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The Spectator’s Notes

Charles Moore

Wednesday, 14th November 2007

Braving the threatened tidal wave, we visited Norfolk last weekend. It was good to find a fight-back against the accusation (see last week’s Notes) that two hen harriers had been shot on the Sandringham estate. People are asking the accusers — the quango Natural England — to produce some actual evidence. So far, Natural England will not even name its employee who says that he witnessed the shooting. Its Chair, Sir Martin Doughty, says, sanctimoniously and irrelevantly, that his organisation will ‘redouble its efforts to build a future for this rare and beautiful bird of prey’. Since Sir Martin won’t come up with any proper evidence for any crime having been committed or for why Prince Harry was a ‘suspect’, I think one should hit back in kind. I note from Who’s Who that Sir Martin spent several years as Labour leader of Derbyshire County Council. Might one suggest that his organisation is more interested in politics than in birds? I also wonder why the police spent so much time on this non-case. In the nearby Norfolk village in which we were staying there is an uninhabited castle. Most weeks, local yobs try to break into it, and recently they tried to set it alight. They left a petrol can behind, so there might be fingerprints. The Norfolk police show scarcely a flicker of interest.

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Edward Cooke

November 20th, 2007 12:11am

There may not have been a cheap point to be made about the gun culture of Finland but the event reinforces the point that gun control does not control gun crime. Washington DC has had an outright ban on handguns for 30-years and it is the murder capital of the United States. Gun control simply means that law-abiding citizens have no defense against criminals.