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.
In response to Esssex Peasants comments that intensification of farming hasn't ocurred in the last 20 years. Utter twaddle, everytime a large farm buys up fields or small farms the first thing that happens in this area is that hedges are removed and any reasonable wildlife habitat is immediately destroyed.One of my favourite green lane areas which was fantastic for birds and butterflies was utterly devastated when a large farm bought adjoining fields aand took over it's management. Gosh I can think of some good meanings for the acronym NFU but am afraid they are not printable here.