Reply to: First round of post-Brexit subsidies

[meridian]

This is quite interesting, about caps on subsidies. Seems the UK applies a cap on payments to farmers in NI, Scotland, and Wales, but not in England. Wonder why that is?

http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/...ig-landowners/

EU rules allow Member States to cut substantially so-called “basic payments” under the CAP to large landowners, such as most of those cited in the Greenpeace report, by applying an upper limit (ceiling). Nine Member States do so.
In the UK, such a ceiling is applied in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales – with the resulting funds generated remaining in those regions for rural development projects.
The UK chooses not to apply a ceiling in England.

[BR14]

There is a myth that "country folk" like holding on fox hunts. The truth is the landed gentry go on fox hunts. The landed gentry control and run the countryside to suit themselves, they love writing letters to their lease holders what they can and can't do on their land. They refuse to build and maintain public pathways, cycle paths or anything that might hold up their huge SUVs up on the way to the Fox hunt or pheasant hunts which benefits no-one but the local Lord of the manor and his buddies. My mother hears complaints from villagers who talk about the dead hand of the landowners hanging over it.

When I visit the countryside I've never been attacked by a fox.

i live in london and i see foxes every day, skittish animals, but i suppose they might attack small children, or anything, if cornered.
they're becoming a right PITA, i have to say, and hunting them with horses and dogs MAY cause some traffic disruption, especially in the rush hours

[darmstadt]

What hunt us down and kill us - last time I looked that was tried twice in the 20th century and did not work then.

but I suppose 3rd times a charm?

I don't recall the EU doing that but as you seem to live in a parallel universe then maybe they did

[WTFH]

There is a myth that "country folk" like holding on fox hunts. The truth is the landed gentry go on fox hunts. The landed gentry control and run the countryside to suit themselves, they love writing letters to their lease holders what they can and can't do on their land. They refuse to build and maintain public pathways, cycle paths or anything that might hold up their huge SUVs up on the way to the Fox hunt or pheasant hunts which benefits no-one but the local Lord of the manor and his buddies. My mother hears complaints from villagers who talk about the dead hand of the landowners hanging over it.

When I visit the countryside I've never been attacked by a fox.

I live in the countryside and have done for most of my life, but OPM considers me a townie.

Not everyone who lives outside of towns votes Tory/UKIP.
Not everyone who lives outside of towns thinks chemicals are better than natural solutions to fertiliser, pesticide, etc.
Rural living is great if you're prepared to work with nature, not against it.

A lot of the country estates are still run the way you describe. There's one close to me where the townie tories come out to shoot pheasant, and after shooting them the carcasses are buried.
That's right - the townie tories refuse to take their killings away because they are too lilly-livered to know how to prepare and cook one. So, come to the countryside, kill a couple of birds, go home. It's not difficult to shoot a pheasant, there's little to no skill involved, but what these wastrels do is just kill for the fun of it, then run home.

[BlasterBates]

There is a myth that "country folk" like holding on fox hunts. The truth is the landed gentry go on fox hunts. The landed gentry control and run the countryside to suit themselves, they love writing letters to their lease holders what they can and can't do on their land. They refuse to build and maintain public pathways, cycle paths or anything that might hold up their huge SUVs up on the way to the Fox hunt or pheasant hunts which benefits no-one but the local Lord of the manor and his buddies. My mother hears complaints from villagers who talk about the dead hand of the landowners hanging over it.

When I visit the countryside I've never been attacked by a fox.

[original PM]

Maybe that's what the EU will decide to do with the UK eventually

What hunt us down and kill us - last time I looked that was tried twice in the 20th century and did not work then.

but I suppose 3rd times a charm?

[darmstadt]

The people going on hunts claim that the occasional fox gets killed, but it's only ever the sick or injured, so they say they are helping the fox population by getting rid of them. That's basically the same argument that is used by people who kill lions and elephants in Africa - by getting rid of the old, the sick and the weak you are helping species survive.
I would argue more strongly that until these people can prove over years of study that their logic works for humans, they shouldn't be trying it out on wild animals.

