Charming.

Well worth your time. With vagrancy and tough sleeping no longer a criminal offence will these near forgotten places see more overt, less transient occupation?

"I’m intruding horribly, on not just one life but two. It’s emotional archaeology I don’t want to do. But it has lain here long enough, at least five years. If anyone was coming back for this stuff, they would have done so by now, surely?" @urbanprehistorian.bsky.social

Just amazing writing on nature, literary and folk history, wild service and the sometimes almost crushing banality of local authority beaurocracy by @amyjanebeer.bsky.social

Following Burnham's speech at the People's History Museum today, an excellent piece on how a politics of land might underpin the new politics of place. On @righttoroam.bsky.social'a new Substack: The Crow's Nest.

Why Manchesterism is a politics of land: new blog by me Andy Burnham's 'place first' philosophy opens up questions of land ownership & access - from his support for public ownership & land value tax, to Manchester's history of pioneering the right to roam: righttoroam.substack.com/p/why-manche...

This is good righttoroam.substack.com/p/why-manche...

I met two unemployed lads, tattoos & unkempt, sharing a joint whilst returning from camping in the publicly accessible woods on Winter Hill behind Bolton. They were pushing a barrow of rubbish they'd cleared as they departed, and then placing it, sorted, in a local homeowner's recycling bins.

And on and on and on it goes..

This is surely the finest literary account of fly-tipping ever written, from one of England's strangest, most hardy butterflies. @amyjanebeer.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/amyjaneb...

Excellent guest. Makes such a difference having political communicators with genuine expertise in their area. Perhaps the most dysfunctional part of our political system is the habit of selecting Secretary's of State with zero prior knowledge of their briefs. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg_9...

This case is a striking example of the way particular lobby groups hold the centre of gravity in rural affairs. Natural England is supposed to be an independent advisory body to government whose concerns should be: 1) the science 2) the law 3) the protection & restoration of nature 1/3

A measured and sensible response from Jon Moses to those who object to ‘Scottish style’ responsible access south of the border.

The Government Estate Nature Plan has been published – revealing the first official map of all central government land, and that 37% of the public estate is being protected & managed for nature (thereby counting towards the 30by30 goal). Thread 1/ assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a3ce5...

This is a really interesting read. When I interviewed Nicholas Crane at the Hay Festival, he said he prefers a ‘right to routes’ over a ‘right to roam’. Here @jon-moses.bsky.social dissects that argument…

Good piece by @jon-moses.bsky.social responding to common objections to a "right to roam". He's right to highlight the failure to create new rights of way for C21st movement patterns. The onus shld be on the 'anti' camp to explain how they will change this righttoroam.substack.com/p/should-the...

Should the access movement be less political? Is it all about paths instead of wider rights? In our first substack, co-director @jon-moses.bsky.social responds to comments from the author and geographer, Nicholas Crane, about the right to roam campaign. righttoroam.substack.com/p/should-the...

"..when you go back through the archives to previous eras of access debates .. the same debates recur again and again: ‘It’ll be a disaster! It’s the end of farming as we know it!' .. Yet while nothing is perfect, it should be obvious by now that these tales of calamity have never come to pass."

My first @righttoroam.bsky.social substack post. A response to comments from eminent author and geographer, Nicholas Crane, about the right to roam. And my thoughts on the ‘bingo card’ objections we hear time and again in the campaign. righttoroam.substack.com/p/should-the...

Charity exists to solve the failures of government. The Environment Agency has been defunded and defanged, and now they’re using what little power and resource they have left to go after *checks notes* volunteers removing rubbish from rivers for them. 🙃 www.mylondon.news/news/east-lo...

This is it exactly. A stick to beat Natural England, a longstanding target for the right, because it uses science/law to limit wealthy backers doing what they want to our wildlife and habitats. It doesn't matter if it's a lie, as long it has traction then it serves the purpose of attacking experts.

Finally. But as so often: too late, too partial, with no leadership from the front and no narrative to support it. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

The Right to Roam print shop is live! Buy exclusive prints from our founder and artist, Nick Hayes, and help support the campaign to unlock the countryside for all. righttoroam.org.uk/shop

‘Horseshit’: I gave my verdict to Sky News on the Great Dartmoor Pony Cull Conspiracy of 2026 - a conspiracy theory grounded in nonsense, that’s festered on Musk’s hellsite & been supercharged today by the Tories - to distract from the fact nature on Dartmoor is dying: news.sky.com/story/horseh...

