News
Not Just ‘Bad Apples’ – The Reality of Fox Hunting
My interview on BBC Radio Stoke’s ‘Drive Time with Stuart George’ yesterday re: the South Herefordshire Hunt ‘fox cubs’ case which concluded on Monday …
‘Noble Work, Done Nobly’: Honouring the Emancipation Playbook from Generations through History
“We consider our work to be noble … and we will do it nobly.” I heard this quote yesterday in a documentary about the American Civil War. It’s from a woman who was among the volunteers travelling south to teach freed slaves following Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation...
De-Commissioning Fairbourne: Time to Stop Sleep-Walking
Fairbourne, Gwynedd. This is somewhere we've often walked, paddled, swum and cycled. It's where Aggie first swam in the sea and where the boys made their first rock towers. It's on lots of our holiday photos. It's also the first community in the UK to be...
Awake, and Therefore Alive
For it is important that awake people be awake" William Stafford, 'A Ritual to Read to Each Other In a way, this is just another blog post about resisting the badger cull. But I don't want to focus on us resisters - today I'm...
Water of Life: A ‘Badger Meditation’ on Small Kindnesses
This week I'm standing in for a friend who's away on holiday and who puts out water and some food nightly for a local family of badgers. It's a 'baby-sitting' job that I appreciate on so many levels - the chance to do a favour for a friend, the chance to help badgers,...
A Lesson in Humility – from 22,000 Years Ago
When an ecosystem is fully functioning, all the members are present at the assembly ... Human beings come out of that wholeness, and to consider the possibility of reactivating membership in the Assembly of All Beings is in no way regressive Gary Snyder, 'The Practice...
Walking into the ‘Heart of Violence’ to Oppose Violence: Why We Must Support Direct Action for Animals’ Rights
When you see violence, greed and narrow-mindedness in the fullness of its power, walk straight into the heart of it, remaining open to the sky and in touch with the earth Shambala Warrior Mind Training In the centenary year of women's suffrage it might be timely...
For Foxes’ Sake: Why Did Cheshire Police Refuse to Discuss Fox Hunting at a Meeting about Wildlife Crime?
Last night I was at a meeting in Nantwich, organized by Cheshire Wildlife Trust, where the speaker was a PC from Cheshire Police whose presentation was about wildlife crime in the county. The opening lines of her talk were: "If people have questions about trail...
Money Versus Real Currency: The Deeper Economics of the Badger Cull
I ... cannot understand how the 'badger lobby' seem not to mind at all about the slaughter of thousands of expensive cattle, and yet object to a managed cull of an overpopulation of badgersPrince Charles It's really not like me to quote the royal family, however I'll...
Why I Became a Conscientious Defector
Blog for the Huffington Post, September 2017 Have you ever done anything that’s difficult but absolutely necessary because your conscience requires it? Last week I did just that. As a serving councillor, I switched from The Green Party to Animal Welfare Party,...