Very Interesting

Where you make your cross on this coming election.

Which party will angling be the safest with?

Not with this mob and that's for sure.

I'm sure I read somewhere recently that it was said that angling is a minority sport.
I don't think so.

The BBC have made it perfectly clear where they stand on the issue of angling in the past few years.
As was said in a recent artcle on here, even if you can give a good account of angling, the BBC will not give you a fair shout, I have heard enough of their phone ins on the radio to prove this.

do you remember a few years ago when there was a campaign to get all anglers to ring up the voting hotlines and make bob nudd the bbc sports personality of the year???
even if he had have won,i doubt wether the bbc would have taken any notice and awarded him the honour...

Are you sure about Helen Stiles being a BBC spokesperson, Barry? she was the poroducer of 'Fish on Five', and before that of 'Dirty Tackle' which makes her the person with most to lose from the series ending. I doubt very much that she's anything but pissed off with the Beeb.

The problem with the anti-hunt, anti-fishing, match and/or pleasure sabateurs of fun is that THIS is their sport.

They are hunters of people and playing the bunny-hugging game is just their way of justifying to themselves that what they do is for the greater good (?) of the world.

In fact, most of them are nothing more than brainless anachists with sod all else to do with their spare time.

Well said Jeff!

"In fact, most of them are nothing more than brainless anachists with sod all else to do with their spare time"

Hey Jeff, what makes you think that they are 'this' GOOD?

I agree that they are a bunch of meddling 'tommy tankers' but they are still a threat to be taken seriously. They seem to be reasonably wealthy and seem to get themselves into positions whereby their influence exceeds their numbers especailly amongst the 'chattering classes' who influence any decision by Blair and his numb nut cronies. I don't think it really matters who you vote for at the next election as they all seem to end up looking and sounding the same after a few years in parliament or is it me just being 'old and bitter!'

yes

Ed,

Yes to being 'old and Bitter' or you agree with what i say. Or is it both?

I had the 'honour' to meet our beloved Prime Minister many years before he was elected and i thought then he was just another gutless chinless wonder and unfortunately he is now in a position where he can mess with all our lives. And that means fishing too! i like Martin Salter, i've fished with him and he knows how trot a mean stick, but i feel he is outnumbered. It galls me to say this but i believe our best hope lies with the Lords who at least have vested interest in the Preservation of Angling.

I just felt like saying yes ......

I reckon fishing does have a bit to worry about as does anything or any sport which may give rise to anyone whinging about it, whether knowledgeable about the subject matter or not.

My personal feeling is we now live in an environment which would cater more for a minority whine than for a sensible cause. Hence we have some pr**k in one of the broadsheets last weekend spouting about what he is going to spend his hundreds of thousands of quid 'compensation' on, a house for him and his mum and a fast car. Reason he needed compensating? He fell through a roof and was injured whilst robbing a place. How absolutely upside down, mad, unbelievable and disgusting is that? Personally, call you can call me Mr Liberal but I'd have charged the tosser for the medical treatment he needed!!!

Wuhoo, well in Labour, ace government!!! <not>

We've ended up talking about the government (gutless self serving untrustworthy bunch that they are - and none of which I will ever vote for) instead of the BBC. I know they are tied up a bit but the problem Barrie is mentioning is this attitude within the BBC itself. I can't make it out myself - this is a broadcasting organistion which is respected around the world. It has to be said that there are many journalists within the organisation who have tried to undermine the government so it can't be said that they are just following the same lines as Blairs other cronies.

As Baz says some of the phone-ins do our sport no favours at all. It seems to be down to the opinion of the presenter in question instead of having the topic discussed in open unbiased forum. This is not new from the BBC - years ago Radio 1 DJ Mark Radcliffe spouted about banning angling but he seemed to be a lonely voice back then.

Even the RSPB side is puzzling to me. I've been a member for years as the protection of birds is important to me too. Now I find myself torn between two bodies which I feel there has always been a call for. I obviously support the angling fraternity above all but used to think that both fraternities were after the same thing - welfare of wildlife. The barricades have gotten higher since the conflict over cormorants. There should have been more intelligent dialogue over the subject just as has been recently shown over the otter predation of carp. The EA funded research into fishery fencing shows that differing sides acn sort things out.

