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.
Nightjar - by what criteria do you measure intensification and what period are you talking about?
Gert - you do a lot of farmers and the NFU a grave injustice, the refusal of the conservation lobby to recognise the radical change in farmer attitude to conservation over the last generation simply demoralises the vanguard and encourages the laggards to stay laggards. The middlers remain unsure that if any of what they do is worthwhile because whatever they do do is dismissed as irrelevant.
EP
Paysan savant