Maybe that's what the EU will decide to do with the UK eventually

[original PM]

Raptors such as Buzzards, Hawks, Harriers, Kestrels and Kites are regularly trapped and killed because they will take one or two pheasant chicks from a shoot. It's illegal, but even the Torygraph ran a story - maybe some of it's readership who are pro-hunting see it as legal advice:
Police fail to prosecute single person for killing endangered birds of prey in 2016, warn RSPB

The culling of badgers is promoted by the CA, because testing to find out which ones were sick and dealing with that is more difficult than eradicating the species.
The people going on hunts claim that the occasional fox gets killed, but it's only ever the sick or injured, so they say they are helping the fox population by getting rid of them. That's basically the same argument that is used by people who kill lions and elephants in Africa - by getting rid of the old, the sick and the weak you are helping species survive.
I would argue more strongly that until these people can prove over years of study that their logic works for humans, they shouldn't be trying it out on wild animals.

I thought foxes were a pest and in some areas have been known to attack humans - making them a predator.

I guess until one of your offspring is attacked then you will live under the assumption it is not a problem.

It's also interesting that fox hunting has been in existence since pretty much man could hunt until it was banned in 2002 (depending on the country you live in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_hunting) so that would seem to imply that we managed not to completely kill off all the foxes in the previous approx 50,000 years so......

And finally who was against fox hunting was it
a) A bunch of liberal townies whose only knowledge of the countryside was the few days a year they visited it or

b) The people who have been managing the countryside for generations

It was a - who knew absolutely fook all about it - other than to protect the cute likkle foxes.

[WTFH]

Wow. Seriously?

Raptors such as Buzzards, Hawks, Harriers, Kestrels and Kites are regularly trapped and killed because they will take one or two pheasant chicks from a shoot. It's illegal, but even the Torygraph ran a story - maybe some of it's readership who are pro-hunting see it as legal advice:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017...angered-birds/

The culling of badgers is promoted by the CA, because testing to find out which ones were sick and dealing with that is more difficult than eradicating the species.
The people going on hunts claim that the occasional fox gets killed, but it's only ever the sick or injured, so they say they are helping the fox population by getting rid of them. That's basically the same argument that is used by people who kill lions and elephants in Africa - by getting rid of the old, the sick and the weak you are helping species survive.
I would argue more strongly that until these people can prove over years of study that their logic works for humans, they shouldn't be trying it out on wild animals.

[Platypus]

...until the Countrycide Alliance come along and insist on murdering all British wildlife in the name of "sport"

Wow. Seriously?

[BrilloPad]

Meadows and flower filled fields will bring back wildlife to the countryside.

As long as it does not attract those pesky cyclists.....

[BR14]

I guess you're confused if you selectively quote, or take things out of context.

Meadows and flower filled fields will bring back wildlife to the countryside. That's got nothing to do with the EU, that's a natural fact. Sorry if you find nature confusing.

does that mean the bloody foxes will bugger off back to the countryside and stop wrecking my bins????

[WTFH]

All Meadows and flower filled fields, what's not to like?

That will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, bring British Wildlife back to the British Countryside and we'll all have more time to walk in it and enjoy it.

...until the Countrycide Alliance come along and insist on murdering all British wildlife in the name of "sport"

So as we have always suspected we will need to spend the money we would have given to the EU (of which they took a cut and then gave some of it back to our farms as EU subsides) and give it directly to the farmers without the EU having a cut....

And all of that means fox hunting will come back....

Are you sure?

I guess you're confused if you selectively quote, or take things out of context.

Meadows and flower filled fields will bring back wildlife to the countryside. That's got nothing to do with the EU, that's a natural fact. Sorry if you find nature confusing.

[original PM]

That will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, bring British Wildlife back to the British Countryside and we'll all have more time to walk in it and enjoy it.

...until the Countrycide Alliance come along and insist on murdering all British wildlife in the name of "sport"

So as we have always suspected we will need to spend the money we would have given to the EU (of which they took a cut and then gave some of it back to our farms as EU subsides) and give it directly to the farmers without the EU having a cut....

And all of that means fox hunting will come back....

Are you sure?

[Eirikur]

So nothing goes to the NHS?