Cowpat Empire

The empire builders of the Cowpat Tendency, the zomby-thinkers in the cattle grazing lobby, now have their eyes fixed on Wadsley and Loxley Common.

There have apparently been site meetings as part of the 'consultation' (and don't we know what that word means?) and they are holding public meetings on this Wednesday evening the 22nd August and Wednesday 26th September at Wadsley Church.

I can tell the users of the Commons that the propaganda that the managers put out is a creative mix of bamboozlement and wishful thinking. Cattle do not go searching through heather and bilberry for young birch to nibble. They walk along the same paths that people walk on because the fringes of those paths are where they find grass. And the grass that they find goes in the front end green and comes out the other end as a brown substance which everyone will have their own term for. This will be deposited liberally on the paths. People who believe in fairies along with  key managers in Sheffield's Parks and Countryside service are not aware of this and probably think the end product magically wafts away into the breeze leaving no trace.

I suggest that those who want to resist the cattle grazing proposal should employ the following strategy: Take hundreds of photographs of the paths on the common as they are today and other strategic places. Number them and  correlate the numbers on a map. Send the map to all council officers involved plus councillors. Then tell them you are going to take photographs from the identical positions in years to come. Ask them to show you exacly what these places will look like in two years, five years, and ten years time. If they have any understanding of the process they should be able to draw on a photo to illustrate. If they can't tell you or refuse to, declare them and their plan to be fraudulent. At this point ask them how much money is coming from the Higher Level Stewardship scheme and the Single Farm Payment CAP monies and any other grants over the ten year period and demand they make an estimated value for money statement which you threaten to send to the Audit Commission. There's lots more in this vein that can be done. Best of luck to the resisters but zombies can be resisters themselves - highly resistant to argument.