stool, which is my office, and it was a
cow stall when we took this on, and all I
did was sweep it out and plaster it.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
So you're going to actually an I'm just.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Looking around now it does What are the symptoms?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Should I google it?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
If it's hair loss and beard growth?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
You break me to it?
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Yes, and got a very deep voice, quick to anguid.
He gets a very deep pois all of a sudden,
Oh my god, he's got anthras.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
That's the excuse exactly. It's been a while since we've
all been together, and we should probably catch each other
up and catch the audience up on what we have
been up to, because I know Callum has some things
to share. So maybe we should let Callum go first
and then we can moderate him thereafter.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I haven't got that much to share, audience. Yep, it's
going to be long one. Now, it's not going to
be Let me tell you what what I gone.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
And did did?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I gone and did some fishing. Finally I got out fishing.
Most people think it would be fishing in a capacity
of you know, have a very gentleman the afternoon, but
having children and dogs and a busy work schedule. The
fishing that I did have was always with children, which
(05:29):
I don't know if you've ever tried to be quiet
by a river with a five year old child that's
possessed by the spirit of K pop demon Hunters at
present and explained what CA Pop demon hunter is is
another time. But there's parents just chuckling because they know
exactly what I mean. But it's not quiet. It's not
(05:50):
a quiet situation and not that conducive to actually fishing.
But I did get out a few times because it's
that perfect time of year where it just gets cold
enough and autumn is firmly here. Although we get in
some hot days and some colder days, but I'll always
(06:12):
turn my attention to the river when it gets cold,
and we we go perch fishing and chubfishing. Chubs tend
to be the sort of fish that will feed regardless
off there's snow on the ground. The chub will still
have a go pike will still be active, and perch
are a bit more finicky, but this time of year
they start they start getting very predatory and they feed
(06:35):
on a lot of bait fish. So I went perch
fishing and I lucked out catching a two pound perch
on my last cast. As I was heading back to
the car, I just saw this little, this little piece
of concrete as it dropped off, and I'll have a
go there. I had my one and a half year
(06:58):
old asleep in my left arm and my right arm
with a fishing rod. So when I hooked a very
big perch that then needed a land in that that
I hadn't properly set up, it was somewhat of a
panic to get it in, but I did manage it
just about. No babies were dropped in the process. She
(07:19):
didn't even wake up from a nat which was good,
and I caught two pound perch. So that is basically
what I've been.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Up to life.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Big fish, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, it's a big I haven't caught a big and
like that for quite a while, despite actually trying, and
when I wasn't really trying, I got lucky. That's always good.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
It's about as good as your life can get at
the moment. That's that day, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
That's pretty much snatching Snatching a joyful moment out of
a walk actually was quite nice. The baby saw some
I caught a couple of little Chubb as well. She
thought it was really good, and then she cried when
I put them back, which was which was also quite fun.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
She wants to hit them on the head.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I don't think you'd want to eat a chub. I
do know someone that ate a chub once, and they
said it was like eating cotton worn needles. They are
the probably one of the worst. They don't taste horrible,
but they don't really have like a They look proper fill.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
It mealy, like you know when you get a Mealia
apple sometimes crunch it. That's what chubb looked like. That
would just be all wrong in the texture.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I can imagine I don't know, like Smeegel eating one,
and that would be about it. That's all I have
it by head anyone that attempted. Somebody said the other
day that Dutch people often eat like an alley cat
and a cartoon, and I can't. I can't kind of
forget that, eating whole herrings and and fish like chub
(08:53):
and things like that.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
So that's our first nationality offended. I wasn't expect.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah, well, they don't get it enough, do they really.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Well, I'm.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Quite close to the Dutch obviously geographically speaking, and also
I'm quite tall and fair head, so therefore I mean
I actually am am relatively short.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
You're a devil for clothes.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
What honestly, I I find so much as sea windmill.
I'm happy with the tulips all the time.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
But interestingly, I do know that the that it's not
the Dutch who eat sort of fish in a rather
bizarre way, but certainly the Koreans are very much into
sucking the eyeballs out of cooked fish. Because we used
to have a Korean restaurant in London right next door
(09:49):
to the barracks at High barb Barracks, and I can
remember once going in there just to see what it
was like and seeing this these Korean people and they
sort of sucking the eyeballs out of this I think
it was a cod or something like, something quite large,
and I thought, oh my god, you know, because there's
always that rumors about the dogs and stuff, but it
(10:11):
was how they ate fish that was very top cat type.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I've seen this. We had it on a what I
used to do more with a wild food and we
used to have like whole day cooking courses. We cook
various bits of game and things We used to have
trout on there, and we had a Korean lady once
who was absolutely horrified that nobody else was eating the eyeballs,
so she went around sort of nicking all the eyeballs
out of everyone's trout heads, which again wasn't on my
(10:38):
bingo card for the day.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
But interesting. I remember I got a first class fish
at a restaurant in Croatia, and the missus is barely
a pescatarian, but this was a nice fresh fish. She
was like, yeah, we'll have a bit of fish, and
(11:01):
the waiter just kept insisting on showing how fresh it
was by poking its eye like repeatedly, because once if
they're not, if they're more than like a day old,
the eye goes sort of like a gray color. So honestly,
I felt like giving him a tip just for him
not to keep poking this fish in the eye while
(11:22):
we were trying to eat. I could see the misses
over the table looking slightly horrified. And he also popped
the cheek out, which I did eat and it was delicious.
