Starmer stymies Truss beaver legacy

 

Greetings!   I do not know about you but the direction of the Starmer administration in regard to the countryside confuses me, more akin to the Dominic Cummings dig at his former boss Boris Johnson who he described as “a shopping trolley smashing from one side of the aisle to the other”.   First, we had their extension of Inheritance Tax to farms, then the rescue plan of many years in the making for the chalkstreams championed by my friend Charles Rangeley-Wilson, was unceremoniously dumped and now, out of the blue, despite endorsement by the Department for Rural Affairs, 10 Downing Street have stepped in to kybosh the mass release of beavers.   Why? Well, at this moment with the official announcement still to come, we can only guess but the speculation is of a visceral reaction to a policy championed by previous Conservative administrations. If you recall Liz Truss’s leadership campaign manager cited the reintroduction of beavers as the candidate’s greatest achievement whilst Environment Secretary and Boris Johnson, who said he would give his father a beaver but never did, advocated “Build Back Beaver!”.

 

Read my Spectator article on the beaver menace. Spectator subscribers click here. PDF version click here.

 

In case you are equally confused in respect of beaver status as I am about Starmer, there already being an estimated 2-3,000 of these tree-eating rodents in mainland Britain, let me explain the difference between what we have and what is/was proposed.  Beavers were first smuggled from the continental Europe by eco-fanatics over two decades ago who, having failed to make the case for legal releases, illegally set them free first in Scotland and then in Devon. Whether this disparate group of people ever had a plan as such I do not know but if it was for the beavers to put down roots, breed a ‘native’ population, win the hearts and minds of the British public and then bring officialdom along for the ride, then their plan succeeded. It culminated in 2020 with a farcical study of the River Otter beaver population by Exeter University requiring the answer yes to decide whether the ‘wild’ population should remain and further licences for enclosed populations be granted.   There is, frankly, a load of tosh talked about beavers saving the planet. I know I am often unkind to Natural England, the Environment Agency and other members of ecological officialdom but I think even they would have worked out years ago that if building a few random dams was the answer to all that ails the British countryside and rivers they might just have worked it out. But no, apparently we have to leave it to some very dim and slow moving mustelids.   So, at this point we have the ‘wild’ beaver river population and another population, who make up the bulk of those few thousand, who live in maintained enclosures under licence. The final stage in the evolution of the British beaver was the licenced release of beavers into the wild advocated by that super quango Natural England, egged on by all the usual suspects such at the National Trust, Mammal Society and numerous Wildlife Trusts. Frankly, we all know the licensing of wild releases was just cover for a beaver release free-for-all and the ultimate victory for the eco-fanatics, so quite why this Labour administration has quashed it is hard to work out but nonetheless gratifying.   Watch out for Starmer Beaver Harmer placards at a protest near you soon.

 

 

When Tony went fishing .......   My piece on Jimmy Carter created quite a postbag. Firstly, the landlord of The Mill Arms Terry Lewis where the President took lunch during his day on the Test related his conversation with Carter which nicely summaries the predicament of being too famous.   “Smashing bloke who loved his fishing, he (Carter) was thrilled that the Test was so natural and challenging. He spoke of being invited to the Colorado River by wealthy supporters but on arrival they would have stocked the river with hundreds of fish to ensure that the President had a 'good day', quite defeating the appeal.”

 

Terry Lewis with Jimmy Cater at The Mill Arms   I was also pointed in the direction of that great book You Should Have Been Here Last Thursday by River Itchen keeper Ron Holloway who hosted Jimmy and Rosalind Carter the following day, Mrs Carter comfortably out fishing her husband from which Ron concluded she was the better dry fly fisher of the two, though he chose to keep such thoughts to himself.   Finally, on the subject of fly fishing British Prime Minsters it seems Tony Blair was gifted an exquisite handmade Edward Barder cane fly rod (RRP £3,300) when invited to fish in the US. Of when, where and with whom Blair fished I have no information, but if anyone knows ……     Fit for a PM - an Edward Barder outfit     Memories of The Wind in the Willows   The only book my father ever read me, though do not think we ever got to the end, was The Wind in the Willows. Still to this day I recall the very room and the very chair in which we sat each evening as the tale of Ratty, Toad, Badger and all the other denizens of Wild Woods unfolded. I was probably too young to fully appreciate the plot but vividly remember the colour plates in the book, that guided the story, flicking through the pages long after my father had completed the daily read. So, it was with a certain amount of nostalgia that I saw Kenneth Grahame’s last home in Pangbourne, Berkshire is up for sale.   As is well known, the setting for Grahame’s tale was the River Thames and his childhood home at Cookham Dean nearby which is 5 miles northwest of Windsor. He wrote the book, his only novel, based on bedtime stories he had told his son Alastair when three years old (about the age I was when read it) though Grahame wrote the book a few years later having moved away from the Thames, closer to Oxford on his retirement from the Bank of England.

