Monopolies

It wasn’t the pleasantest start to the week, so we need to make the best of any opportunity provided for light amusement. Not surprisingly it comes from the welcome contribution of SWT’s Chief Executive. Who would have thought that simply walking on the moor each day could provide such a range of experiences from spiritual nourishment to being confronted with evidence of the worst aspects of humanity. But now we should add high comedy.

Just imagine Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco (now stepping down) lecturing a one-man corner shopkeeper, saying that he (the small shopkeeper) didn’t have a monopoly on the retail trade. Think about it. Then read Nigel’s comment, saying to this blog: “ You don’t have the monopoly on recognising the splendour of our native wildlife....” First, have I ever said I did? But wait a bit. Sheffield Wildlife Trust’s turnover is, I think, several million pounds. It is itself only part of a conglomerate of similar organisations with considerable resources that seems intent on swallowing up as much of our countryside as it can and managing it according to very top down practices. SWT itself is busy building an empire by expanding its operations. Yet 10 years after pleading to be given a lease on Blacka Moor they still know only a fraction of what goes on here and refuse to allocate resources to provide an on site warden. They work 9 to 5 on weekdays remotely based at their headquarters with occasional trips out to monitor or survey something. SWT is run as a business and I’m sure there are organisational benefits for them but when they took over the site people did not expect that it would be just another organisation like Streetforce, or as my original analogy Tesco - though their hours are somewhat longer. Incidentally it’s Sir Terry Leahy – any ideas?
Meanwhile this blog does not run at a profit. We don’t even advertise. In fact it costs us to blog. Yet the message that comes from Nigel is that SWT has to promote their way of working presumably through their publicity department in order to put the ‘alternative’ view from what we say here. For goodness sake!