Hugh Webster

Conservationist and rewilding enthusiast taking a break from Musk’s toxic version of Twitter. #HopeNotHate

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

Taking a break from Twitter. Musk’s malign influence on the site and the active harm the platform is now doing mean it is no longer a forum I want to participate in. Recent events just the final straw. I will miss the exchange of knowledge and ideas, but Musk is simply toxic.

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@bradm32751 @LibertyCappy Bradley here just proving (yet again) that a lot of people need to go back to school…

You can’t argue with stupid but you can try to educate it.

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@CSLyons The murderous cruelty of the Taliban and the capricious nature of Western governments whose unforgivable abandonment of Afghanistan was led by Joe Biden, displaying his moral cowardice long before he slow walked aid to Ukraine or corrupted the presidency by pardoning his own son.

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@DonnaBarford @ASo1omons America is baffling. All the guns. The healthcare costs. The medieval-level rich poor divide. The whole y’all Qaeda Christian hard right thing. The inexplicable pride in their exceptionally corrupt version of democracy. The flag weirdness. And tipping bad service? Just why?

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@secretsqrl123 Where do you get the idea that Russia is losing Georgia from?

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@LandEthics Love the on the table versus under the table split in the wildlife. What could that possibly signify?🤔

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@RogerDowald1 @Alexander_Lees @CSLyons Seems more like an argument for not having too many (true of anything) rather than not having any, with risk of predation noted to relate to wild boar density. You could make the case that wild boar can be hard to control, but that hasn’t proven true in Scotland to date.

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@Alexander_Lees @CSLyons Fair. But ‘feral pigs’ rewilding back to wild boar behaviours and phenotypes in Scotland doesn’t pose any equivalent threat to a native species that I can see. Instead, they appear to be refilling a long-vacant niche. Or am I missing something?

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@Alexander_Lees @CSLyons Interesting. But then, perhaps you can 'rewild' animals equally quickly, both behaviourally and in terms of phenotype?

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@Alexander_Lees @CSLyons Really? Just checking I’m following the argument here: so, if genetically “pure” wild boar were kept as livestock but escaped, you’d class them as feral pigs, due to their “origin as escaped livestock.”

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@ReisselpCram @TallbarFIN “Make China pay compensation…”

Any suggestions how you force the world’s second super power to do anything?

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@nature_thorne @WoollyMaggot @andyheald @Buzz_dont_tweet My guess was some sort of beetle but hoping for an expert to tell me something definitive!

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

What made these marks? Some form of boring (burrowing, not dull!) insect? Found in a birch in Highland Perthshire… @WoollyMaggot @andyheald @Buzz_dont_tweet

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@FattebertJ @WoollyMaggot @andyheald @Buzz_dont_tweet No idea. Maybe some sort of egg chamber?

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@jharphamtrees @WoollyMaggot @andyheald @Buzz_dont_tweet Really? I can’t see signs of separate rings indicating a join, and there is a second smaller triangular mark on the other side which looks like the same insect has been at work - assuming it is an insect!

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@RichardOnSafari @jeremycorbyn When push comes to shove, pacifists are allies of Putin’s war in the end. Condemnation doesn’t cut it when your children are being stolen, your people are being killed and your home destroyed. Sometimes you have to stand and fight, or live in a world owned and run by dictators.

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@mirandadevine Of the small majority who stated a desire for a quick, negotiated end to the war, only 52% were happy for those negotiations to include territorial concessions. So yeah, Ukrainians want peace (big shock) but 3/4 still oppose surrendering stolen territory. https://t.co/g90H9eJ6W4

[Tatarigami_UA @Tatarigami_UA]

4/ Of those who supported a negotiated end to the war, only 52% agreed that Ukraine should make territorial concessions as part of a peace deal. This suggests that the actual number of Ukrainians willing to negotiate and cede territory is closer to 27% of the total respondents.

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@Georgethefarmer @JimBrandham @theladyfarmer Soft fruit farms?

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@JoeWStanley Key to this seems to be in the detail. Independent analysis reportedly suggests only 117 of the largest/richest farms will be affected by this each year, given a threshold of up to £3M before IHT kicks in. NFU disputes those figures. Who to believe?

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@herdyshepherd1 So a huge but relatively cash poor estate that maintains a working farm escapes any IHT? Not sure that’s ideal. What’s wrong with setting a threshold (up to £3M in current proposal?) and taxing inheritances above that? Might cool land values a bit and help poorer farmers?

[Hugh Webster @DrHWeb]

@BBCr4today @amolrajan @bbcnickrobinson Lots of sympathy for all that context and all the ineptitude farmers have suffered. Less sympathy for only protesting about IHT, which independent (non-NFU) analysis suggests will only affect 117 of the richest farms each year, with an interest free tax bill payable over 10yrs.