Godfrey Bloom

I made a point of watching the irritating Country file programme last night. Irritating in so far as it is usually an illusory reflection of how TV people imagine the countryside to be. The sort of stuff that appeals to Holland Park dwellers who drive shiny new Range Rovers and wear hunter wellies and buy cottages in Dorset.

But back to last night. They actually did something worthwhile. They featured the beautiful Yorkshire Wolds with the magnificent David Hockney guiding those who did not already know on how to enjoy them. The colour variations are awesome. I follow the hunt with the Middleton occasionally so I know.

Watch the programme again here.

We then witnessed John Craven interview the Prime Minister, who made it more clear than ever his commitment to wind turbines. ‘But many people hate them’ said Craven bravely. Cameron ran his true colours up the mast. People hate them, because they are too stupid to appreciate them, according to the PM. No equivocation, no apology, no caveats. So, unless you live in the Cotswolds -- ‘Dave’ won’t have them there, which proves he is not as stupid as he always appears to be -- but everyone else can expect them.

There was no irony that they are proposed along the Wolds Way, the main subject of the programme. Craven, who knows this full well, missed the open goal by not asking if he felt the Wolds were an appropriate setting.

Will the Tory voting dumbbells in the shires understand once and for all a Tory vote means turbines. It doesn’t matter how nice that local MP is, it is his party’s policy.

Did viewers also spot in Cameron’s defence of his ‘localism bill’, his confirmation that it is designed to take away control by local people of their countryside. We might be allowed to ‘designate’ modest green areas but the presumption is the man in Whitehall (Bristol) will always have the last say.

So the desecration of the countryside marches on with the connivance of the deceitful Cameron and the support of the almost incredibly naive rural conservative voter.

One bright spot in the programme, my old friend Mary Rook MFH won the Yorkshire Pudding contest. Mrs Rook has occasionally passed favourable comment on my puddings in the past, so praise indeed!