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 Mark at the moment find it hard what to think as I dislike cuts just as much as anyone but somehow I feel we will all have to have our share of cuts simply because of the last Governments wasteful way of catching votes by dishing money out left right and centre.Find it obscene that we now have candidates for Labour leadership who held high positions in Government and backed all Gordon Browns decisions now saying lots of things he did was wrong,where are their morals,cannot really say what I think as you would obviously be unable to print it.Personally my priorities would be no cuts on Heath and Education and on lots of other things we shall have to become more efficient as after all reports state that workers only spend 50% of working hours actually working so plenty of room there for being more efficient and that figure of £78,000 debt of every person in U K reported in Telegraph is horrendous as presumably includes children.That will take some special effort to pay off.
Did you take the chance while in Somerset to see the Cranes?.Cannot wait to have a go at seeing them even if Sweep has to be chauffeur but she will be as keen as me anyway.
I have a lot of thinking to do about wildlife cuts as perhaps in most cases we shall have to volunteer for more things.Contentious issue I know but find the amount of bird ringing just as a excuse for handling birds to get a buzz from it is probably doing more harm than good as most birds we now know the basics and I am far from convinced that netting and the stress they suffer often just before migration is fair on the birds,seems ringers often take helpers with no experience.
Trimbush, ' Why should the farmers and land owners do anything for the RSPB' - No reason at all why they should but they should do it for the rest of the community they live in. Unfortunately the rest of the community has no clout so they rely on such organisations as the RSPB to make the point on their behalf.
I presume that IEA, being a free market organisation would seek to dispense with any form of farming subsidy and let farmers succeed or fail on the market alone. I could not agree with that because if we want farmers to protect our children's inheritance then we should expect farmers to be rewarded for doing so.
The Cotswold Water park sightings website
My Flicker page
Mark, I think we should also email our local MP, especially if they are coalition members. My local MP recently opened the new hide, together with Mike Clarke, on our local reserve and showed great support for conservation. Now would be his chance to influence his masters!.
Keep up the pressure, could be a very effective campaign.
Richard.
Mother Nature is infinitely more resilient than the Nation’s finances!
As Mark says – Spelman & Osborne have a big job to do – following 13 years of criminal financial mis-management by the Labour Administration – and I use the word ‘Administration’ deliberately - because that’s where we are as a Nation – “in Administration”.
“GOVERNMENT URGED TO REVEAL ‘TRUE’ NATIONAL DEBT OF £4.8 TRILLION”
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has calculated that the national debt is £4.8 trillion once state and public sector pension liabilities are included - or £78,000 for every person in the UK.
Mark Littlewood, the IEA's director-general, said: "The latest official national debt figure is seriously misleading. Looming in the background are pension liabilities. These should be moved to the forefront. The ONS (Office National Stats) should include these liabilities in their calculations. It is shocking enough to see official figures revealing a jump in national debt over the last year from the equivalent of 48pc of GDP to 56pc, but the grave reality is that our real national debt stands at 333pc of GDP."
“Cutting the Life (and Livelihoods) out of the Countryside”
You said it Mark – that’s precisely what you and the RSPB have done in the recent past and continue to do now! So tell me again Mark – why should (cattle) farmers and land owners (particularly those in the South West ‘quartile’ of the UK) do anything for the RSPB?
“SOME CUTS NEVER HEAL?”
“YES MARK – WE ARE SLOWLY BLEEDING TO DEATH”
It's time to get real - The Lifeboat has been launched – “Women & Children First!”
E-mail, re the preservation of HLS and other key pillars of consevation, just sent to Caroline Spelman and "the Star Chamber", I urge all who read this Blogg of Mark's to do the same.
redkite