Summer In America – 2025 …..From ‘Wild Justice’……From Orkney.com…..
by Bernie Bell - 07:53 on 05 July 2025
Summer In America - 2025…..
Bartholomew Barker writes of summer in North Carolina – the State of the Nation?
The Six Circles of Summer
In the first circle
mosquitoes suck the joy
out of twilight
In the second circle
poison ivy wraps
around our bare ankles
In the third circle
leaves wither on branches
no shade from the sun
In the fourth circle
sweat boils off skin
and we breathe steam
In the fifth circle
we crawl across molten lava
to approach the sixth gate
and dread what lies behind
(Another collaboration with my pals at Charles House after I read summer themed poetry on a 99F day.)
https://bartbarkerpoet.com/2025/06/30/the-six-circles-of-summer/
And……
Because we didn't want
to be subject to the whims
of a tyrant
(Apparently after 250 years, we've changed our mind.)
https://bartbarkerpoet.com/2025/07/04/fraiku-independence/
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From ‘Wild Justice’……
“In today’s newsletter we share our thoughts about Monday’s Westminster Hall ‘debate’ of our petition to ban driven grouse shooting.
Apologies for the short delay in getting this out – we're a tiny team and since the debate we’ve been busy attending meetings about our four current legal challenges as well as doing some campaign planning with colleagues and associates.
If you didn’t watch the ban driven grouse shooting debate, you can catch up with it here or read through the Hansard transcript here.
On Monday afternoon, and in a 34-degree heatwave, Wild Justice headed to the Houses of Parliament to watch our petition be debated by backbenchers in Westminster Hall. This is the third time in nine years that a petition on this subject has met the criteria for a debate (100,000 signatures) but the first time under a Labour government. A massive thank you to everyone who helped it past the threshold (again).
Following Labour’s woeful response to our petition when it reached 10,000 signatures – in which they stated, ‘The Government has no plans to ban driven grouse shooting’ (see our blog here) – we didn’t have high hopes for a particularly reasoned or informed debate.
Only two Labour MPs turned up to contribute on Monday – the brilliant Olivia Blake MP (Sheffield Hallam), and Sam Rushton MP (Bishop Auckland).
As usual, Olivia - whose constituency yielded the highest number of signatures on our petition, and whose residents have to live alongside the polluting smoke and flooding caused by driven grouse moors – was brilliant. As the standalone backer of our petition in the debate, she clearly and firmly articulated her support, highlighting the subjects of air pollution, environmental degradation and criminal activity.
An amusingly dry comment was her suggestion to those employed, often on very low wages, by the industry charging up to £7,000 for a day’s grouse shooting; “If I were a beater, I might be unionising to take more of that profit home to my family.”
Mr Rushton’s arguments were less coherent, stating firmly his dedication to animal welfare and his stance against fox hunting, whilst also defending an industry known for its illegal persecution of birds of prey and its legal, yet unethical, killing of wildlife such as the routine killing of foxes, referred to by the industry as ‘vermin’.
Why did so few Labour MPs – and not a single Green MP – turn up to the debate? Is this subject deemed by them to be in the ‘too difficult’ category? Are Labour perhaps wary of upsetting other ‘countryside’ groups after the reprisals over their unpopular ‘family farm tax’ proposals? Or do they simply not care about the widespread criminality and environmental damage associated with driven grouse shooting?
We know lots of you contacted your MPs over the last few weeks and asked them to attend the debate on Monday - so they can’t argue that they were unaware of the issues or of the debate. It would be interesting to hear how they account for their absence if any of you decide to challenge them on it.
Ban Driven Grouse Shooting – a game of BINGO
Although there was an almost empty house to defend our petition, we did enjoy a full house of grouse shooting BINGO. When challenged on its bad practices and poor track record, the driven grouse shooting industry has a few well-rehearsed and worn-out lines it peddles on repeat. Watching the debate on Monday we enjoyed crossing off the usual list of cliches, tropes and outright lies.
Some of our highlights included:
Claims that the driven grouse shooting industry has a ‘zero tolerance for raptor persecution’. Last week the RSPB published new figures which showed 102 Hen Harriers have been confirmed or are suspected to have been illegally killed between 2020 - 2024, mostly from areas managed for driven grouse shooting in northern England.
By the way, Greg Smith MP gets the star bonus prize for the most absurd statement which made us laugh out loud during the debate:
‘Gamekeepers are not the enemy of the hen harrier; they are its strongest ally in the uplands’. Mr Smith (a self-declared member of the Countryside Alliance & BASC) can look forward to a fruitful career on the panto circuit when his parliamentary career is over.