So if you've never had cod cheek or any any
fish cheek, highly recommend it. The cheek is unbelievably good.
I cannot speak for the eyeball.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
I did a bit of fishing last week plus so
the end of Septembers or blurred into October, and I'm
not sure which is which, but it went out and
there's some I've got a course coming up. I've got
to do my International Powerboat Operators something or other. So
we've been out on the boat messing around, trying to
(12:02):
make sure we don't crash into rocks so we can
go at full speed without flipping over. But we took
the rods out with us as well. And because these
my mate's got a particularly good sonar and fish finder
on the boat. We've been using it to find all
the weird little holes in the rock at low tide
so we can try and drop feathers in there. And
we found one hole sort of between Angle Sea and
the mainland at the end of the men I Straights.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
There.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
It was about I think it's about sixty meters deep
or something. This one little hole it's about it's about
the size of a cricket pitch, but there's just this
big hole there and just sort of the profile looks
like a U shape in the seabed, and then you
can just go right up to the edge of it
and just work out where it was and just drop
the feathers down the side of it. Oh, that sounds amazing.
(12:44):
You were just found like the little honey hung Yeah,
you were just bringing stuff up all the time. Meanwhile,
there's all these other little boats out there and you're
sort of you're just trying to bring them in quietly
without making a big deal of it, just trying to
hook him in.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
But what what are you what are you catchingrel?
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Mackerel and them. I'd say about only about a third
week of what we brought in was off size, and
we basically came to each but we were bringing a
lot of small fish, but a lot of fish. Just
everything was way undersized. But obviously this was where they were.
I don't know if it's like a nursery area or what,
but everything's a bit late this year for the seafish.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
It's funny the rivers, the river's changed the perch the
last few years. It's been really hard to catch them. Yeah,
and now or you catch one, you catch the smaller fish.
And I've seen a few of my friends that are
not like super keen, so I know they'll go out
they'll go out, you know, once a week or whatever,
and they've started catching bigger perch as well. And bear
(13:47):
in mind it's only mid October at this point, so
to see lots of big perch, it's just it's amazing
how how everything has changed. Because of the last two
or three years, we've not really seen much in the
way bigger fish in the river. But the perch life
cycles are only like seven years. So when you get
(14:10):
a bumper crop of biggins for a year, then you're
not going to catch anything for four years, four years stint,
and then you suddenly you'll start catching the bigger.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Ones, like getting mass years with acorns and beechnuts, except
it's it's perch, and you can read about You can
read about mass years in scribe pound at the moment
because some wonderful person with a fantastic beard has just
written possibly the finest article ever written about mass years,
and you can find a link for that in the
(14:42):
show description.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
What master is.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
If you read it on scribe pounds, callum, you'll find
out because that's got we know.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
There's an audio version. You could listen to my voice.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
You can listen to voice.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I listened to the first to thirty seconds of like
the year the wood got a boner or wherever it was.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
That's a better title, Richard. What have you been up to?
Speaker 3 (15:13):
What have I been up to? Wow?
Speaker 4 (15:14):
I've been doing lots of hedge laying surprise surprise because
this time of year.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
But also everybody drink had that exactly.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Yes, okay, and everyone I'm going to say the word.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Bill hooks because yeah, because I've actually passed over to.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Say again, but slash bill hooks.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
This current hedge that I'm working on, I've actually put
my bill hook aside, and I'm having to use a
chainsaw as well, because it's it's a funny old thing
in because he's in the fence. Everything's grown very big
and you have and to try and chop some of
this stuff around to lay it properly with a bill
hook is just masochism. So I'm using my little chainsaw,
(15:55):
which is means that my poor old arms are aching
in different places. But what I've really been up to,
which I suppose is most noteworthy, is I went to
the British Guild of Agricultural Journalists annual awards lunch and
they have a lovely harvest festival service in Saint Beds
(16:18):
Church which is on Fleet Street, which is the church
dedicated to journalists. And then after that we went into.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Didn't know there was such a wonderful Yeah, to make
a difference, is it's sadly? It's it was made quite
of arms?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Is just a pen if there's.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Any more of an ungodly journalists? Yes, it's quite, but
then that would be it.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
But no collection plate must be awful.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Yeah they steal it. Yeah, just think I'll have that
some beads. Yeah, it's one of Christopher Wren's churches. But
unfortunately the outside is currently clad in scaffold and wrigley
tin because it's being renovated at the moment a cost
of one point four million pounds. So obviously the new
(17:08):
Archbishop of Canterbury must have found some money down the
back of a cassock. And yes, so we went into there,
and then after that we went into the Stationers Hall,
which is the livery company of the stationers. So I
guess you know Marks and Spencer's and people know is
it marksus, Spencer's, wh Smith's. I'll be right, those sorts
(17:30):
of people Stationers Hall, where they then have a lovely
lunch and completely ruined by me being the guest speaker
giving my speech, and then they have an awards ceremony
after that for all the journalists and podcasters and vloggers
(17:54):
and various stuff who write in.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
The agricultural press.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
And it was very interesting to see them because obviously
these guys have got their finger on the pulse of
of of what's going on in farming at the moment.
