Camilla Swift | The Spectator columnists & writers

Scotland’s deer are proving deeply divisive

On the face of it, a book about a woman stalking one red deer might not sound that exciting. Just one? It’s estimated that there are nearly a million in the Scottish hills and around 60,000 are culled every year. So why write about a single kill? But in Hindsight Jenna Watt goes far deeper into Scotland’s relationship with red deer. It may be a book about deer, but it’s also about people, habitats, history, landownership, grief and belonging. Watt’s interest in the animals stems from reading George Monbiot’s book Feral. From there she falls down the rabbit hole of rewilding, regeneration, conservation and environmentalism. As a born and bred Highlander, she can’t quite believe that her home is ‘at the forefront of such ambitious ecological restoration and species introduction’.

Four difficult women who fought to preserve the English countryside

One thing that Covid lockdown made us appreciate was the importance of being outdoors. When we were finally allowed into them, national and local parks became chockfull and many people rediscovered that being in the open had health benefits. How timely, then, that Matthew Kelly has written an account of four redoubtable rural activists: Octavia Hill, Beatrix Potter, Sylvia Sayer and Pauline Dower. He describes them as ‘the women who saved the English countryside’ – which is perhaps a bit of a stretch, though it’s true that individually they fought tooth and nail to preserve vast tracts of it. Their lives spanned the past two centuries and they were all, as Theresa May would have it, ‘bloody difficult women’, each with a driving force and often a particular region that concerned them.

The joy of hedgerow foraging

Hedgerows are one of those things that most of us simply take for granted. Drive, walk, cycle or ride through the English countryside and you’re likely to see fields bounded by hedges, which change with the seasons. Blossoming in the spring, full of colour and berries in the autumn, and sprouting wildly thorugh the summer months. They are certainly having their moment in the sun. In the 1980s, farmers were encouraged under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy to grub them up (dig them up, in laymen’s speak) in a bid to create larger fields, and grow more food. 23 per cent of the nation’s hedgerows were lost in that decade. But now Defra have recognised the benefits of hedgerows, and ecologists, rewilding fanatics and many of the more ecologically-minded farmers and landowners are restoring and replanting hedgerows.

The joy of Britain’s country shows

Wandering through the sheep pens at the Great Yorkshire Show, it’s clear that a sheep is not ‘just’ a sheep. The sheer array of livestock on display is a lesson in itself. Sheep with fluffy legs; sheep with four enormous horns. Pink sheep, white sheep, brown, black and piebald sheep. Dreadlocked sheep; sheep with huge donkey ears, and rams with huge, curled horns. Above their pens they proudly display their prizes: Breed Champion; Winning Lamb; Best Swaledale; Best Homebred. It’s remarkable calm in here; the odd bleat here and there, or a scuffle as someone objects to being puffed and preened before their next class. But for the most part the sheep are content to loll around, munching on their hay. For the handlers; the breeders and the owners who dedicate their lives to their flocks, this show is one of the highlights of the year.

How to take up shooting

With summer on its way and Covid restrictions (hopefully) easing, what better time than now to take up a new hobby? Clay shooting is a hugely popular sport in the UK – and we Brits are quite good at it too, with a team of five set to head to the Tokyo Olympics, and a tally of two bronzes from the 2016 Olympics. At the Commonwealth Games, Wales, England and Scotland are often at the top of the medals tables, too. It’s no surprise then that there are plenty of people all across the UK willing to teach you to shoot. Whether you’re looking to refine your skills ahead of a shoot day, or simply want to learn the sport of clay shooting in its own right, there’s a huge range of places to choose from. While there are hundreds of people with a couple of traps who offer excellent tuition, many choose to go to a shooting school, where there tends to be a wide range of traps, instructors, and even organised competitions to make your day go with a bang.

How to back the right horse: top tips for the Grand National

Around £250 million was placed in bets on the 2019 Grand National, and this Saturday’s Grand National, which will be shown live on ITV at 5.15pm, looks set to be equally popular. Cloth Cap, they say, ‘should win it’. Trained by Jonjo O’Neill, he has a stone in hand carrying 10st 5 – which is one of the reasons why he’ll be ridden by Tom Scudamore, who picked up the ride in the Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury due to being able to make the 10 stone weight. He won easily. The pair went on to romp up at Kelso as well; but what would make this a nice tale is that both the jockey and the horse have Grand National heritage behind them. Scudamore’s grandfather Michael rode in the race 16 times, winning in 1959 on Oxo. The horse is owned by another Aintree aficionado Trevor Hemmings, whose famous green, yellow and white colours have previously won the National with Hedgehunter, Ballabriggs and Many Clouds.

