This story has nothing to do with raptor persecution – it’s about a solicitor – Yvonne Hossack - is accused of bringing her profession into disrepute, and will face a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal next month. You can read the full details on the Daily Telegraph web site.
Ms Hossack says: “I believe that it is the responsibility of every individual in this country to defend the weak, the sick and the vulnerable. I grieve that the Law Society has decided to prosecute me on the basis of the fears of government over what my work – which I have carried out at significant cost to myself – exposes.”
Her crime is to defend the sick, the disabled, and those who cannot care for themselves from council cuts to care services in the Hull, Northamptonshire and Staffordshire regions. In effect, she’s at odds with ‘the establishment’, and it is fighting back to silence her. If they succeed, the big losers will be the above mentioned groups.
Chris Kinsey, a member of the Save Our Services campaign group from the area, said: “Yvonne is being persecuted. They are hounding her because she dares to give a voice to the disabled.”
Interestingly, Home Secretary Alan Johnson wrote her a letter stating that she “done a brilliant job under difficult circumstances” in fighting against the closure of a care home. However, he has had to have a summons issued against him to speak in her defence at the tribunal!
As I said – this story has nothing to do with raptor persecution – there are no parallels between the establishment attacking those who defend those that can’t defend themselves etc. and raptor workers – defending birds of prey – being bullied and intimidated by … whoever.
You’ll find a more hard-hitting account of Ms Hossack’s story here – be warned – contains salty language!
UU submits proof of raptor worker wrongdoings to MP …. not!
A copy of a letter United Utilities sent to Rt Hon MP Michael Jack last week arrived in the office a few weeks ago, and what a splendid piece of work it is – it says what it wants to say, but leaves you none the wiser about what you really wanted to know.
Put simply, the letter lists a series of protocols – and then says that Terry Pickford – NW Raptor Group co-coordinator – broke two of them. It doesn’t go into detail, and the reason for this is that the allegations don’t stand up to scrutiny by reasonable people. It also appears that UU have totally ignored alleged protocol breaches undertaken by others working throughout their Bowland upland estates of a more serious nature; including the illegal removal of three eagle owl eggs from this years nesting site and a veiled threat that two raptor workers could be shot by mistake by the leader of a UU shooting syndicate, if the entry upon the UU estate by the two individuals was not made known to the syndicate leader before hand. Dispite several requests to UU management asking for this matter to be investigated, three months later no action has been taken!
For whom the Bell tells …
When it comes to breaking protocols, we maintain the number one offender is the Lancashire Police’s Wildlife Crime Officer. The duty of the WLCO is to Liaise which means ‘communication and cooperative contact between groups’, the NWRG has seen precious little of that from this officer. Now we are hearing similar stories from East Lancashire raptor workers.
So incensed is one worker that he has made an official complaint to Stephen Flannigan, Chief Constable of Lancashire Police. It contains a story we know well – of Thomas and his appointed cronies visiting nests inappropriately. It also alleges one of these ‘cronies’ was convicted of egg collecting in Scotland and fined heavily, and another impersonated a police officer.
We saw an article in the Lancashire Telegraphthe other day, and thought ‘oh no – not again’. It detailed the circumstances of the recent loss of a hen harrier brood on UU land at Bowland. Gradually, it dawned on us that this was the story we ran afew weeks ago, but the details are so at variance to what we know of the event as to make us think this was an entirely separate incident.
Well, a big company like United Utilities – what with it’s green credentials and all – surely wouldn’t change the story to hide the fact that they’d committed a major faux pas, now would they?
By the way, I dont think you’ve got the bottle to make my comments public.
Less bad language and a bit more objectivity and you stand a fair chance.
It also alleges one of these ‘cronies’ was convicted of egg collecting in Scotland and fined heavily, and another impersonated a police officer.
Absolutely unbelievable