And I heard some good insider gossip, you know, like
there might actually be Rachel Reeves maybe possibly changing the
(18:20):
inheritance tanks debarkle, which she did, and she might go
and up it from one million pounds per farm to
five million pounds per person, which will give you a
ten million exemption on inheritance tax office farmland, which I
suppose maybe good.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
May not be if you're a.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Man listen to it'd be good. But from the vast
majority of farms, then what was the point in all
of that?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Then? Wow, because it's just gonna it's bonkers.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
And this is one of the interesting things right on
that topic, is that I've just written an article for
the Writtig about what farmers want from government, because clearly
one thing they don't want is a labor government.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Ever, again that is a given.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
But I spoke to quite a number of people within
the industry and one of the things I'd found out
was that the reason that the government in the first
place put inheritance tax on farms is because some of
the bean counters in the Treasury had managed to work
out they said it was going to bring in one
point eight billion pounds per year into the economy. Well,
(19:32):
it actually turns out that some slightly more clever being
counters in actually in the real world have done some
calculations and that the cost of actually implementing it, and
the cost of the exchequer because of the decline in farming,
is going to cost one point nine cost the exchequer
one point nine billion pounds per year, and then add
(19:56):
to that a three to four hundred million pound loss
per annum because all the farmers have gone off and
have spent huge amounts of money on getting tax advice
and legal advice on how they might be able to
avoid inheritance tax, which was actually bizarrely even suggested to
(20:16):
them by Rachel Reeves that they should get decent tax advice,
which they've now gone off and done. And the accountants
said that we can make some savings here, here, and here.
So there's actually an additional three to four hundred million
pounds per anum lost because all of a sudden the
farmers have become more tax efficient, but also of course,
because they've had a decline in their own revenues because
(20:40):
of all these various horrible taxes and impositions that have
been put onto them. So well done, Rachel Reeves. You
know you have done wonders for the agricultural economy and context.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
I just did some very quick mouths. How many days
do you think one point eight billion would fund the
NHS for?
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Oh ah, I don't know. A week go on?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Three point two days? Oh my, just to give you
an idea of how that fits into the the outgoings
of the nation. Three point two days. So that's based
on twenty twenty four spending. There's a website you can
go to that tells you because it's it's basically the
website exists for every time someone has says they will
(21:30):
save this much money, you can say how long would
that fund it? For?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
How long would five pounds a month take to you know,
fund the NHS? Which is the princely sum that you
can spend if you support us on Patreon, ww dot country,
slide dot uk dot com one of those yeah, dot
(21:57):
co dot UK slash support and you can get access
to the after show and nice Twitter which is on
WhatsApp well, a specialist group that you can talk to
all of us, plus a very nice community.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
You can tell that that you don't do the ad
reads normally, do you? You can tell no, this is this
is a good time to mention this. I mean, you
were the first one to bring it up. So Amy
has given you a gold star as the only host
to remember. So you know that's another gold star pinned
on your chest.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
It's a perfect seg as well.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Let's just going to say I'm not allowed to do
any of the plugs because if I mentioned the Internet
mine a fall over, So I'm not allowed to that.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
We've sold your book already. You know, we've sold pretty
much every single physical copy of your book in existence.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
A people still believe your heads.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
The only copies left of the book now in your
your your office.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
I think that's about I think there.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Are just keeping his desk, keeping his desk from copy left.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Stone floors.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
I think I've got because it's quite bizarre. We as
part of this thing for the Guild of Agricultural Journalists,
the winners, the poor sods, received a copy of my
of my book, so they got and I was watching them,
and we sold quite a few as well while we
were there, because Claire came with me and we had
(23:21):
a little sum up machine. And it's the supplies of
running down. And I think I think the four and
a half thousand copies printed, and I think there are
now about two hundred left. And the paperback doesn't come
out until February. So you know, I dare and even
try and sort of suggest the people buy my book
(23:41):
because it is you can't.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
It's it's it's rare.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Now you can buy. You can buy some from me,
because when I came over to see you last time
in August, I just nicked a whole half palette of
books from the office when you went looking. That's what's
keeping the back of the car down. So I've been
flogging them off here for a pound. I've been signing
them as well.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yes, you just put Richard Richard what you did.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yes, I remember, so sorry about this, Sorry about the
right to tell us what you mean up to.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Which bit it's going to talk about Okay. I went
to London for work last week, the day before you did,
and there were a couple of highlights from it.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
What was the low light?
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Paying seven quid a pint. That was a pretty low point.
That was in Mayfair.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
It's quite cheap though, genuine I'm not taking the mick.
That's actually well, they get over ten pounds semi regular.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Well, I had a local guide I had for that
segment of the trip, but had another guide for the
rest of the day. But I'm not allowed to mention
who he is, but that bit of it I had
scry pounds very own and sometime guns on pegs. George
Brown was there. The he was They're showing me where
(25:02):
to go and what to do and who to talk to.
And then we basically had a business meeting leaning on
the window sill of a pub in Mayfair watching supercars
go by. I think when it saw the third different
gold plated Lambeou go past, you know we sort I
knew it wasn't in Kansas anymore, although there was a
place across the road which was either a gentleman's or
(25:25):
members only club or a very high level brothel, and
we weren't sure, and it was only after the day
afterwards I looked locked it up and center Georgia Link.
I went out as a club, not a brothel this time,
but it was. It's very difficult to tell from the
outside judging by the clientele going which is which. But
you know they were all wearing nice blazers and dressed appropriately.