 

Kenneth Grahame

 

Church Cottage is a pretty house, on the edge of Pangbourne village on the corner of Riverview Road, just a few yards from the River Pang, a chalkstream tributary of the River Thames, which it joins a quarter of a mile to the north. Towards the end of his life, though he died only aged 71, Grahame seemed to lose his memory transferring the location of The Wind in the Willows to either the Thames close to Pangbourne or the Pang itself. Two years prior to his death in 1932 but already immobile he invited artist Ernest Shepard, due to illustrate a new edition of the book, to Church Cottage, Shepard relating the conversation,   “He told me of the river nearby, of the meadows where Mole broke ground that spring morning, of the banks where Rat had his house, of the pools where Otter hid, and of Wild Wood way up on the hill above the river… He would like, he said, to go with me to show me the river bank that he knew so well, ‘but now I cannot walk so far and you must find your way alone’.”   Church Cottage is on sale with Singleton & Daughter at £1.65m.

 

 

 

Appropriate to his book Grahame's Church Cottage contains what was the village jail with Toad, plus keys, immortalised in the pathway.

 

 

Quiz   Back to the normal random collection of questions inspired by the events that took place on this date in history or topics in the Newsletter.   Answers are at the bottom of this Newsletter.   1)    What did Captain Cook cross on this day in 1773?   2)    If you were a dissectologist what would you have a passion for?   3)    What was the name of the prison in which Toad was jailed?

 

Have a good weekend.  Best wishes,

 

 

Simon Cooper simon@fishingbreaks.co.uk Founder & Managing Directorwww.fishingbreaks.co.uk

 

 

1)   He becomes the first person to cross the Antarctic Circle 2)   Solving jigsaw puzzles 3)   Town Prison

How I forgot Jimmy Carter

 

