Hinterland
Rural News
New PM’s political challenge is to unify a divided Conservative party
By the time you read this I suspect Liz Truss will have been enthroned. Good cartoon which accompanies the story. I’m not particularly interested in the internal dynamics of the Tory party in relation to this article. It is an excuse for me to relay what I heard on Farming today which is that neither […]
Great Yarmouth council launches legal challenge over hotel for asylum seekers
This article gives us pause for thought in the debate about what holiday resorts, particularly struggling ones are for. It tells us…. Great Yarmouth Borough Council said it had serious concerns about people being put up at the Hotel Victoria in the town. There had been a “lack of dialogue” from the Home Office and […]
Joint East Midlands mayor plan would ‘consign Leicestershire to division two’
I hear very few rural voices in the machinations linked the current moving of the deck chairs around on the Titanic in terms of the latest round of (in terms of the real challenges we face) side show that is local government reform. As someone who has lived in the “East Midlands” region all my […]
Doctors’ pensions: Labour would abolish cap, says Wes Streeting
This might seem a strange and tangential story to feature but it is an example of a crucial issue which underpins the real shortage of skilled staff in rural NHS setting. It tells us: Wes Streeting, the shadow health and social care secretary, has said Labour would abolish the cap on doctors’ pensions which he […]
Larry4Leader: No 10’s Larry the cat ‘enters’ race to become next PM
Not strictly rural but as a sign of the times and the momentous announcement of a new PM lets hear it for Larry….This story tells us: Larry was only four years old when he was adopted from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home to begin his new life in politics and has served as a trusted […]
‘I lost £40,000 worth of crops in a field fire’
This story helps illustrate the commercial costs of wildfires. It tells us: People are being urged to take extra care to avoid causing fires in the countryside during hot weather, with some farmers saying they have lost thousands of pounds worth of crops. The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said fires were one of the biggest […]
Huge rise in building on prime farmland in England stokes food security fears
I read this article through the filter of remembering someone called Matthew Taylor who wrote a great piece of policy called “Living, Working, Countryside”. It tells us: The rate at which infrastructure is built on prime farmland in England has risen a hundredfold in the past decade, a report has found, as it calls the […]
Shropshire rural care staff hit by rising fuel costs
I suspect the depressing features of this story are to become a common refrain over the winter of 2022/23. It tells us: A rural domiciliary carer has said that rising fuel costs are one of the reasons for the lack of staff. Ash Turner works for New Dawn Care in Craven Arms, south Shropshire, and […]
NHS in England facing worst staffing crisis in history, MPs warn
Our parliamentary inquiry into rural health and care revealed that staffing is the greatest blight affecting the rural NHS and is borne out by this story which tells us: The large number of unfilled NHS job vacancies is posing a serious risk to patient safety, a report by MPs says. It found England is now […]
Eurasian beaver to be given legal protection in England
The first of two stories, on in “And Finally” about the reinvention of the British Countryside. This one tells us of the challenges and issues associated with reintroducing species which impact on farms and communities. It tells us: Beavers are to be legally protected in England from being captured, killed, injured or disturbed without a […]
Wild bison return to UK for first time in thousands of years
Another heart warming story to add to my collection of charismatic mega-fauna tales: Early on Monday morning, three gentle giants wandered out of a corral in the Kent countryside to become the first wild bison to roam in Britain for thousands of years. The aim is for the animals’ natural behaviour to transform a dense […]
Only a tiny minority of rural Britons are farmers – so why do they hold such sway?
Thought provoking typical Monbiot article…. Government figures show that there are 115,000 people, across all categories, working on English farms. They comprise 0.2% of the total population, and 1.2% of the rural population. If you include everyone who might be involved in farming, including farmers’ spouses, partners, directors and managers, the total reaches 306,000, which […]