(25:47):
So that's the main thing, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Yeah, it's not. It's not pervy if you wear a
blazer apparently.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
No, no, no. Although another thought was if you live
entirely in London, say you only live in Zone one
and two of London, and that's all you do. That's
where you go for work, and then at the weekends
you fly off to somewhere else, or you go out
to the park or you know, get you drive over
down to Cornwall or something like that. If that's all
(26:15):
you do, and that's what you grew up doing, and
that's what you do from maybe leaving university to your
mid forties early fifties when you did that half retirement.
The thing you move out to the Shires. Your view
on what Britain is and who is in Britain and
the things that matter to the people of Britain will
bear no relevance to what's actually happening outside the m
(26:37):
twenty five. I don't. I know most of our audience
won't be in London, but anyone who does live and
work there, you must know that your view on things
are completely will be completely skewed, whether you want it
to or not, because it's it's like nowhere else in
the country. It is a different country very much. Then
(26:58):
at the end of the tempt.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
I always even Essex is so bizarre, and it's it's
recently I've had two separate people say, you know, we
live a very normal life. One's a very rural person
that does very eccentric hobbies and has sort of generational wealth,
(27:21):
which again doesn't live a normal life. And the other is,
you know, Essex has a very high paying job and
thinks that they're perfectly normal, when really, when you know
what averages look like, that is not a representation of
(27:47):
modern day Britain. But I suppose that's that's one of
those amazing things that we've got such a such a
mad mix of people in here that have so wildly
different lived experiences like London's just crazy. Well that may
fair especially is mad.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
That lived experience term, which is something that sort of
came in during the and I really hate that term,
but sort of the the woke years, but it's part
of that new language, new terminology. It does actually describe
the situation very well because everyone, and I know I've
talked about this before, but everyone has their own version
(28:28):
of reality based on their experiences, based on their inputs,
based on the things they've observed, which my version of
reality is completely different to both of yours because I've
had very different experiences and I will see we could
both be looking at the same situation and see two
completely well three completely different things because of that, and
(28:48):
it makes that kind of reflex of well, this is
what's happening completely pointless because there's no definitive truth, is there.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
I think that's one of the reasons why the Mayor
of London gets so much grief from so many people
outside of London, because his normality is London. And as
you've observed yourself, Richard, it's it's weird for us who
(29:18):
live in any rural it doesn't matter whether it's in
rural North Wales or rural Suffolk or even I suppose
we're Callum living on the sort of on the urban fringe.
And it's one of those weird things is that I've
been to London more often just of late, courtesy of
the book. And I think probably that Sadiq Khan's vision
(29:42):
of London and you know how ethnic diversity, of opportunity
and uh you know when you hear some of the
things that he wants to do as far as transport's concerned,
you know, and stop cars. We don't need well, no,
you probably don't. If you lived in zone one and two,
(30:03):
you don't need a company really, I mean it's a hint.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
To be honest, even in Essex were having been in
Essex working in London, I didn't need to drive for
a long long time. So only now that I go
to shoot up and down the country and do more
rural based activities, I really didn't need to drive.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah. No, while Amy had to travel forty five minutes
to drop me off at the train.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Station, wow, exactly, I could be in London at that time.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
It takes it takes us to go and it's quite bizarre.
If you jump on the train in Stowmarket, you can
be in London in about an hour and twenty minutes
hour and twenty five because it's like four stops and
you're in if you catch the express and it's like
traveling to a different planet. But I have more sympathy
(30:59):
in a way way for Sadiq Khn't because his constituents
are these people from a different planet, and we look
at him and go, well, you're bosstard because we're equoting
his place with ours and it's not. But equally so
he is sort of seen because he's the met of
London that somehow this must be well, if it's all
(31:22):
right for London, then it's all right for you. And
and I think that's probably a malaise that goes through
so much of politics as a whole, is because these
dudes spend a long, long, long long while in their
gilded cages. You know, look at our Prime minister, look
at the Energy Minister, all Londoners more or less, and
(31:48):
they're just they really are so out of touch with
anywhere outside of you know, the s W postcodes of London,
the bloody idiots.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
So this little one that they do daft things.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
So what's this thing about lemurs.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Ah daft things? Yes, there we go, Gin, Do you
know what professional you know Arthur podcasts, eat your heart.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
I mean it was, but it still wasn't good.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
I'm just saying, Okay, so brilliant story broken by Patrick
Galbraith in his new role as the environment correspondent for
the Telegraph. And he rang me up and he said,
I want your quote. What's your opinion on this story
(32:41):
about the lemurs? And you can imagine what. I didn't
touch them. I didn't do it. It wasn't my fault. And
basically he found out a story that Keith star Keir
Starmer has Keith Keith Starmer has sent thirty five million
(33:01):
pounds of our money to Madagascar for an overseas conservation
project looking after lemurs. So thirty five million quid and
the piece is quite funny. We'll put the link in
the old show notes thing. Excuse me, but I am
(33:23):
very pleased that I've probably got the greatest quote that
I've ever given in my entire life to anywhere. And
I'll just quote mind a bit in this article. Richard Nigas,
a hedge layer and conservationist from Suffolk, said, thirty five
million pounds may seem to some like a drop in
the ocean, but if you invested that money in farmland conservation,
(33:45):
that thirty five million will bring a direct benefit back
to the people of Britain. It seems to be daft
that there is no inward investment in habitat. And then
it goes on to think, say mister Niggers said he
believe that Sakir's support in the countryside was non existent.