My lovely friend Mary Colwell has fought for a Natural History GCSE, supported by many, including Caroline. For it to be proper natural history, we need lots of naturalists to give their opinions on the proposed framework. Please consider visiting the public consultation www.gov.uk/government/c...

Daily Mail posts lies about the Greens that are spread far and wide. I wish half the number of people saw their apologies. Solidarity with Kamel.

This cowardice will destroy us all

Of all the current governments failings, its paralysis in the face of such a blatant threat to democracy and security is perhaps the most shambolic and inexcusable. Especially when you consider how quick the Home Office has been to throw the Terrorism Act around with whimsical abandon elsewhere.

Because why lead from the front when you can hide behind your regulator - set to report sometime in 2050 - while racist mobs burn down innocent people's houses. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Minister defends retrospective changes to student loans because 'the government had to bear in mind “fairness to taxpayers as a whole"' Okay then, now do the triple lock.

Note that UK officials are still actively using this guy’s site.

Embarrassing. Servile. Fiddling towards oblivion.

Yes. Obviously. But what are you going to *do* about it? Why is the government still using a communications platform which is being controlled *and weaponised* against your country by a hostile actor? How would you react if this was Russia? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

'We have a simple message for the Environmental Agency... come and do your job or we WILL do it for you' 😆 Peak EA that, having abandoned this river, it's prosecuting those taking action to recover it. Yet hasn't prosecuted any illegal sewage dumping 🤔 All the power; none of the responsibility.

Mental health 'watch the ducklings': a dangerous game this time of year 😬

Two out of the (only) three White-tailed Eagles fledged in England in 2025 have since 'disappeared in suspicious circumstances', i.e. people killed them within months. Read this, and see how much effort those people go to, to kill them. We all know who & why. Two out of three. Within months.

Don't think people realise quite how deeply split by age current voting intention is. This is the latest YouGov for under-50s: Green: 26% Lab: 18% Reform: 14% Tories: 12% LD: 11% And over 50s: Reform: 36% Tory: 22% Lab: 16% LD: 12% Greens: 9%

This story is utterly bizarre. "Those fraudulent transactions included: A hand-chased silver wine coaster from Hamilton & Inches worth £3,500 which was described as spending on “leadership expenses”. A £23 egg poacher was listed in SNP records as “computer hardware purchases – internet cabling”

The first white-tailed eagle to fledge in Dorset for more than 240 years has gone missing on the North York Moors “The disappearance is being treated as suspicious” “Birds of prey regularly go missing in areas associated with game shooting” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

More great news from the growing trend of people-powered heathland restoration. 'It's the habitat, stupid!' (and the landscape connectivity, and... and...) www.theguardian.com/environment/...

'Our Land features some of the most beautiful English vistas imaginable. Enjoy them on screen if you can, because you’re unlikely to visit them in person any time soon: vast swaths of the English countryside are fenced off by their owners, whereas in Scotland, freedom to roam is a public right.'

Campaign win! Duchy of Cornwall announces plan to “double the extent of duchy-managed Atlantic rainforest on Dartmoor by the early 2040s” This means Black-a-Tor Copse, as well as Wistman’s Wood! A first step towards doubling rainforests across Dartmoor’s commons www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

We're fresh back from eastern Poland and @amyjanebeer.bsky.social's first missive from the marsh is out. A paean to an abundance we once had and could have again. (Can confirm hot tubs make great bird hides) www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"wild swimming ... causes issues with private ownership" is genuinely a sentence written by the national park authority for Kinder Scout, the locus classicus of public access protest in England

It would be nice if, on a hot sunny day, the @peakdistrict.bsky.social, spent its time advising how swimming can be done safely without impacting wildlife, rather than acting like the most normal thing in the world is a dangerous act of criminality. #RightToSwim

The government is not in fact committed to making sure that everyone in the country has access to nature. It has committed to no such thing and should not claim it has. Nine river walks and three forests, which include no additional access, will not change that www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Depressing / hilarious to see nimby "environmentalists" celebrating this interview because it's anti-pylons, and shilling for Reform because they're anti-solar and claim to want to "protect the countryside", while Tice et al. push climate denialism. A useful litmus test for who to take seriously.

The perfect flower? Alpine starflower (eastern Poland)

Environment Agency inaction is a huge scandal. On the Wye and many other rivers agricultural pollution is the most significant factor in worsening water quality. When will the EA enforce the law and protect our rivers? @riveractionuk.bsky.social @georgemonbiot.bsky.social @savethewye.bsky.social

The delightful Wood cow-wheat (eastern Poland)