Vote Green and ban angling.

[Tog]

24% of the electorate (for England) actualy voted for Labour and 41% thought that 'none of the above' was the better option (they could not be arsed to vote).

So don't think this time 'I can't be bother'd' as the US election proved - a few votes can make a big difference.

Which brings us to 'Who to vote for?' which party is the most pro angling and likely to promote it? (the prob with Labour is the 'hunting issue').

[Leon Roskilly]

toggle:

Which brings us to 'Who to vote for?' which party is the most pro angling and likely to promote it? (the prob with Labour is the 'hunting issue').

This is promising:

 

http://www.anglers-net.co.uk/sacn/latest/i...dex.php?view=57

 

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Peter Waller]

As I have said my daughter Emma is a Green candidate. Spoke to her about Angling today. At local level it appears that angling is favoured as a 'woodcraft' activity and should be encouraged. But there is a 'but', as you would expect!

 

Litter left by anglers is seen as a major problem, as you would expect! Live baiting and barbed hooks to be banned, as you would expect! Greater education and bailiffing would be encouraged. Other than that no problem. And, to be honest, I could accept that if that was the end of the matter, but I doubt that it would be.

 

Emma will ask for clarification as to national policy.

[Peter Waller]

Interesting article in Anglers Mail this week re the Greens and anglings. In so many words they appear to object to angling but realise outlawing it would not be practicable. Fence sitting?

[Leon Roskilly]

Peter Waller:

Interesting article in Anglers Mail this week re the Greens and anglings. In so many words they appear to object to angling but realise outlawing it would not be practicable. Fence sitting?

In Germany, it was the greens who bought in laws, not banning angling, but restricting it to a 'food gathering' activity.

 

Anything that you catch (which is over the size limit) has to be killed and eaten.

 

There, it's not acceptable to pull fish in then 'chuck' them back again just for the pleasure of catching them.

 

Though not banned outright, erosion of angling practices one by one could end angling as we know it.

 

Tight Lines - leon

 

 

On a Riverbank

 

When I stand on a riverbank, not as an angler, I am enchanted.

 

Enchanted by the flow of the water, and the reflections of clouds.

 

Enchanted by the bank-side vegetation, and the nodding flowers.

 

By the birdlife as it clacks and quacks, peeps and sings, and flashes by in iridescent feathers.

 

And by the smells of crushed river mint, and water parsley and fragrant flowers.

 

Yet, not as an angler, I am soon bored, and turn away, not knowing what else there is to see.

 

A fleeting few moments that refresh the soul.

 

But when I come to the water as an angler, I come not to see, though see I do, but to engage the water as a creature of the river, and to learn, and to play a part.

 

As a mock predator, my senses are sharpened and my observation made far keener than any casual onlooker.

 

I see beneath the surface, just a little with my eyes, more so, much more so, with my mind.

 

Building a picture of that unseen land from small clues of swirling water and growing weed, and from the knowledge that I have learned of the habits of the creatures there.

 

Not for a few moments, or for many minutes, but for hours on end, I will delight in what nature has to reveal.

 

Even when fingers burn cold, or cold wind driven rain whips against my face, I will stay and see and listen and enjoy.

 

‘You don’t have to be an angler to enjoy going to the river’, they say.

 

And by saying that betray a lack of understanding, not only of an anglers’ passion, but of what is missing from their lives.

 

As they miss the sound of a gnawing vole, the site of a chub rising to a struggling fly, the companionship of a robber robin, and a sunburst through an evening mist.

 

Because they paused, and then passed by.

 

And having missed all of this, I could never explain to them the thrill of a dipping float, nor holding in my hands a piece of gold alive, and watching it return with a casual grace back to that half mysterious place below, where their vision ceases, and an angler’s vision goes.

 

[ 04. June 2004, 07:25 AM: Message edited by: Leon Roskilly ]

[Peter Waller]

Very evocative Leon. I feel a book coming on!! Your poems should not be lost.

 

[ 04. June 2004, 08:15 AM: Message edited by: Peter Waller ]

[Tog]

Peter, to stir this up a bit I have started a new topic 'Would you Kill your Catch?'

[Leon Roskilly]

Leon Roskilly:

 

However, not all Green Party associations are so much against angling.  (I wonder what the attitude of the Scottish Green Party is for example?)

 

It would be nice if someone with authority from the Green Party were to come on here and explain.

And so they did!

 

But not on here

 

Go look at:

 

http://www.anglingnews.net/rep_detail.asp?ID=2721

 

Tight Lines - leon

[rickster]

im in the none of the above vote or Elton for PM and a angling and countryside sports party, one where they actually try to restore the countryside populations way of life instead of ripping the heart out of the community, ban this ban that cant use this no more cnat do that, And they wonder why they say the country is getting obeese its because anything we use to do 20 years ago is now banned or got so many regulations and laws its just inpractical. Fottball will be banned next because it encourages binge drinking and unruley behavoiur.

 

Sorry rant over

[Steve Burke]

rickster:

Football will be banned next because it encourages binge drinking and unruley behavoiur.

Now that really would get the female vote!