Adding something as daft as chucking money at Lema's in
(34:07):
Madagascar is just going to be met with a shaking
of heads. People will just be thinking, who are you
you moron? The lemurs might go thumbs up with their
funny sticky out thumbs. But what a British wildlife? Now
that's the question I'd like to pose. Right, it's clearly
a stupid idea. I mean, why are we doing it?
(34:29):
It's what's it called? It's colonialism still, isn't it. Starmer
is going, I'm really unpopular unfortunately in Britain, so I
go and make the Madagascars love.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Didn't have the Starmer impression, didn't.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Focused on murs.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
And it's also is John Major impression as well?
Speaker 3 (34:50):
No, John Major was more. He just talked about cricket
all the time. He had a match high ice in
that head device like that.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
It was almost it was almost a Victor Meldrey.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
He was Scottish.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
I don't believe it anyway.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
Ah No, that's actually mym Ronnie Corbett, wasn't it anyway?
Speaker 1 (35:11):
I've only just twigged Victim Meldrew is meant to be Scottish.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
Yeah, because he is Scottish in real life. He just
did his own voice, that's all. That's not acting, that's
just literally reading words out. I could do that.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
The other week and we did have Amy Amy asking
why Pierce Brosnan was doing an Irish accent in Mobland
and that point out that actually he is Irish. Yes, quite, But.
Speaker 4 (35:33):
The fact is is that why if this Irish accent
that he keeps adopting all the time for everything is
much broader than his own and it's not even a
very good Irish accent.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
I can't work this out. I mean, he's Irish, but
he can't do that accent anyway. Right back to.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Lina listening to Britain's Best Rural Podcast. Yeah, we should
have won the Journalism awards.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Danny Dire and I went to the same school, but.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
I explained a lot.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Did you really we've just been putting on for such
a long time.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
How far away are you from right now?
Speaker 2 (36:09):
What mine?
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Wait?
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Who's listed? Who's asking.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Hold on?
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Who wants some? I'm not doing deliveries tonight.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
But.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
If you get your delivery anyway, Lemurs.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
So that's where that's the cover. He's just put that
on expenses, mate, he said, Madagascar. Lemurs will just send that,
you know, the boys will bring it across in a boat.
That's the cover for Kiir. It's a big old Boris Johnson.
It's like cheese and.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Wine, million of lima.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
It wasn't a party, it was jeez and wine. So
my question to you then, who funds Columbia soon? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (36:56):
What I want to.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Know is it that's also his fozzy bearing a milibad.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
Anyway, Listen, if we had thirty five million quid, right
we weren't going to spaff it up the Madagascar wall,
what would you spend thirty five million pounds on.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
On British wildlife conservation?
Speaker 4 (37:24):
Because he has decided to cut, you know, significant wedges
out of the SFI. He has removed a lot, whether
he likes it or not, he has removed money from
out of the pockets of farmers who were doing great
things for wildlife.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
So if we were.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
Rather than giving it to Madagascar lemurs, what should we
be spending thirty five million pounds on?
Speaker 3 (37:51):
What's the what's the What would you do? Richard? First
of all, what do you spend thirty five million?
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Well, I wouldn't spend change who to a rory used
to be called Sondonia National Parks because that's basically what
thirty five millionaires is twice their budget, nearly twice in
a bit.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
It is a lot of money. Really, thirty five millionaires,
you could do a hell of a lot with that.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah, I mean we were currently with the Social Enterprise,
but I'm basically volunteering on. We're trying to do a
hell of a lot with a couple of tens of
grand And that's not how you say twenty grand is
that you don't say a couple of tens But we're
trying to do a lot of that with thirty five million.
There I could pretty much revamp every field edge and
(38:45):
butterfield margin across the entirety of Wales. When you're looking
at how to spend this sort of thing, you have
to look at who you're going to be spending it with,
because if you gave out to any government department as
a budget, they would eat two thirds of it working
out what to do with the last third initially, and
(39:05):
the bureaucratic machine eats so much money. But then you've
got planning phases, scoping, confrontations, stuff like that. And then
you've got the operational side of that, which often involves
fixed pricing, huge contracts, and the sort of people who
(39:27):
bid for things and they say, well, to do that,
that's going to cost seven hundred and fifty grand, and
you go back and you say, well that's too much.
They go all right, we'll do it for three hundred. Okay,
So you could have done it for three hundred at
the start then, but no one ever goes back to
ask for that second amount that without thirty five million.
If you gave it to the right people who cared
(39:51):
about the outcome beyond anything else, you could do a
hell of a lot with that in if you just
did it, and can tiguously across the landscape as well.
Just spread it across one place here and start here,
and we'll do this bit, and they'll do this bit next,
and this bit next, and this bit next and do
it a long line. You could restore most of the
(40:11):
rivers in Wales. Yeah with that, yeah you and you
could do it all legally, but you would if you
gave it to a big organization like we have here
in Wales. We have Natural Resources Whales, which is it's
like Forestry Commission and Environment Agency and Natural England and
(40:32):
a few other things that all rolled into one big
organization that eats money and it has it has a
terrible reputation as well for spending money and for being
accountable for it. But they've also got these really big
crusading things they want to do. Like one of the
things at the moment is the banning of release of
(40:55):
reared game birds in Wales, which is troublingly close to
actually happen. So much so and this is where I'm
going with this diversion. There's a new national park planned
for Northeast Wales, and there at the moment they're going
round and the sort of opening up village halls and
other places to do the public consultation thing where there's
(41:16):
like all these brochurees on the table and you go
around and they say this is where the boarders are
going to be and this is what we're going to do,
and we're right on the edge of it. We're not
in it, but we're right on the edge of it.