The UK has 75% of the world’s heather moorland, which is ‘rarer than rainforest’. Upland heather moorland is an artificial, man-made habitat created by management techniques including burning vegetation on vast areas of peatland, causing air pollution and increasing carbon emissions. The ‘75%’ myth is also totally inaccurate and was debunked six years ago in this excellent blog by Professor Steve Carver of Leeds University.
Managed grouse moorland also provides a defence against tick-borne diseases.
This desperate claim came from Shadow Defra Minister Robbie Moore MP, and its irony wasn’t lost on us. A recent scientific study suggests that ticks found in woodlands where lots of Pheasants are released are two and a half times more likely to carry Lyme disease bacteria than ticks found in woodlands where no Pheasants are released (see here). Perhaps the ‘guardians of the countryside’ should consider stopping the annual release of 50 million non-native Pheasants if they’re so concerned about the prevalence of tick-borne diseases.
Daniel Zeichner, Defra Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, rounded off the ‘debate’ by providing the Government’s position on our petition. He repeated Labour’s earlier stance about having no plans to ban driven grouse shooting but this time adding, “we keep options under close review”. Not close enough, obviously.
He did acknowledge the cast-iron link between driven grouse shooting and the illegal persecution of birds of prey but then feebly muttered, “There are strong penalties in place for offences committed against birds of prey and other wildlife, and anyone found guilty of such offences should feel the full force of the law. Penalties can include an unlimited fine and/or a six-month custodial sentence” (emphasis is ours).
These statements are routinely trotted out by Defra in an attempt to gaslight the public into thinking there’s no need to worry about illegal raptor persecution because measures are in place to tackle it. The very reason that raptor persecution continues on driven grouse moors is because the criminals there know that (a) there is only a miniscule chance of being caught, and (b) even if they are caught, the punishment is of little consequence. The one, and only, custodial sentence ever given to a gamekeeper for committing raptor persecution offences was a case in Scotland in 2014, when a gamekeeper was filmed by the RSPB trapping a Goshawk and clubbing it to death with a stick, amongst other offences. He was given a four-month custodial sentence. Every other gamekeeper convicted since then has received either a small fine (probably covered by his employer) and/or a short community service order.
There’s no effective deterrent and Labour’s trite regurgitation of the words ‘should’ and ‘can’ demonstrates its appalling unwillingness to stop this brazen criminality. That is unforgiveable.
There was one spark of credibility in the Minister’s closing speech, and that was his referral to the Government’s recent public consultation on proposals to extend the Heather and Grass etc. Burning (England) Regulations 2021, including a change to the definition of deep peat from 40cm depth to 30cm depth, which would effectively ban the burning of heather on many driven grouse moors across northern England. It was evident from the speeches made by the Conservatives in the debate that this issue is of HUGE concern to them and their grouse-shooting mates. We look forward to hearing the Government’s announcement on those proposals in the near future.
John Lamont MP (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) first introduced and then concluded the debate, saying in reference to the petition’s 104,000 signatories, “I suspect those people will be a little surprised by the lack of balance in this debate.”
Was Wild Justice surprised at this lack of balance? No, not at all. But motivated? Absolutely. We will of course not be giving up when it comes to the fight to end this environmentally damaging and unjust so-called ‘sport’, mired in wildlife crime and savage animal cruelty.
Onwards and upwards!
Wild Justice (CEO: Bob Elliot. Directors: Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).
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From Orkney.com……
“New products from Orkney
Summer is here and it’s a fabulously busy time for Orkney’s talented crop of food, drink, and crafts makers. Visitors arrive to taste test products and watch beautiful, bespoke pieces being handcrafted in workshops and studios, and in amongst it all, our creative community continues to come up with new items to wow shoppers. We’ve picked out some of our favourite products from our Creative Orkney and Orkney Food & Drink members
https://www.orkney.com/news/orkney-products-summer-2025
Outdoor activities in Orkney
Exploring the great outdoors is definitely a highlight of a visit to Orkney. With hundreds of miles of coastline, beautiful beaches, and some wonderful wildlife experiences, getting out and about across the islands offers the chance of escapism and relaxation. But you can also up the adrenaline levels when enjoying our natural environment with a range of exciting outdoor activities, including scuba diving, snorkelling, cycling, and even eFoiling!
https://www.orkney.com/news/outdoor-activities-in-orkney
Wild Orkney
Join Orcadian wildlife photographer and filmmaker Raymond Besant on his monthly look into Orkney's incredible natural world.
https://www.orkney.com/news/wild-orkney-july-25
Explore Orkney makers. explore Orkney’s communities. For July we’re heading to the East Mainland, home to fertile farmland, spectaculhttps://www.orkney.com/explore/east-mainland
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