The Countryside Alliance held its annual ‘Rural Oscars’ awards ceremony on Wednesday 8 July at the House of Lords in London, kindly hosted by Lord Hart of Tenby. The event was attended by both MPs and Peers, as rural businesses from across the UK were crowned champions across a range of categories, including best local food and drink, best butcher, best pub, best rural enterprise, and best village shop or post office.

Game shooting is bird conservation. This is not doublethink, this is a matter of fact that ministers seem determined to avoid. The truth of this statement was confirmed scientifically in a recently published paper which shows that curlews, the enchanting troubadour of our moorlands and estuaries, are twice as successful on moorland managed by gamekeepers for shooting compared to unmanaged moorland.

Last week’s spell of hot, dry weather brought a predictable spate of moorland fires, most notably at Tintwhistle Moor in Derbyshire where 500 acres of moorland burned over two days. 

There is not much that can be done, in the short term at least, about our warming climate. Education is making no difference to the prevalence of fires. That leaves management and it is here that ideology is blinding some people to reality.

 Show your support with the 2026 / 27 Season Badge and help fund the Campaign for Shooting. 

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