The I've been sent a photo from somebody who's been
to one of the scoping things, and there there's the
page which is titled Drivers for National Park Designation Overview
(41:36):
of Key Drivers for Designation. As part of its work
to assess the case for a new National Park natural
resource as well as conducted an initial engagement exercise in
October to November twenty twenty three. The engagement report following
this designation summarize the key drivers for designation that's follows.
So this is the reason they're going to do it.
Number two, to conserve and enhance wildlife and buyer diversity.
(42:01):
A new national park would help protect and enhance the
area's rich wildlife and habitats from garden species like torny
owls and badgers. Famous garden badger.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Yeah, to my attorney, I actually ride to the badger.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
To rare flora and fauna. And then this is the
second half of the entire biodiversity section. It would offer
greater protection from pressures such as game birder rearing, and
play a role in tackling the wider biodiversity crisis. So
the only thing highlighted in the National Park's reason for
(42:42):
designation under biodiversity as a problem is game bird rearing.
So that gives you an insight sort of into the
single minded focus that you get from larger organizations when
you do spend money in this country. But also something
that will actually will be quite costly be to implement
(43:03):
and cause a lot of problems economically for the rural
for the rural economy. So my thirty five million spend
would be look at something linear and connected like headerows
or edges or riparian corridors or something like that. Start
(43:23):
at one end and work your way through until the
money ran out, spending it like it was your own money,
not like its imaginary tax payer money. That's how I'd
spend it.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
Cool, what would you spend it on?
Speaker 2 (43:34):
Col I was just trying to I look at some
of these from marketing point of view. Right, You've got
to think that there's certain animals that you spend a
hell of a lot of money. But panders don't breed
very quickly. Managed in one year in two thousand and six,
(43:55):
they manage thirty panders bread and it costs billions every year,
so you end up spending lots and lots of money
for very slow, marginal game. But people like them and
they do make money back for the zoos, so kind
of balances it out.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
It's a diplomacy tool as well, isn't there. It's used
to sort of China gives you a panda and then
you have to talk to them.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
Yeah, yeah, that was actually how I how I met
my missus.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
What China gave you a panda?
Speaker 2 (44:31):
No, I just gave her a Bacardi Breezer. Then she
had to talk to me and then and then you know,
next thing. We've got two kids and we're going to
spend five million pounds on Bacardi breezeres.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
That is a terrible giving Bcardi breezes.
Speaker 3 (44:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
No, they drink panda pops. Okay, right, sorry, you deserve that. No,
you'd have a cost benefit you'd have to do a
cost benefit analysis. Amy said, I remember handed pops.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
That's because she's poor and northern.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Yeah, I did love. Oh god God knows used to
eyes used to twitch after drinking one of those so
many e numbers in that thing. You'd like, you'd be.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Absolutely so they were squeezing them out to make the numbers.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
I went to I went to London Aquarium and they've
got there's lots of conservation stuff and there was the
old sea turtles there and I look at them and
they're quite majestic. But then at the same time, every
time I drink a coke from McDonald's for a paper straw,
I think, is it really worth it? Could? Couldn't we
(45:53):
just have the plastic ones back? I could do a
few less.
Speaker 5 (45:56):
I mean no, I don't really think that that was
just a terrible joke, but it does bear the question
of safety turtles.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Honestly, safety turtles some of the some of the things
we put money into to save. I put nature documentaries
on for my son and try and get him to
watch stuff that's not terrible, like really dopamine spiking things
on YouTube. So we watch a bit of Attenborough to
(46:30):
restore balance. And there's lots of things about the rainforest
and how quickly the rainforest is just if you look
at the periods over the years of how big it
was versus how small it is now and the deforestation
that is horrendous. If there's a way to stop some
of the deforestation and put habitat there. I'm all for it.
(46:54):
I know it's not an outdoorstep, and probably we shouldn't
be sending large sums of money when we've got habitat
to create. But you'd have to do a cost benefit
analysis to there must be huge amounts of money wasted
trying to save charismatic large creatures that probably will die
(47:16):
out in the cor that's me, charismatic large creatures.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
That that just don't you know.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
They're just not worth it, especially when you've got when
you've got you know, species close to home that are
so rapidly in the gassen. Hedgehog, right, I used to
see hedgehogs all the time. We have basically zero hedgehogs
around here. It's all one that the dog barked at
in the garden. But when I was a boy, if
(47:51):
I ever stayed out late and I walked home, you'd
probably bump into a hedgehog. How big were you'd always be?
Speaker 3 (47:58):
I feel hobbit.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
When I was is that.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
Tom thumb on the tripping over hedgehog.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
With his breezes.
Speaker 2 (48:11):
He Actually you'd always see them getting smashed by cars.
I think cars are also one of the great the
apex predators of the hedgehog huge numbers.
Speaker 3 (48:22):
I mean, look, the most sensible.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
The decline must be crazy.
