British Countryside is a “Racist and Colonial White Space”, Wildlife Charity Group Whose Members Include the National Trust, RSPCA and WWF Tells MPs

The British countryside is a “racist colonial” white space, a group of wildlife and countryside charities whose members include the RSPCA, WWF and National Trust has claimed. The Telegraph has the story.

Wildlife and Countryside Link, a charity umbrella group whose members include the RSPCA, WWF and National Trust, made the claim in evidence provided to Parliament on racism and its influence on the natural world.

MPs in an all-party parliamentary group (APPG) were informed that the British countryside has been influenced by “racist colonial legacies” which have created an environment some fear is “dominated by white people”.

The country’s green spaces are governed by “white British cultural values”, the report argues, and the perception that the countryside is a “white space” prevents people from other ethnic backgrounds from enjoying the outdoors.

The Wildlife and Countryside Link report was submitted to MPs on the APPG for Race and Community, which had called for evidence on the links between “systemic racism” and climate change.

The call for evidence comes in the wake of academic “hate studies” experts [sic] launching a 2023 investigation into “rural racism” in the British countryside.

One section of the new Link report seen by the Telegraph argues that there are “structural, experiential, and cultural” barriers preventing ethnic minorities accessing the countryside.

It states: “Cultural barriers reflect that in the U.K., it is White [sic] British cultural values that have been embedded into the design and management of green spaces, and into society’s expectations of how people should be engaging with them.”

It adds that “racist colonial legacies continue to frame nature in the U.K. as a ‘white space’”, and claims that “the perception that green spaces are dominated by white people can prevent people from ethnic minority backgrounds from using green spaces”.

The report suggests that there should be a “rights-based approach” accessing green spaces, suggesting that the Government create a “legally binding target for access to nature”, possibly by ensuring everyone has a green space within a 15-minute walk from their home.

It also makes broader claims about Britain and climate change, stating: “The U.K.’s role in the European colonial project has also driven the current climate and nature crises.”

Worth reading in full.

The RSPCA has asked for it to be made clear that it was not a signatory to this particular report and that the words in the report should not be attributed directly to it or other non-signatory charities. The Wildlife and Countryside Link charities who directly endorsed the report are listed on the report’s first page. They do not include the RSPCA, National Trust or WWF. However, the Wildlife and Countryside Link states on its website that the purpose of its communications is to provide “a collective identity in the media and in Westminster”. This means it is reasonable to associate the group’s members with its output, albeit with the caveat that not every member directly endorses every report.

The report is such a classic example of Western self-hatred. Can you imagine Indian charities worrying that the Indian countryside was too Indian, or Chinese charities fussing that the Chinese countryside was too Chinese? Yet here is a group whose members include major British charities effectively declaring the British countryside to be too British.

And what exactly are “white British cultural values” supposed to be? Besides self-loathing, I mean.

If what they really mean is traditional British culture, then last time I checked British culture and values are supposed to be what ethnic minorities are inducted into, the glue that holds the whole multi-ethnic edifice together. The ethnically diverse state is supposed to be unified by a common culture, British culture – for all are, as we are continually reminded, British – the culture of the country that immigrants consent to belong to. This idea that British culture is somehow inherently ‘white’ and therefore problematic for non-whites is, needless to say, hopelessly divisive.

Yet it is this divisive ‘multicultural’ ideology – anathema to social harmony and effective integration – that now rules the roost among our woke public and quasi-public bodies. The Tories just about manage to resist the maddest of these ideas in their limp-wristed ‘war on woke’. You wait till Labour is in and watch the crazies run amok.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed the words in the Wildlife and Countryside Link report to the RSPCA, National Trust and WWF. While the three charities are members of Wildlife and Countryside Link they were not signatories to this report.