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Who to support

A

Alexander Shepherd

Senior Member & Supporter
The rivers everywhere seem to be in decline due to pollution,abstraction,predation etc. Who do I try to support/fund an answer ? Which political party ? Angling trust and fish legal seem to be getting negative press but who is fighting the cause for angling, by that I mean all angling sea,trout ,salmon,course. We all seem to want our fishing saved at all cost as long as we don’t have to make an effort/cost. It seems we are too divided as anglers. So long as I’m ok sod the rest. I welcome your thoughts. Tin hat on will retire to the bunker.
 
In Trefor West’s brilliant book “ barbel a lifetime’s addiction “ there’s a short chapter titled “ I had a dream “ but as you quite rightly say we are a divided bunch, I feel it’s the same right across society as a whole, so as it stands it will remain just a “dream” 😔
 
The angling trust should be doing more taking on natural England for a start
I suppose it’s up to members of AT to pressure them into doing so
 
All anglers should join the Angling Trust because they are the only voice we have got in dealing with official bodies whether government or otherwise. Claiming membership because your club is affiliated is not an excuse because the AT only get about £1 per member. Individual membership costs from 61p per week so there can surely be no excuse for not joining.

When the AT have a conversation and get asked "how many anglers do you represent?" they obviously have to answer truthfully and admit it is only something like 11,000 individual members (happy to be corrected if this is inaccurate). Hardly a strong negotiating position!

Over 900, 000 rod licences were sold last year so the element of angler apathy would appear to be massive.

Angling Trust is THE national governing body (NGB) for the sport of angling so the only one that has representation at a national level for our sport. Take a look at NGBs in other sports and see how powerful they are
 
John you make a valid argument for joining the AT? but unfortunately they’ve lost me when they employed an ex MP that voted against bringing in tougher rules for the water utilities companies, who then resigned. I believe that there more interested in their salaries etc. there not fit for purpose in my opinion.
 
Jim Brook said:
John you make a valid argument for joining the AT? but unfortunately they’ve lost me when they employed an ex MP that voted against bringing in tougher rules for the water utilities companies, who then resigned. I believe that there more interested in their salaries etc. there not fit for purpose in my opinion.
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I despair when I read ignorant comments like this.

You know nothing about the motivations of the AT staff, yet your happy to besmirch them on a public forum. I'm 100% certain Jamie Cook would earn a damn sight more money working elsewhere. If you think he's in it for the money then you are very much mistaken.

There are some really good hard working people at the AT. They have achieved a lot in recent years and won some important landmark cases against polluters and policymakers. Yes they might have made mistakes on some issues, but who amongst us is perfect? And they do so with very limited resources.
 
Terry Harman said:
The angling trust should be doing more taking on natural England for a start
I suppose it’s up to members of AT to pressure them into doing so
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With all due respect, they can only do as much as funds allow, everything costs money. Maybe if they had more members, they could achieve much more. It only costs £3 a month to be a member, peanuts, a no brainer for me, so i,ll just carry on. Anything they do must be better than nothing.
 
Alexander Shepherd said:
The rivers everywhere seem to be in decline due to pollution,abstraction,predation etc. Who do I try to support/fund an answer ? Which political party ? Angling trust and fish legal seem to be getting negative press but who is fighting the cause for angling, by that I mean all angling sea,trout ,salmon,course. We all seem to want our fishing saved at all cost as long as we don’t have to make an effort/cost. It seems we are too divided as anglers. So long as I’m ok sod the rest. I welcome your thoughts. Tin hat on will retire to the bunker.
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On a political point of view in answer to your original post .. the main problem for angling is natural England they are a quango so if you need to get rid of quangos i would suggest reform….. other political party’s are available
 
Joe Winstanley said:
I despair when I read ignorant comments like this.

You know nothing about the motivations of the AT staff, yet your happy to besmirch them on a public forum. I'm 100% certain Jamie Cook would earn a damn sight more money working elsewhere. If you think he's in it for the money then you are very much mistaken.

There are some really good hard working people at the AT. They have achieved a lot in recent years and won some important landmark cases against polluters and policymakers. Yes they might have made mistakes on some issues, but who amongst us is perfect? And they do so with very limited resources.
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I'm sure Jim is allowed an opinion Joe . You seem to of flown off the handle a touch old chap .
This is a prime example of division in angling ... 👍
 
Barry Peck said:
I'm sure Jim is allowed an opinion Joe . You seem to of flown off the handle a touch old chap .
This is a prime example of division in angling ... 👍
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But Jim doesn’t appear to have a clue what he is talking about……

If you come up with some half baked argument as to why you won’t support the (only) angling governing body AND then question the motivation of the staff - then you deserve to be criticised.

The AT isn’t perfect - but it needs members AND it is the only show in town.
 
Tim Marks said:
But Jim doesn’t appear to have a clue what he is talking about……

If you come up with some half baked argument as to why you won’t support the (only) angling governing body AND then question the motivation of the staff - then you deserve to be criticised.

The AT isn’t perfect - but it needs members AND it is the only show in town.
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🤔 really?
 
Tim Marks said:
But Jim doesn’t appear to have a clue what he is talking about……

If you come up with some half baked argument as to why you won’t support the (only) angling governing body AND then question the motivation of the staff - then you deserve to be criticised.

The AT isn’t perfect - but it needs members AND it is the only show in town.
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But he can still say what he thinks ., let that sink in . 👍👍
 
Like it or not, the AT is all we've got , and from what I've seen, they do some excellent work in supporting Clubs and Anglers in bringing pollution cases to court and achieving good results,.
Small Clubs etc. would be urinating in the wind trying to do this themselves.
 
If the AT do only have around 11,000 individual members, as indicated, an uptake of around 1 per cent of anglers, it indicates to me that they have been pretty useless at recruitment.

Despite having a few friends in the organisation, my interactions with certain key members of their hierachy have left me very disillusioned.

It's always been more akin to an inhouse Freemasons arrangement.
 
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