That's the message we are trying to get across to politicians ahead of the decisions on spending cuts which will be announced in October.
We are taking that message to decision-makers in lots of ways, but this week we have taken the message to the constituencies of the Secretary of State for Defra, Caroline Spelman, who has the difficult task of making the cuts demanded by The Treasury, Oliver Letwin who is a member of the Star Chamber which will decide the cuts (and who is generally sympathetic to the environment) and to the Chancellor, George Osborne, who probably has the biggest say in all of this.
Local farmers have enthusiastically allowed us to put up placards in their fields, there are cycles travelling around with signs, helium balloons, banners over the M6 and being unfurled from windows and lots of other things!
Here (below) is an example of a banner - this one on the roof of our visitor centre at Radipole!
In addition, we have placed adverts like the one above in publications as diverse as Private Eye, the Times and Guardian, the Spectator and elsewhere.
A placard never saved a skylark - but a campaign can! Add your voice to those of over 270,000 others in our Letter to the Future campaign.
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
Hi Sooty
Yes I plead guilty as charged of banging on about the B….. word in connection with TB.
You say Mark sits on the fence – the RSPB doesn’t and hasn’t and everyone else assumes ALL RSPB members are signed up to whatever Mark / RSPB thinks is right.
If Mark did sit on the fence and told every body that this was the case then the RSPB would no doubt be ‘excommunicated’ from the Wildlife & Countryside LINK group.
The RSPB would first have to justify its change of policy to its fellow LINK members …! But the RSPB isn’t independent, big or brave enough for it to do that despite its size, turnover, etc. - it’s a state of mind – it’s ‘safer’ in a pack! "We all winge together".
But Sooty …… I also keep banging about the RSPB (re-)thinking BIG in order to achieve ‘environmental / biodiversity nirvana’.
What I want to see is for all (ALL) farmers to ‘sign-up’ for most things the RSPB is attempting to achieve now and like the Green Party – the RSPB will achieve its mission when the RSPB is no longer required!
A brilliant opportunity - being ‘misread’ at best and ‘mis-managed’ at worst - and quickly evaporating!
Cheers