I expect Sigrid Rausing to get a letter from the Countryside Alliance in Scotland, and a write-up in the Shooting Times, for suggesting that the lack of eagles in some parts of Scotland, and on her estate in the Monadhliath, is due to the fact that sporting estates bump them off.
But it is what I believe too.
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
The Countryside Alliance have an interesting web site. Their rural manifesto is one that anyone who wants a thriving countryside would sign up to - but not a word about protecting our unique and wonderful wildlife and landscapes. Nothing about saving our own 'endangered' species. Why not? What is so abhorrent about this that they don't even give it a nod and wink? I don't understand it myself. I am happy to support British farming and always buy British. I am happy to support the rights of individuals to kill things for fun if that turns them on (as long as its nothing endangered) - we live in a democracy after all - if this is a majority view. And yes the young should be educated about the countryside - the RSPB does that rather well too. So why so defensive when it comes to issues like this - why not work with the RSPB - too many vested interests I suspect. So it's interesting that a major Landowner has spoken up - she doesn't fit neatly into the Alliances view of the 'rural' world...