As for songbird populations I think Barrie is off the mark blaming cats. The blame mainly lies fairly and squarely with farmers. Hedgerow damage, insecticide, pesticide, fertilizers and vastly different winter crop sowing have caused what we now see. And the shooting lobby in France who slaughter many thousands of migratory birds too.

As Mike Heylins comment on the latest SAA mag shows anglers can also do their best to alienate other sections of society with the loss of the council run fisheries due to their behaviour. To preserve angling we need less 'join the battle', 'up and at 'em' type of vitriol, we need to engage all in lucid intelligent debate. Hopefully the single body that FACT hoped to be will have enough of these sort of characters to carry it off.

For all our angling and wildlife's sake.

I think you are right Nigel, to make the distinction and take us back to the 'BBC' which of course was the topic of the thread. I feel the 'Government' came in for a bit of aggro mate because the two are so very closely linked in peoples minds. The BBC being a medium through which the Government voices many of its opinions and policies.

Interesting you mention DJ Mark Radcliffe and his rather passionate views on banning angling. I remember this quite clearly and he pulled no punches at all as I recall in his attempts to get angling banned. However in those days the guy seemed to be just some geek on the radio spouting off, trying to make a name for himself. A decade or so later however and he has that name! I haven't heard him mention fishing for a while but I feel given his profile now, perhaps more people would listen to a successful broadcaster? Get enough of them and potentially, this could make things very difficult for us as a group.

Rgds,
Dave

'As for songbird populations I think Barrie is off the mark blaming cats.'

I think Barrie has a point here Nigel, I'm not sure that cat's are one of the main threats to our songbird populations, I do believe they're a part of the problem though.

I agree with what you've said about the hedgerows and pesticides etc being far more concerning. However two other natural culprits spring to mind, Magpies are becoming a scourge. Have you ever watched these pied parasites work a hedgerow as a pair? Think Velocor raptors and Jurassic park! One bird distracting the mother nesting birds, while the other picks off the eggs or chicks?

Sparrowhawks have also made a huge comeback and the rising popularity of bird feeding stations has given them an easy feeding scource. i know it won't be popular, but I honestly believe they are reaching plague proportions. I admire raptors as much as the next birder, but I think the time has come to consider controlling them.

Regards Chris

Chris - I think cats have an impact but it is minimal and just appears worse when the resident populations are down as they now are. I think possibly the same can be said of the magpie population, it is up but not massively so on the 80's levels. Back then there was a major study carried out by some bod who concluded that magpies did take quite a number of songbirds but not to a greater degree than they'd always been presumed to ahve taken previously. But the early 80's was also when the farming practices started to bite as regards songbird's habitat. Now to think about culling/shooting birds like magpies or sparrowhawks would seem like heresy to most people and can be likened to the situation we have re: cormorants and having to cull them to prevent fish stocks being depleted. In either case it is man having to take action over the knock-on effects of there actions in the first place.

Anyhow, this site is meant to be about fishing so I'll shut up and get my coat...

'In either case it is man having to take action over the knock-on effects of there actions in the first place.'

Spot on Nigel!

Regards Chris

Well, well, well.

"Spokeswoman for the BBC, Helen Stiles".

I met Helen at the BEEB around ten years ago. Pleasant girl, hard worker, we had breakfast together in the canteen like proper media types. Janice Long joined us if I recall.

What was the show she earned her living from? That's it, it was Nick Fisher's radio programme that went out at 6am on a Saturday morning.

Strikes me that the worm has either turned or it has become a hypocrite. Or is she "Simply doing me job, guv..."

Interesting choice of spokesperson, eh?

Good article. I used to resent paying the licence fee and have found a simple remedy. I stopped buying one and gave the telly to the Sally Army shop. Much better pictures on the radio and a better class of journalism. I find I get much more done these days because I don't have the option of switching the TV on and collapsing in front of it. Also, much harmless fun can be had with the TV liciensing people, who just don't seem to believe one can possibly survive without a bloody goo-goo box. They keep calling while I'm at work and sending me letters implying I'm a liar when I say I don't have a telly. Hours of amusement...