Wildfires: Andy Burnham is fiddling while Britain burns - Yorkshire Post Letters

Paul Morley, Long Preston, Skipton.

Not only are thousands of acres of moorland and agricultural land being lost to wildfires but now people’s homes are being burned to the ground.

Whilst our firefighters, farmers and gamekeepers bravely risk their lives, the latter two entirely voluntarily, to try to stop this countrywide conflagration the various bodies that allegedly manage much of the countryside are only contributing acre upon acre of tinder dry kindling.

In the face of all evidence they are still committed to rewilding, stopping winter controlled burning and reducing grazing, everything which goes towards increasing the fuel load that the fires thrive on.

I well remember the summer of 1976 and yes there were wildfires but nowhere near the scale that we are seeing now. This was mainly due to the fact that the countryside was managed by people who had grown up in it and understood how we should co-exist with nature and words like climate change and ecology weren’t plastered all over our newspapers.

If, as the scientific experts predict, hotter summers are to be the norm we need serious discussions about how our lifestyle has to change to survive in this new era.

To that end our government held an emergency meeting and what did this great meeting of minds come up with? Prime Minister Burnham has asked people if they will stop buying and using disposable barbecues.

Thank the Lord, good old Andy has saved the country! What nonsense, people will just carry on as before because we now live in such an entitled society that many people's thoughts are only for themselves and bugger everyone and everything else. Even an official ban on these barbecues would be ineffective unless you banned the internet as well.

Talk about fiddling whilst Rome burns, the location may be different but it’s still the same useless politicians that are holding the bows. As they survey the burnt out wreckage of their homes this morning, I’m sure the poor people of Stourbridge in the West Midlands would rather put their faith and trust in people who understand the land and know how nature works than on anybody whose backside graces the green benches in the House of Commons. My heart goes out to them.