Alistair Cook was indeed an excellent writer and reporter. His "Letters from America" were always factful, insightful and accurate .. . . sadly these days there are very few of the current crop who could hold a candle to Cook.
I can't do better, I don't have the training or the time, if I had a week to write an article maybe and I could also craft it so carefully to persuade people that my opinion is right. On that basis I am less inclined to agree with them than someone who has written his opinion off the hoof on social media like I do, unsolicited, un-crafted, briefly edited and not passed by anyone than me or they as the case may be.Journalism embraces far more than mere reportage. There are many wonderfully inciteful examples of journalists who transcend mere reportage , from Alastair Cook to Max Hastings via Hemingway to current writers like David Aaronovich . Just look at the op ed pieces in any decent newspaper - why sneer ? Can you do better ? Isn't the free expression of opinion a fundamental part of a democracy ?
Journalists are trained and paid to report the news. Sadly many of them then think they are our great thinkers and philosophers so they get sneered at.
And what are we doing about it? Or the RSPB, come to that? Whilst we don’t seem to care about our fish, they don’t seem bothered about the demise of Wye swans either. We should be shouting this from the roof tops, shouldn’t we? How can we lose the river’s crowning summer glory, and pretend nothing is happening to bother us?
Trouble is I doubt anyone has, half the anglers don't even notice when the weed has gone and a lot of them don't like the stuff as they 'lose barbel' in it. It's almost as if they sit behind two rods on the lead and don't even notice what's going on in the river, how it's changing. I know not all anglers are like this and maybe I'm being a bit unfair, but it's how it seems at times.I presume someone has travelled the river noting the weed beds or lack of them, historically how much weed there was and where the chicken farms are in relation. Seems an obvious place to start - a nice canoe trip over a few days?
I have been saying for years that angling for sport in this country will end just like bear baiting, cock fighting and more recent fox hunting. We like to view angling is above all these but that is not how ours see us and the fact that we don't eat what we catch will be seen as a reason to stop doing it.