In a hysterical tirade of invective John Nash attacks activists against trophy hunting. He succumbs to hurling his nappy at the wall trying to defend ‘a noble, normal and important human activity’.
John Nash, a contributor to Country Squire, is unintentionally very funny. He has obviously been personally irked by those activists who have successfully shone a harsh spotlight into the seedy recesses of the trophy hunting business. He has gone to no effort at all in his article to explain any aspect of the trophy hunting business, but does waste a lot of time going on about seal hunting. Anyone seen any photos of hunters posed with their rifles next to a dead seal? Anyone seen a mounted seal head proudly displayed on a wall?
The majority of Nash’s ire is focussed on Eduardo Gonçalves who is a remarkable man. He had to step down from his job in 2018 after a diagnosis of a rare neurological illness, TB and multi-organ immune disorder disease. With time on his hands and a desire to do good in the world, he established a campaigning organisation focused on the business of trophy hunting.
Nash tries to do a character assassination by referring to Gonçalves as; dreadful, corrosive, turd that will not flush, Portuguese rodent, shifty neo-colonialist, odious, scheming, deceitful and a parasite. He did forget baby eater and granny murderer. The overall effect is a comic portrayal of an elderly boomer having an apoplectic fit that some Johnny foreigner has had the audacity to challenge his right to kill animals for fun and status.
He makes a clumsy attempt to portray Gonçalves as also being a trophy hunter. Nash’s premise is that Gonçalves ‘hunts’ celebrities to endorse the campaign that he is part of. Nash makes much of Joanna Lumley endorsing the campaign as one of the hoodwinked celebrities. If Nash was a journalist he would have discovered that as well as being a vegetarian for over 40 years, she is also a patron of Born Free, Compassion in World Farming, and Animal Free Research UK. Rather than being a gullible Patsy just reading a script, it’s very likely that she has thought a lot about her involvement and words. Unlike Nash, Lumley has a public profile and reputation that she needs to consider carefully.
His greatest indignation is reserved for Conservative MP, David Reed, who has introduced a Private Members Bill against trophy hunting. Nash threw all of his toys out of his pram describing Reed as “AWOL from sanity and is the latest in a line of nodding donkeys championing that unbelievably stupid, neo-colonialist, racist, pointless Private Members Bill”.
Nash comments that “Hunting is a noble, normal and important human activity that has supplied and continues to supply the vital resources that made civilisation possible.” It is true that hunting is important to some communities such as the Inuit that he mentions, however that has nothing to do with hunting for fun. It also has absolutely nothing to do with trophy hunting. He fails to list one vital resource from hunting that is currently critical to civilisation.
The Conservative Party
Nash makes a bizarre excursion in linking David Reed MP to the decline of the Conservative Party. He totally misses the likely scenario that the sort of old fashioned entitled boomer stance that Nash represents is probably responsible for the declining performance of the Conservative Party. The crime that Reed has committed is listening to his constituents. Perhaps more politicians should follow suit.
Even an unashamed leftie recognisez that a healthy opposition party is important in politics. The current state of the Conservative Party is a limp shadow of a pastiche of a party.wedded to privilege and money. If they spent more time actually listening to constituents rather than finding the ones who share their bias they could become relevant again. The current strategy of following themes cooked up in Tufton Street and the Heritage Foundation are not for the benefit of the electorate. These think tanks try to hide their links to rich sponsors and Christian Fundamentalists, but many have been exposed.