A programme for Prosperity Britain

Productivity is something of a buzzword these days. Everyone’s talking about it — or rather, the lack of it. We’ve all heard how the UK lags behind the other G7 nations, and even that the French could match our productivity levels working only four days a week. But for all the talk, is anything being done? On 30 November, The Spectator hosted a discussion, sponsored by BAE Systems, which analysed Britain’s stagnating productivity (for full details visit spectator.co.uk/ProsperityBritain). Many of the event’s topics are reflected in this supplement. Richard Heys, deputy chief economist at the Office for National Statistics, asks how we could improve national productivity; Sir Roger Carr, chairman of BAE Systems, says we need to invest in training; Matthew Lynn asks if artificial intelligence could hold the key to improving our work rate.

In defence of the grouse shooting exemption

At the tail end of last week, news emerged that no groups of more than six people were to be allowed to gather together. Certain activities were to be excluded from the so-called 'rule of six' — and as soon as it was announced on Monday that various rural pastimes were exempt, the press had a field day. ‘No birthday parties but you can shoot grouse’, the Times announced. The Mirror declared that ‘Toffs can go on a Boxing Day hunt — but you can’t have a Christmas Day meal’. Of course, I understand the problem: it simply isn't a good look. The two sports picked out by the papers — ‘hunting and grouse shooting’ — have always had a class-related image problem. And the idea that posh people are out shooting birds and hunting on horses while Joe public is stuck at home and banned from socialising with (more than five) friends or family simply doesn’t rub.

Are the Tories really on the side of Britain’s farmers?

It might seem hard to believe it was just a matter of months ago that senior Treasury advisor Tim Leunig made headlines when he suggested in leaked emails that Britain doesn’t need farmers. The ‘food sector isn't critically important to the UK’, he wrote. Then Covid-19 descended, and the British farming industry was deemed vital again. With supermarket shelves empty due to panic buyers, we were reminded how important it is that we are able produce at least a proportion of the food we need at home. The Prime Minister took to pointing out the strength of our ‘farm to fork’ supply chain that kept supermarkets stocked. It’s strange, then, that as part of ‘getting Brexit done’, the current government are proposing a raft of ideas that will be far from helpful for British farmers.

Hare coursing gangs are terrorising the countryside

If you’re driving at dawn or at dusk in the countryside at this time of year, you might well see shady-looking men standing around in a stubble field, their 4x4s parked close by and ‘long’ dogs — greyhound types — straining on the lead beside them. Watch and you’ll see them walk up the field, or along the edges, until a hare makes a bolt for it. The men are ready. This is what they’re there for. A dog is let off the lead, and someone with a phone videos the scene. The footage is being live-streamed to others who have placed bets on the outcome —guessing which dog will kill the most hares per ‘slip’, or chase. When the hare has been caught (or when it’s scarpered), another dog has a go. Modern-day hare coursing is illegal, but even so it’s become common in the UK, especially after harvest and in counties where the fields are flat.

Eds-letter

For some, having to put together an article for the school magazine is a chore; another piece of homework to do. For others, it’s an opportunity to write about things that matter to them, and a source of real enjoyment. School magazines certainly carry their own air of nostalgia, as you flick through the pages remembering names and faces and that school trip to the trenches. But, asks Katherine Whitbourn, is there still a place for the traditional school magazine in the social media age? For The Spectator’s editor Fraser Nelson having a child take the Eleven Plus exam — used as a device to select pupils for grammar and private schools — is a crash-course in the secret rules of English life. He writes his guide to what he wishes he’d known before his son chose to have a go at it.

Canine connoisseurs

Stepping into any art gallery, the last thing you expect to be greeted by is a cacophony of barking and wet noses on your knee. This, however, was the welcome I received at the current exhibition at Southwark Park Galleries. Dog Show is, as the name suggests, about dogs. Not just about dogs, though; each of the works has been chosen by a dog — or, as they put it, a canine curator. ‘We’ve never asked dogs about their opinions on art, even though some dogs see an awful lot of it,’ explains Judith Carlton, director of Southwark Park Galleries. Well yes; it’s most likely true that no one has ever asked dogs for their thoughts on art, but there’s probably a reason for that. I’m not sure my dog has ever paid any attention whatsoever to a piece of art; perhaps a sculpture of a tennis ball could be the one exception.

