Was it just me - maybe it was - but was Peter Kendall in a bit of a bad mood today?
Have a look at the Farmers Guardian debate and judge for yourself.
Peter seemed very keen to have a go at me and the RSPB whatever I said.
And how predictable to see NFU mouthpiece Guy Smith going back to criticising the FBI - there is precious little acceptance, by the NFU President or by Guy Smith, that there is a problem with farmland birds. The NFU's attitude to the environment may be summed up by Peter Kendall's phrase 'wrapping (farmers) in green tape'. Remember please, NFU, that's the taxpayers' money you get and so there do have to be some rules attached to it.
But very good to see lots of good comments - many I guess from farmers who are working closely with the RSPB in all sorts of ways.
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A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
Sadly I missed the debate, as the day job intervened. However it does not surprise me that it was a bit confrontational that is the style - unproductive and difficult. Yes, skylarks benefit form the skylark plots designed by RSPB; yes, the FBI shows continuous decline; yes, no other farmland birds are deriving benefit from those plots; yes, farmers want to do better helping the wildlfie on their farms; Yes RSPB sets about convincing farmers in the wrong way. The acute issue is the way land and crops in particular are having to be managed to grow a good productive crop of winter cereals. The areas needed to support farmland birds and all wildlife [properly researched] are wild bird mixture pollen, nectar mixes and all other cover crops, but they extract land from producing income - hence ELS/HLS schemes. Let us together answer such crucial problems - why no peewits? They are in much more serious decline than some other farmland birds - would you agree? We need a solution - do we not?