Greetings! I am not sure whether there is a timely moment to die but Jimmy Carter was on my mind when the news broke that he had died at the remarkable age of 100 years. I suspect he must be the oldest surviving US President ever though it is sobering to think Donald Trump will only be 17 years plus a few months off a century when he completes his second term.   But why was Carter on my mind? Well, very many of you had given his name as the answer in the Christmas Quiz asking who was the most recent holder of the US Presidential office to fish the River Test. This was not the answer I anticipated for the correct answer is George Bush Snr. who visited more than once in the 2000’s. In fact, I did not even know Jimmy Carter had fished the River Test which sent me to Google to discover where this factoid originated which unearthed the following article published in 2017 which I reproduce by way of small footnote to the President's life.   When Jimmy came to town   I sometimes wonder why fishing in Britain doesn't get more of a fair shake in the PR stakes when it comes to the sports and pastimes on our nation. You have to ask, is that down to us?   Last week we saw the hunters and fishers of the state of Michigan taking to the streets for the right to bear rods and arms. Now, you might well think in the current climate their passion is misdirected, but you can't argue with the passion. Maybe it speaks to a wider belief in the great outdoors that goes deeper in the US than it does in Britain which applies as much, it seems, to our leaders as us.   Believe or not in the post-war era more US Presidents have fished on the River Test than British Prime Ministers: George Bush Snr, Jimmy Carter and Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower was truly passionate about fly fishing; in his time as President he logged over forty fishing trips (mostly to Colorado) and taught Richard Nixon to fly cast, all in between 800 rounds of golf, a number only bettered by Barack Obama who took up fly fishing whilst in the White House.   And the British list? Well, it is hard enough to find much evidence of any fishing let alone chalkstream fishing of recent incumbents. Of Boris Johnson I can find nothing. On Theresa May, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, John Major, Jim Callaghan, Ted Heath and Harold Wilson I have drawn a similar blank. I did read somewhere that Margaret Thatcher had one less-than-successful foray. David Cameron married as he is into the Astor family who own a good beat on the Spey, I would guess has had a flick or two.   In fact, you have to go all the way back to 1964 to find a Prime Minster photographed with rod in hand with Sir Alec Douglas-Hume who ended the continuous run of Downing Street anglers of Harold Macmillan (keen on shooting and golf as well), Anthony Eden, Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain. It was the last of these who was the most accomplished. Chamberlain is probably best remembered for his much derided 'peace in our time' photo op but a recent biography titled Neville Chamberlain: Angler, Birdwatcher, Farmer, Prime Minister offers a different side to him.   I was surprised to discover Churchill as a regular, but probably not passionate, fly fisher. He fished as a guest of hotelier Charles Ritz on the Normandy chalkstreams, caught a 188lb marlin off the Californian coast conducting the 30-minute fight from a boat dressed in a three-piece suit, bow tie and smoking a cigar. In 1943 when he travelled to address the US Congress, he and Roosevelt snuck off to the secret Presidential retreat in Maryland to fish. He wrote of the day,   "On Sunday the President wanted to fish in a stream which flowed through lovely woods. He was placed with great care by the side of a pool and sought to entice the nimble and wily fish. I tried for some time myself at other spots. No fish were caught, but he seemed to enjoy it very much, and was in great spirits for the rest of the day."   The naval aide tasked with looking after the pair reported that they had no problem with mosquitoes thanks to Churchill's cigar habit.   All sports need not just champions but championing to catch the public eye. The magic fairy dust of fame. Football has it in spades. Tennis, cricket, rugby, motor racing and horse racing all get their annual place in the sun. But fishing? The 3+ million of us who wander the banks seem untroubled by the lack of attention. Maybe that is to our credit?     Menu signed by Jimmy Carter during his stay in Hampshire in 1999   You may notice I have not credited anyone with the above article for the sad state of affairs is that the article is mine – I had clean forgotten that I had ever written it let alone recalled Jimmy Carter’s 1999 visit. In my defence, albeit a pretty feeble one, I have published over half a million words in the past decade, so thank you Google for knowing more about me than me.     Christmas Quiz answers & winner   There was a great response to the Christmas Quiz, so thanks to all who came in with twenty correct answers. However, as alluded above, it was mostly the US president question that tripped people up. The complete list of answers is below.   I really wanted the winner to be Neil Donkin who came up with the tie break caption, "Have you seen the size of Lawrence Gosden's [CEO of Southern Water] bonus?!" but sadly Neil had the wrong President. So, the winner is Richard Blake with the still excellent caption, “I think they have seen Prolific Rising Fish!”.   The signed Matt cartoon is on its way to you Richard – well done.     Angling literature 1)     Who wrote A River Runs Through It? 2)     Which innovative saltwater angler won a Nobel Prize for Literature? 3)     Who wrote Fly Fishing (1899) but was also Foreign Secretary at the start of World War one? 4)     The Compleat Angler was first published in what year? 5)     Who wrote the poem The Brook that begins, “I come from haunts of coot and hern, ….”   1) Norman Maclean (1976) 2) Ernest Hemingway 3) Viscount Grey of Fallodon 4) 1653 5) Alfred, Lord Tennyson   Fish names What is the English name for the following freshwater fish: 6)     Salmo salar 7)     Esox Lucius 8)     Cyprinus carpio 9)     Thymallus thymallus 10)   Gasterosteidae   6) Atlantic salmon 7) Northern pike 8) Common carp 9) Grayling 10) Stickleback   Fishing personalities 11)     Who are the stars of the Gone Fishing BBC TV series? 12)     Which rock and roll legend caught the biggest Icelandic salmon of summer 2017? 13)     Which member of Pink Floyd owns a house on the banks of the River Test? 14)     Who was the most recent US President to fish the English chalkstreams? 15) What is the nationality of water campaigner Feargal Sharkey?   11) Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse 12) Eric Clapton 13) Roger Waters 14) George W Bush Snr. 15) Northern Irish   Where in Britain 16) Which is the longest river in the British Isles? 17) Which is the largest lake (by surface area) in the British Isles? 18) Which is the longest road in the British Isles? 19) What species of tree is the oldest in the UK? 20) How long is the UK coastline? A) 5,073 miles B) 7,073 miles C) 9,073 miles D) 11,073 miles       16) River Severn at 220 miles just 5 miles longer than River Thames 17) Loch Neagh in Northern Ireland 18) The A1 or Great North Road at 410 miles (660 km) connecting London with Edinburgh. 19) The Fortingall Yew in Perthshire is believed to be the UK's oldest tree, with an estimated age between 2,000 and 3,000 years. 20) The Ordnance Survey places the length of the coastline at 11,073 miles     To rise or not to rise   My question about whether non-fertile triploid stocked trout were lazy risers prompted quite the postbag.   I think the first thing to say is that I was wrong in supposing no research has been done into the feeding habits of diploid vs. triploid and I am indebted to Shaun Leonard of the Wild Trout Trust who pointed me to a 2014 paper published in the Journal of Fish Biology. It was, admittedly, a tank based test over a six week period but concluded that, “findings suggest that sterile triploid S. trutta feed similarly ….. to diploid trout”.   I am inclined to go with this because a common theme in many of your comments was the lack of rising fish being notable on both stocked and all wild rivers. So, if it is not the fish what is it? I know it is tempting to leap to the conclusion that it is the demise of insect life with all the data pointing to a catastrophic decline in the scale and variety of entomological life in our lifetimes.   But I have to counter that I often I stand by a river with huge hatches that last for ages but nary a creature moves. However, what I do know is that there is a whole palette of insects fish never, or at least very rarely, (think Alder fly) eat. Maybe, to repurpose that old British Rail excuse, hatches are now the wrong kind of insects, the ones trout really like having been decimated by pollution.     Quiz   Back to the normal random collection of questions inspired by the events that took place on this date in history or topics in the Newsletter.   Answers are at the bottom of this Newsletter.   1)     What currency came into existence on this day is 2009?   2)     If you suffered from neoannophobia what would you be fearful of?  3)     How many times was Winston Churchill elected as Prime Minster?   Happy New Year!  Best wishes,     Simon Cooper simon@fishingbreaks.co.uk Founder & Managing Directorwww.fishingbreaks.co.uk     1)     First Bitcoin ‘mined’ 2)     The New Year 3)     Once when elected at the 1951 General Election. In 1940 he became prime minister when succeeding Neville Chamberlain.         TIME IS PRECIOUS. USE IT FISHING     The Mill, Heathman Street, Nether Wallop, Stockbridge, England SO20 8EW United Kingdom 01264 781988 www.fishingbreaks.co.uk Check out our social media