Mike, encapsulates everything I would want to say, but you have said so eloquently.
The funny thing is Neil, I agree with almost everything Mike has said, and have said much the same things myself on these threads a number of times. Does that mean that Mike is a 'leftie' too?
However, I am very used to your constant jabs at me for everything, and up untill now, I have pretty much let it woosh over my head. You have always utterly refused to even acknowledge my constantly made point that I DO NOT HATE OTTERS (is that loud enough for you dear boy?) My anger is directed squarely at the selfish, unthinking morons who decided to speed up the natural return of otters by reintroducing unnatural cage/hand reared ones...
at a time when most of our rivers are utterly unable to support them...did that get through this time Neil?
Otters were making a natural come-back anyway (due to the fact that the farming chemicals that caused their issues had been banned). So, is it beyond you to see that instead of interfering with nature once more, the money, time and effort spent on this nonsense were better spent on improving the riverine habitat, so that there might be a healthy fish stock once more that COULD support a natural level of otters?
The truth is Neil, whether you like it or not, there is a VERY big over abundance of predators in our waters at the moment. We have an absolute plague of non indigenous crayfish eating the eggs and fry of all species of our fish, we have a super abundance of indigenous and non indigenous cormorants devestating many fisheries by eating the small to medium fish (and they are protected except in special circumstances), we have goosanders doing the same, we have introduced mink taking medium to large fish, we have introduced zander and catfish to join our indigenous pike and perch, to play their part in this slaughter fest. Worst of all, this has all come about at at time when on MANY rivers the general water quality falls WAY below EEC guidelines, and now new chemicals have appeared that render our fish infertile.
So, I will ask you this Neil...in all your dreams and fevered imaginings, can you seriously think of a WORSE time to interfere with nature yet again, by unnaturally speeding up the return of yet another predator to add to that already impessive list? It doesn't matter a jot that they are an indiginous species Neil, that they 'have a right to be here', and all the other waffle. Whatever you say, now is NOT the time, our delicately balanced fish stocks of ALL species need these like they need a hole in the head, OK? Left to their own devices, they would have returned naturally...they did NOT need us to interfere and speed that process up. The fish have enough to deal with!
As for acusing me of/criticising me for holding 'leftie' political views...for one thing, I am entitled to hold any political view I wish, it is a right and freedom bestowed on ANY person in this land. Secondly, the reason you have accused me of holding such views is because I recently wrote a piece in which I strongly criticised this government for contemplating cutting back on the numbers of cancer treating/life saving drugs available to doctors in this country (a policy which has enraged cancer specialists), purely as a cost cutting exersise.
I mentioned that they were doing this despite having awarded themselves a huge salary increase. In my anger at this news, I went on to contemplate whether the real terrorists in this world all came from abroad. And you criticised me roundly for that dear chap. I have more than once explained that my wife has Non Hodgkins Lymphoma, a cancer for which there is no outright cure, the best they can do is put her into remission by the use of chemo therapy. When it does come back (and they assure me it will), then all they can do is use chemo to put her into remission again. And guess what? Rituximab, the most successful drug they have, their best chance of helping her....is one of those that they now intend to refuse to allow doctors to have.....to save money. Build a pointless, £60/70 billion railway, to save twenty minutes getting to Birmingham or wherever, no probs. Unbelievably, they have no problems with killing cancer suffers either, to save a few pounds ....and you can't see why I am angry Neil, why I question the difference between their ethics and those of the people who similarly have no problems in killing innocent people in foreighn lands.
All I can say Neil is that you are entiteled to your political views, the same as I am to mine. However, I am absolutely thrilled and utterly relieved that my way of thinking in general is not in any way similar to yours.
Dave.