Speaker 4 (48:25):
The most sensible thing, right is an interesting thing, right
You look at the hedgehog right, and yes, we know
that the badger has certainly got a role to play
in them their demise. It's not it's not so binary
as the fact we've got more badgers, so therefore all
the hedgehogs have died out.
Speaker 3 (48:45):
There's many, many other things, but.
Speaker 4 (48:48):
The thing that I would say that thirty five million
pounds could be better spent on is firstly, don't let
the RSPB Wildlife Trust or anyone like that anywhere near it.
We know that the State of Nature report produced by
Natural England and their mates with RSPB et al was
(49:08):
a complete load of bunkum, right, We know that that
was silly. So therefore what we really need to have
is some proper baseline surveying of actually the true state
of nature. And so therefore if we actually got there's
now well over one hundred farm clusters across England and Wales,
(49:29):
So why don't we go And we've already got these
farm clusters up and running. It covers a significant amount of.
Speaker 3 (49:39):
Land.
Speaker 4 (49:40):
Farmland, let's actually go and find really what they asked.
If you spent that thirty five million quid on getting
a reliable baseline survey with what we need to do
is a fairly straightforward thing. It's not like you're going
to have to go and we've got the data on
our one. We haven't had to use countless drones and
(50:01):
lied are and stuff like that. We just use human
beings who are decent naturalists who can count and identify
what they're looking at. So if you spend that thirty
five million quid on baseline surveying as much land as
you possibly could, yeah, that's a good one, then you
would know actually where we're at. And then you might
(50:22):
go and say, okay, the hedgehog population in Essex is
declining or is non existent. Let's go and look at
the reasons why, and then you can start mitigating and
you can start working out, because otherwise you get these
one size fits all policies where oh, well yeah, you know,
people go, oh, there's no curlews. Well that is quite true,
(50:44):
but there's lots of places where the curly never was anyway.
I mean, gray partridges are not going to be in
heavily wooded areas, right, so therefore there's no point going
to say, right, we're going to go and concentrate on
the gray partridge and bring them back. Well, gray partridges
never actually exist. This did that often in I don't know, Surry,
because the whole place is covered in trees.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
So baseline, to be fair, I said, I said, hedgehog,
But what good is bringing? You know, you could spend
a million quid bringing the hedgehog back to my town
and then they all get run over by cars because
it's more populated than ever. So unless you can whereas
I'm reflecting on times when the hedgehogs were in the
(51:29):
street and you could see you could see them, you know,
around gardens. I mean we could help by not having
AstroTurf in everybody's garden and actually having hedgerows and stuff.
But the point is it's whether the money is well
spent to bring creatures back in specific places. So yeah,
(51:51):
I think that analysis of where you could spend a
little money and have a big packed that is the
crucial thing for well Amy's. Amy's got some suggestions. The
water bowl headshog, hazel, dormice, black grouse, kappa kaylee and bees.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
Bees bees bee.
Speaker 4 (52:18):
Here's an interesting thing, right, this is a good thing
for you, callum right, get your kids to watch. I
wouldn't usually go and promote a BBC show other than
Farming today, but if you watch Hams's Hidden Wild Isles,
that's some Hamsa. He who won Strictly Come Dancing is
(52:39):
a very very very talented Oh yeah yeah, a big,
big black guy with amazing dreadlocks down he right, there's
a new series out which where he's got Hams as
Hidden wild Owls and the first ones in spring. He
comes to Suffolk and he goes to my neighbors, the
Barkers Westhorpe, who I've often spoken about, and they're looking
(53:03):
there at the brown hair.
Speaker 3 (53:06):
Now a.
Speaker 4 (53:07):
It's fascinating because even they can't find the Leveretts because
they put up these drones with thermal on and they
can't find the leverts. They can find hairs, I mean,
because they're literally the place is crawling with hairs. The
whole county here has got hairs everywhere. But they can't
find the Leveretts. And that's because they don't send out
(53:30):
much of a heat pattern, and even their fancy drones gone.
Speaker 2 (53:33):
From now they didn't have hick micro It's probably no.
Speaker 4 (53:38):
But anyway, what they so, what it proves is that
because but and he was honest enough, because they didn't.
Speaker 3 (53:46):
See it.
Speaker 4 (53:47):
He was He wasn't saying well, there's clearly lots of
leveretts about, because there's clearly gazillions of hairs here. Yet
if you believe the narrative which is pushed out by
the brown hair is in decline, well it ain't in
suffer and you can watch that if in reality on
this hams as while hidden wild OL's program. But I
(54:08):
think it's something whereby if you were to spend that
thirty five million, you're going to find out things that
should be there in certain parts of the country and
then you can start mitigating for it.
Speaker 3 (54:22):
You know.
