Talking points NEWS 2517 August 2019 THE WEEKThe Glorious Twelfth: Labour’s grouse“It is no good having
avirtuous media without
avirtuous public.”
Douglas Murray on UnHerd
“Good ideas are always
crazy until they’re not.”
Larry Page, quoted in the
London Evening Standard
“I’m not denyin’ the
women are foolish.
God Almighty made ’em
to match the men.”
George Eliot, quoted
in Forbes
“A cowboy asked me if
Icould help him round up
18 cows.Isaid, ‘Yes, of
course, that’s 20 cows.”
Comedian Jake Lambert,
quoted in
The Daily Telegraph
“Healthy desserts–possibly
the most disappointing
combination of two
words in the entire
English language.”
Alex James, quoted in
The Sunday Times
“Some men change their
party for the sake of their
principles; others their
principles for the sake of
their party.”
Winston Churchill, quoted
in The Independent“I must endure the presence
of afew caterpillars if I
wish to become acquainted
with the butterflies.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,
quoted in Vogue
“I’m taking my toddler to
alot of children’s shows.
Iwant him to see how badly
things can turn out if you
pursueacareer in the arts.”
Comedian Tania Edwards,
quoted in
The Daily TelegraphThe “sordid” story of Jeffrey
Epstein is tailor-made for
conspiracy theories, said
Charlie Warzel in The New
York Times. It contains all
the ingredients: “child
sex-trafficking, powerful global
political leaders, shadowy
private jet flights”. So when
the news broke last weekend
that the disgraced financier had
apparently hanged himself, in
the Manhattan jail where he
was awaiting trial for allegedly
sexually abusing dozens of
underage girls, it was no
surprise that the internet lit up.
But the sheer speed with which
toxic rumours proliferated was
shocking. Within minutes, two opposing
hashtags–#ClintonBodyCount and
#TrumpBodyCount–were trending on
Twitter, alleging foul play at the highest level.
Shamefully, Donald Trump fuelled this fire, said
David Frum in The Atlantic, retweeting a
message which implied that Bill Clinton–who,
like Trump, used to be on friendly terms with
Epstein–had silenced the financier.
I’ve no time for conspiracy theories, said Judith
Miller in the New York Post, but this case is
shocking enough even if you take it at face
value. How was Epstein,ahigh-profile
defendant who apparently attempted suicide
afew weeks ago in his cell, able to take his
own life? Under prison rules, he was supposed
to haveacellmate and be
checked by guards every 30
minutes after he was removed
from suicide watch. Yet he
had reportedly been left alone
and unmonitored in his cell.That Epstein has once again
escaped justice is “a black
mark for the New York prison
system”, said Guy Walters in
The Mail on Sunday.Adecade
ago, when he faced similar
charges, he used his legal clout
to secure an absurdly lenient
sentence, but he wasn’t going
to get away with that again.
The day before he died, the
court releasedacache of
documents containing allegations that his friend
Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the late magnate
Robert Maxwell, had, along with others,
procured girls for him. The documents–newly
unsealed froma2015 defamation claim in the
US brought by one of Epstein’s alleged victims
against Maxwell–claim that Epstein coerced
hundreds of girls into having sex with him and,
in afew cases, his powerful friends, among them
Prince Andrew (a claim denied by Buckingham
Palace). The US attorney general insisted this
week that prosecutors will continue investigating
Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators, said The New
York Times. So they should. Epstein’s premature
death mustn’t stop the legal authorities “from
finishing the job that they finally took up
seriously years after they should have”.Jeffrey Epstein: afailure of US justiceLabour has firedanew shot in its
“war on toffs”, said Kate Ferguson
in The Sun. This week, the shadow
environment secretary Sue Hayman
welcomed the “Glorious Twelfth”
–the traditional opening of the
grouse season–byannouncing
that if the party wins the next
general election, it will review the
controversial annual slaughter of
700,000 game birds on the moors
of Scotland and northern England.
The financial benefits of “shooting
parties” need to be “properly
weighed up” against environmental
concerns, she said–adding that
draining and burning moorland to
boost grouse numbers “exacerbates climate
change” by destroying plant and animal habitats
(including those of hen harriers, kites, mountain
hares and golden eagles) and peat moors that
absorb CO 2 emissions. “For too long, Tories
have bent the knee to landowners”, she said –
and it’s nature that “pays the price”.
This “political attack” should “be blasted with
both barrels”, said the Daily Mail. In reality,
the owners of Britain’s 550,000 acres of
grouse moor are “among the most dedicated
conservationists in the country”, preserving
rare species, providing jobs and
drawing visitors to remote areas.
Labour’s proposals are full of
inaccuracies, said Ian Botham
in The Daily Telegraph–grouse
moors haven’t been drained for
decades, for instance. And its plans
will impoverish rural communities
–it’s yet another example of “posh
London” policymakers getting
things wrong by plunging their
“Islington loafers” into the
“boggy ground” of conservation.There is another way, said Ben
Macdonald in The Spectator.
Instead of making grouse shooting
illegal, we should change how it’s done. In the
past 150 years, these moors have been turned
into sterile “grouse farms”, breeding “living
clay pigeons” to be shot in their thousands,
while competing wildlife has been wiped out.
The time has come to “rewild” these vast
wastelands of the rich. Imagine if the 175
people who own England’s grouse moors had
the vision to plant forests, reintroduce lost
species and release wild horses. Some grouse
shooting could continue; tourism and the jobs
that go with it would be massively increased.
And the countryside itself would be transformed.Dreading AugustStatistics of the week
The average wait foraGP
appointment in the UK has
risen above two weeks for
the first time, to 15 days.
Pulse/The GuardianAlmost 130,000 drivers have
been fined £80 or more for
entering London’s Ultra Low
Emission Zone since it was
introduced in April.
TfL/Daily MailBelieved to have killed himselfWit&Wisdom