Jeremy Hunt has shot himself in the foot with his fox-hunting pledge

I moaned here last week about the lack of attention the two Tory leadership contenders were paying to rural communities in their pitches to the party membership. Funnily enough, as Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson have travelled around the country to various party hustings, their tone has now changed. Finally, they are speaking up for people outside towns and cities. Both of them have promised to speed up the delivery of full-fibre broadband to the countryside. They have also vowed to get the UK out of the Common Agricultural Policy, giving us control over our own agriculture policies. Hunt has sworn to place rural society at the heart of his government, and he has also promised ‘never (to) introduce any undue restrictions on gun ownership or the list of wild animals it is lawful to shoot’.

Why aren’t the Tory leadership contenders courting rural voters?

Around nine million people – over 17 per cent of the population – live in an area classed as ‘rural’. That number is set to grow; by 2025, it has been estimated that the population of the English countryside will have increased by half a million. So surely, when a politician is bidding to become the next prime minister, it would make sense to consider what the rural population’s priorities might be. A national survey of rural opinion on the leadership contest, organised by the Countryside Alliance, would indicate that this isn’t happening. It’s far from new to say that farming communities are worried about Brexit, and concerned that their needs aren’t being considered in the debate. But that’s not the only cause for concern.

Hats

‘Thank goodness for racing,’ says Rachel Trevor-Morgan. She is a milliner — a hat maker — so it’s no surprise she’s grateful. Without weddings and race days, many milliners would be out of business. If you want to gain entry into the Royal Enclosure during Ascot week, a hat is non-negotiable. And it’s not just any old hat: the rules dictate that your headpiece must have a base of at least 10cm in diameter. The Ascot ruling was brought in in 2012 to put a stop to the trend for tiny fascinators, essentially just twiddles of feathers and fluff that perch above the hairline. For the very latest in fascinators, look at Ivanka Trump during the Trump family visit to Westminster Abbey. Sitting above her right eye is a sort of felt bedpan designed by milliner to the stars Philip Treacy.

The future of healthcare

Last year, the NHS celebrated its 70th birthday. Healthcare has changed enormously in those seven decades, and no one knows what the next 70 years will hold. But all the signs are that it will have undergone another huge change, as technologies are invented that enable doctors to treat patients in completely different ways. This supplement, sponsored by Philips, explores how technology could transform the future of medicine. As Neil Armstrong finds, a person’s genome could be read to allow doctors to predict the likelihood of their developing heart disease — and so allow earlier diagnoses that would, in turn, increase survival rates. As Ross Clark writes, artificial intelligence could speed up the time it takes for new drugs to go from inception to being marketed.

Who will win this year’s Grand National?

I’m sure every ‘horsey’ person has been asked the same question: ‘Who should I put my money on in the Grand National?’ No matter whether you’re a dressage rider or a four-in-hand driver, come mid-April everyone wants to hear your views on the most-watched horse race in Britain. £300 million is expected to be bet on the race itself (Saturday at 5.15pm, if you’d forgotten); the most bet on any single horse race in the world. But who is it worth putting your money on? It’s a tough call, for so many reasons. For starters, unless there are any last-minute changes, there will be 40 horses at the start line – so a sizeable field. And secondly, in a race like the Grand National, run over four miles and with 30 obstacles to navigate, you need luck on your side.

What might a jockey earn from riding in tomorrow’s Grand National?

This Saturday, 600 million viewers are expected to tune in to watch The Grand National. Horse racing is the second biggest spectator sport in the UK, and Aintree’s most famous race – in fact, Britain’s most famous race – will be screened in every corner of the globe. £300 million of bets will be placed on the race, and thousands of office sweepstakes organised. What about the jockeys riding round the course? It’s safe to say that being a jump jockey is one of the most dangerous jobs – or certainly one of the most injury-prone jobs – out there. Just look at the fact that Bryony Frost – the star of the Cheltenham Festival who became the first woman to win a Group One race over jumps at the meeting – is currently out of action, after breaking her collarbone the week after Cheltenham.

Location, location

In large cities, a school can weave itself into the fabric of its locality almost without anyone noticing it’s there. But in smaller towns and villages a school, particularly a large one, can play a much greater part in the day-to-day life of its inhabitants. In some towns and villages, the school is even the focal point. Take Peaslake in the Surrey Hills. In 1993, the village school was closed down as it was considered ‘too small’ to be viable. When a campaign by local residents and parents to keep it open failed and government funding was removed, the Peaslake Schools Trust was formed. For three years the school operated in a private home; then, in 1996, the original school buildings were reclaimed by the school, thanks to the efforts of 18 households who raised more than £180,000.