Speaker 4 (54:22):
Is it because of habitat decline? Is it because the
farming practices have buggered it up? Is it because the
hedgehog is not able to move around because everyone's putting
up wooden fences? Is it because the I don't know,
for example, that the honey bee has now so prevalent
that is actually making certain bumblebee species. You know, you
(54:47):
get some honest answers, not produced by a bloke with
a bloody lidar or a drone, and not produced by
some flipping charity that wants to go and already have
the priests posed idea. Everything's very nearly dead and the
only way that we can bring it back is by
donating more money to our appeal for insert this here,
(55:10):
And I think that thirty five million pounds could be
well spent administered by Not Natural England because they're clearly useless,
So let it be administered by I don't know if
someone this broke, because me, I'll administer it.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
There you go, I'll put my hat in the ring.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
Well, I'm going to add a bit on the top
here because following on from last week's disastrous episode with
Kat Frampton, and we will have cat on again to
go through the topic properly and just talk about farming
on Dartmore because it was some really cool stuff she
talked about there that I won't give away here, but
we will have Cat back on. One of the things
we talked about in there was that complete lack of
(55:48):
baseline data because there's such an over reliance on I
think it was just said on the episode when Amy
was allowed to talk briefly the local ecological record keeping
and record keeping organizations that if people aren't submitting records,
then that thing doesn't exist in those places, and it's
(56:08):
very difficult to get an overview of what is actually
happening from that data. So weirdly, this is something that
the Yanks do better than us. So they have something
called the Pittman Robertson Act, which is it was set
up in nineteen thirty seven, but it's an eleven percent
tax on firearms, ammunition, stuff related to shooting and hunting,
(56:33):
and that is ring fence. So you buy ammunition and
a gun in Montana saying you're eleven percent tax on
their stays within Montana and funds their state wildlife services.
One of the primary things it's funds is baseline and
then continual monitoring of species numbers, so radio tracking and
(56:56):
stuff like that. Because the idea is that almost all
the hunting in the States is wild game one type
of another. There's very little released hunting. There's some high
fence stuff in Texas some places like that, but most
of it is wild game. So you everywhere is grouse shooting. Basically,
(57:16):
you have to have the habitat in order to have
the things to be able to hunt. They issue the
hunting licenses based per year based on the number based
on the surplus. Basically, you know how many surplus animals,
how many white tailed deer, how many elk whatever can
you shoot? And then the locations where you can shoot
is given out as well as you have parcels of
(57:37):
land and you have sort of numbers of there are
five hunting tags for this parcel of land in Montana
or Idahoa somewhere where you can shoot elk this summer,
well this summer wouldn't be in the summer this season.
That is all dictated by that state's wildlife department, and
that is funded in part by attax on the stuff
(57:59):
used to it. So what are we meant to be?
Speaker 3 (58:02):
Like?
Speaker 1 (58:02):
Ten billion or something is a value of shooting if
you believe all those surveys, which not sure I do
believe everything, but it's a very nice number. So if
you did an eleven percent levee or a ten percent
levee in that on just on the guns and the
stuff and everything sold at the game fare, what would
(58:24):
that yield what would be able to come from that.
I mean, there is an argument that's effectively what already
happens on good shoots. But there are these mechanisms we
could use, we could use to fund conservation in the UK.
There are these other models. You know, people keep saying
about the NHS, we could fund it using the French
system or the Australian system or whatever. There are other
(58:45):
models of doing wildlife conservation which doesn't involve just giving
tens of millions of pounds to a charity.
Speaker 2 (58:51):
Correct the rug licenses.
Speaker 1 (58:54):
Yeah, it's the closest thing to the closest.
Speaker 2 (58:57):
Thing you can possibly get. That. A lot of that
money goes back to the EA, and the EA for
all their thoughts, they do do positive things and they
generally they're pretty good. I mean, yeah, whenever we've had
so we had a group on Facebook called the Perch
Posse and yeah, and at one point one of the
(59:23):
guys spotted a few fish dyeing, gave the someone else
dropped in and said, yeah, I'm going to go back
down there. In like twelve hours, a few more fish died.
Call was made by several members into the EA, and
within twenty four hours they came down and put pumps
down with air ass because the oxygen has crashed in
(59:46):
the water. So their quick response probably saved a lot
of fish out of out of this particular section of
the river. So you know that must cost a lot
of money. That was a lot of our our rod
licenses going into our very specific local piece of river.
So they do do They are quick on hand, and
(01:00:07):
they A lot of people have a lot of negative
things to say about the EA and the money wasting
and stuff, but all in all good eggs and it's
a it's a well funded thing. Maybe we need something
like that for nature and conservation. Every time you buy
a bag of peanuts in the supermarket to feed the
birds back into.
Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Toppenssh happens.
Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
Do you know what, I think that should have been
our outro.
Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
I think we have.
Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
Hit I think we have hit autism.
Speaker 4 (01:00:51):
I think we've hit the thing there is that we
could have used that thirty five million pounds and then
it should have been matched funded by a levy on
the alleged ten billion witch shooting's worth to the economy. Right,
we sometimes somehow have to find that ten billion where
(01:01:13):
it actually is and get match funded. Another thirty five
million from that, so they then got seventy million which
goes into baseline surveying England and then Wales can do
the same and Scotland can do.
Speaker 3 (01:01:32):
Care there let's vote for exactly traitors.
Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
So what have we done? Did we offend the Koreans?
Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
I think we just we just highlighted.
Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
We just we just said they like the eyes. We
said that Dutch people eat like a cartoon cat. Well,
I say we was me specifically mean and I guess
the Scotts.
Speaker 4 (01:01:57):
Yeah, we've just fought the Battle of Flodden here, So
there we go. You know, we've we've done quite well. Really,
we've offended very few, relatively speaking. We've offended the Scottish
National Party. Well never mind a that serves them right
for wanting to go and have their village.
Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
I think it's another great episode.
Speaker 4 (01:02:19):
There we go, We've done well. Our work here I
think is done. It must surely be time to go
to the after party.
Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
I think it is. The after show now is coming
up in three two
Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
One
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