I received more death threats in a few months at Defra than I ever did as secretary of state for Northern Ireland.Not only I can well believe it, Mr Paterson having to contend with DEFRA as well as the Greenie mafia, who are completely unhinged (this does not apply to all people who are concerned with the environment just the soi-disant Green activists), I am not even surprised.
It reminded me of a comment made by one of Mr Paterson's predecessors, though he had a junior role at DEFRA, being at that time already in the House of Lords, made when I was working on a Committee that was looking into the meat industry and how it had been affected by EU and domestic regulations (badly).
The ex-Minister (by this stage) said that, despite his long career in politics, he had not really believed any conspiracy theories until he took on DEFRA, who, in his opinion, was a conspiracy all by itself.
Having two young children has made me acutely aware that a lot of literature and entertainment aimed at them is about giving animals human emotional characteristics. Of course they do not, but some people never get beyond this stage.
ReplyDeleteHas that not always been the case? What of a number of fairy tales and Grimm's tales? What of the glorious Wind in the Willows?
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