Time to end ‘ villainous toffs in tweed’ thinking
THERE is a persistent perception around “villainous toffs in tweed”, the director of the Moorland Association has warned, which can only be broken by a willingness to engage.
Only then can an understanding of the countryside be fully brokered, Amanda Anderson added, and without it communities can never fully be represented.
It is difficult to define, she said, what has led to the documented demise of traditionally Labour seats across some of Yorkshire’s more rural communities.
But she does believe it comes alongside a decline in people living and working in the countryside, and a widening generation gap.
“We are in a position where the countryside is so critical, in producing food, in keeping us fit, or ensuring our wellbeing, and in being there when we need that contact with nature,” Ms Anderson said. “Yet it is only one per cent of the population that provides all this.
“Hopefully, people may have started to realise how important this is, whereas before I think a lot of people thought of us as the villains.
“For Labour, and everybody else, we need to come back to the countryside and understand it from the bottom up before making policies.”
About three- quarters of Europe’s upland heather moorland is found in the UK, with 860,000 acres cared for and conserved by members of the Moorland Association, with an associated spend of £ 52.5m a year and 1,500 jobs supported through grouseshooting industries.
In some areas, said Ms Anderson, gamekeepers’ children are among the last left in shrinking schools, as pupil numbers dwindle, while the association’s members are the ones rebuilding drystone walls, picking up litter, and acting as the “gel” in disadvantaged communities.
“We hear the phrase ‘ keyboard warriors and desktop conservationist’, and that group is growing,” she said. “These are incredibly important places, yet they are tarred with a negative brush because there is land ownership involved.
“I, like many of our members, have tried to get Labour politicians out onto the moorland but it’s almost impossible.
“Just to ignore that is not fulfilling a role as a civil servant. There are the consequences to emotional decisions to ‘ get rid because we don’t like toffs and tweeds’.
“We need to understand, and really listen to people. To get the best results you have to listen to people who understand.
“It’s down to the individual attitudes of MPs to engage with all constituents. Then there is a future for all parties.”
The Moorland Association’s members are responsible for over a million acres of the moorlands of England and Wales. The association was set up in 1986 to tackle serious declines in the nation’s treasured landscapes, a trend dating back to the Second World War. Some 20 per cent of the English and Welsh upland heath had been lost to overgrazing and neglect, among other factors.