Section:GDN 1J PaGe:7 Edition Date:190827 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 26/8/2019 16:51 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
Tuesday 27 August 2019 The Guardian •
7
I am well over halfway to Oundle,
zipping and undulating, with my two
wheels spinning smoothly, when
an insect bounces off my upper lip
and reminds me to cycle with my
mouth shut. It’s enough to trigger my
bioabundance anxiety – a fear that
the amount of life on Earth is fading
away. I n the past, cycle rides in
mid-August were characterised by a
light rain of insects on exposed skin,
thunderfl ies in the eyes; and a gaping
mouth was punished by the speedy
ingress of animals. Surely it would
not have taken two miles of cycling
before the fi rst impact.
A scatter of rooks stalk
mechanically, pausing to pluck
at invertebrate prey, on the green
playing fi elds on the edge of the
Nene fl oodplain south of Oundle.
Around them a squadron of swallows
skim and sweep; apparently there’s
enough insect life here to keep them
interested. Back at home the nest
in the back porch is overfl owing
with near-fl edgings. Viewers of BBC
Springwatch were shocked by nests
of starving chicks of various species,
perishing despite the best eff orts of
their parents, but here at least we
should provide some new feathered
bodies for the migration south.
At Birdfair , sometimes referred
to as the wildlife Glastonbury, talk
keeps coming back to the question
of insect population size. The
conservationists Ken and Linda
Smith report fi nding hardly any
insects in eastern woodlands, while
a Lancashire woodland is blessed
with a contrasting profusion ; they
wonder if water availability is the
key to healthy woodland insect
populations and if climate change is
driving declines in abundance. The
ecologist Lydia Robbins enthuses
about a managed woodland that
buzzes with life, while its non-
intervention neighbour is silent.
Where there is hard data, it
describes declines in a majority
of species of insects, and recent
evidence of rapid collapses in fl ying
insect bioabundance in Germany and
Denmark has been deeply shocking.
Some causes are obvious, but we
are just awakening to this unfolding
drama and learning how increasingly
incongruous weather blends into
climate change. Scientists have
much work to do before we can
clearly see the big picture and put
personal experiences into context.
Matt Shardlow- Untouchable: The Rise and Fall of
Harvey Weinstein will be shown on
Sunday 1 September at 9pm on BBC
Two. It is not yet available on BBC
iPlayer as we mistakenly noted after
an interview with the actor Rosanna
Arquette ( ‘They said I was a pain in
the ass. And it’s not true’ , 26 August,
page 8, G2).
Editorial complaints and corrections can be sent to
[email protected] or The readers’ editor,
Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU; alternatively
call 020 3353 4736 from 10am to 1pm Monday to Friday
excluding public holidays. The Guardian’s policy is to correct
signifi cant errors as soon as possible. For more information
on the readers’ editor’s offi ce and the Guardian editorial
code, see gu.com/readers-editorYou report that Channel 4 has
announced a show called The British
Tribe Next Door, “which will see
Gogglebox star Scarlett Moff att
relocate her entire family to Namibia,
where they will live alongside the
semi-nomadic Himba people in a
purpose-built replica of their County
Durham semi-detached house”
( theguardian.com, 22 August). Some
previous Channel 4 shows have been
described as “poverty porn”. Is there
a suitable epithet for this one?
Mike Gautrey
Wokingham, Berkshire- My wife and I have been gripped
by the Danish drama Below the
Surface on BBC Four , in which a
group of vulnerable individuals,
including children, are held hostage
in a shipping container. Imagine our
surprise at fi nding the programme is
in fact a documentary about UK social
housing policy ( Report , 21 August).
John Lovelock
Bristol - Thirty years ago my family of four
survived with one metal bin for
household waste ( Letters , 26 August).
As a retired couple we have three bins,
with a n industry of recyclers blaming
us! Surely the food industry and
online deliverers have a part to play in
this growing problem? Tax them high
and pierce their pla stic bubble.
Sally Bates
Cotgrave, Nottinghamshire - Rather than sending Amazon’s
plastic bags back to its head offi ce
( Letters , 24 August) , a better idea is
to shop elsewhere, ideally at a green-
minded fi rm that doesn’t avoid tax.
Colin Baker
Llangynidr, Powys - Well done to Matthew Newman’s
family for referring to our new prime
minister as “that Boris ( Letters , 26
August). We use “that **** Boris”,
which may give a wider appreciation
of the enormities of the man.
Dr Ron Fraser
Swallowfi eld, Berkshire
Established 1906Country diary
Oundle,
Northamptonshire
We have Michael Gove to blame for GCSE fi asco
Blurred lines betwixt
reality and television
You are correct in asserting that
private and state school pupils
sitting diff erent exams is a policy
disaster ( Editorial , 26 August). I am
no defender of the independent
school system, but for once this is
not of their doing.
Back when Michael Gove
wanted to toughen up the exams,
he approached Cambridge
International because he liked
the look of its exams.
He was allowed access to all its
syllabuses and exams as a basis for
reforming the IGCSEs. In return,
candidates in state schools would be
allowed to sit the IGCSE.
In the qualifi cation I was involved
with, there was no coursework,
which was appealing to teachers
bogged down with the continuous-
assessment regime. The format
of the exam was straightforward
and suffi ciently demanding to
inspire pupils to learn. The entry
suddenly ballooned tenfold.
Once Gove had got his new GCSE
in place, he suddenly ordained that
the IGCSE would not count towards
league tables. This was a calculated
move to wipe out the competition
to his new GCSE, as no state school
could aff ord to appear to be at the
bottom of the league tables. They
withdrew from the IGCSE.
The independent schools,
however, don’t even pay lip
service to the league tables and
were unwilling to move from a
qualifi cation they were happy
with to one that was an unknown
quantity and likely to experience
teething problems.
Cambridge International has a
considerable number of candidates
from all over the world. The IGCSE
is a prestigious qualifi cation with
international recognition: its grades
are aligned with international
standards. I would challenge the
assumption that it is “easier” –
having to award a “pass” at 31% [email protected]
@guardianlettersILLUSTRATION: CLIFFORD HARPERCorrections and
clarifi cationssuggests that there is something
wrong with the GCSE exam. GCSE
candidates in our state system are
being shortchanged indeed.
Name and address supplied- Your argument that the domestic
GCSE is harder than the IGCSE is
wrong. The specifi cation may be
broader but the grade boundaries
this summer are accordingly lower.
The AQA combined-science GCSE
required only 64% for the top grade
and 21% to pass; the Edexcel IGCSE
was 72% and 39% respectively.
I understand that universities are
only interested in students’ GCSE
results to see if their predicted
A-levels grades are accurate. Public
schools are mostly interested in
getting students to their fi rst-choice
university, so choose a qualifi cation
that meets their needs for A-levels.
Ewan Drysdale
Kimbolton school, Huntingdon,
Cambridgeshire
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