Editor’s Letter | 14 March 2019

If you want to see equality in action, head to the Cheltenham Festival

International Women’s Day is the official appointed day on which to celebrate women’s achievements. But actually, I’d argue that the first day of the Cheltenham Festival is as good a day as any to celebrate women in racing; and there are lots of them. Women are making their names in racing, on an equal playing field with men, whether it’s International Women’s Day or Christmas Day; a Friday or a Tuesday. Go to any racing yard in the country and it’s likely that many of the staff will be female. It’s a cliché, but girls like ponies, and over half of all stable staff jobs in the UK are filled by women. But historically, racing has very much been a man’s world. As jumps trainer Jessica Harrington says in a new film Jump Girls, ‘When I started training it was very much a man’s world.

Gove is right to keep the lynx out of Northumberland

Over the few years, a battle has been quietly simmering between farming communities and a conservation organisation who want to reintroduce the Eurasian lynx to the UK. The cats have been extinct in the UK for well over a thousand years, and while farmers worry that the big cats will threaten their sheep, Lynx UK – the trust behind the plans – argue that the animals would help the economy, and cause little damage to livestock. But now Defra secretary Michael Gove has rejected a request to release six lynx into Kielder Forest, in Northumberland. The reasoning given for their decision included a lack of support from locals and major landowners, adding that the ‘socio-economic benefits of the trial were unclear’. There were also worries about funding and the lack of a coherent plan to monitor the animals.

A beach ball

‘Watamu is my favourite place in the world,’ my friend declared when I told her where I was going for a long weekend. For her, Watamu means Christmas. Like many visitors to Hemingways and other hotels alowhang the Watamu coast, her family are loyal repeat customers, returning year after year to this little village on the Kenyan coast around 75 miles north of Mombasa. The coast has had its ups and downs. It became a popular holiday destination in the late 1960s and for several decades earned a decent income from visitors. In the 1990s and the 2000s, tourism had more of a struggle. Politics, terrorism and some well-publicised murders all played their part in putting people off. In 2015, the Foreign Office advised British travellers to avoid the Kenyan coast due to terror threats from the Al-Shabaab group.

Rise of the machines

‘There is a profound mismatch between the way we are educating our young and the world we’re educating them for, and what should, and could, be happening.’ So says Sir Anthony Seldon, former headmaster of Wellington College and vice-chancellor of Buckingham University. Seldon is well known for promoting novel ideas when it comes to education. During his time at Wellington he was often in the limelight for his original style of thinking, or ‘visions for education’ as he puts it; for example, his decision to introduce mindfulness into the curriculum there. Seldon isn’t just a teacher, though. He’s also a historian and a political biographer, as well as being a regular on TV and radio, discussing education. His latest topic is Artificial Intelligence — and as his wont, he has written a book all about it, The Fourth Education Revolution.

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A model school

Editor’s Letter | 6 September 2018

Have a flutter on girl power winning the Grand National

‘Any tips for the National?’ I think anyone who has even a vague connection to a horse has been asked this question over the last week, and it’s a pretty impossible one to answer. With a field of forty and some very tough obstacles to get over safely on the way, all you can really do is look at statistics. As Belinda McClung, one of the owners of last year’s National winner, One for Arthur, put it to me: ‘There isn’t as much pressure in a race like the Grand National, where there are 39 other horses; you can get brought down, fall – anything can happen.’ If you do want to look at stats, then the average age of a Grand National winner over the last ten years has been 9 ½, and the favourite rarely wins; in the last fifty years, the favourite has won only 11% of the time.

How Friday the 13th affects peoples’ behaviour

We Brits tend not to be as superstitious as those in some other countries; well at least that's what I thought. In the States, for example, it’s common practice not to have a 13th floor in hotels, for fear it might bring bad luck. No such thing would happen over here, would it? Surely we are far too sensible to worry about silly superstitions like that? But new research appears to show that we are, in fact, just as superstitious as those over the pond. Today is Friday 13th – a day that is famously unlucky, if you believe in those kinds of things, and home insurance company Policy Expert has found that people appear to change their habits when the 13th falls on a Friday, and behave in a more careful way. The last nine consecutive Friday-the-thirteenths have all seen a fall in claim costs, while there are also fewer claims made on this date.

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