Iain Rowan

The *only* legal place to wild camp in England is Dartmoor. And now a hedge-fund owner who's bought a chunk of it is taking legal action to prevent it across the whole area.

What a morally impoverished country we live in. Walk the paths. Don't climb fences. Visit the gift shop. Take a photo from distance. Don't step off the path. Not that one, it's closed now. Behold, behind the fence, the beauty of the countryside. Now visit the gift shop.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/10/wild-campers-protest-dartmoor-landowner-ban-attempts

Wild campers to protest against landowner’s bid to ban Dartmoor camping

High court will rule next week on challenge brought by Alexander Darwall to remove right to wild camp on moor

The Guardian
Dec 10, 2022 at 11:42amWeb
Show threadRobertWTDec 10, 2022

@iainrowan

There'll always be an England, and England will be free.

Didn't you get the email? It's been privatised... salami fashion... slice by slice (so you don't miss little bits disappearing) until all that now remains is a piece of string and the vague smell of garlic.

🤬

Show threadAral BalkanDec 10, 2022

@iainrowan Almost as if it were still a monarchy or something 🤔

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/apr/17/who-owns-england-thousand-secret-landowners-author
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Estate

Half of England is owned by less than 1% of the population

Research by author reveals corporations and aristocrats are the biggest landowners

The Guardian
Show threadTushar ChauhanDec 10, 2022
@aral @iainrowan Property rights still boggle my mind. How does one 'buy' entire swathes of wilderness ? How weak are the laws that protect the commons. There has to be something wrong there.
Show threadckDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan To be fair, you as a country have agreed to be called "subjects" by this dude just so you could sell some trinkets with his face on it.
Show threademmatonkinDec 10, 2022
@ck @iainrowan
Don't want to do a Well Akshually but technically mostly people aren't subjects any more (https://www.gov.uk/types-of-british-nationality/british-subject), so it's maybe more accurate to say we've agreed to be called anything he likes? Otherwise, though, spot on.
Types of British nationality

The different types of British nationality explained - British citizen, British overseas territories citizen, British overseas citizen, British subject, British national (overseas), British protected person

GOV.UK
Show threadckDec 10, 2022
@emmatonkin
Apologies, my knowledge of the modern British Monarchy is rather rudimentary at best 😅
@iainrowan
Show thread🏳️‍⚧️ Siobhán SarelleDec 10, 2022

@ck @iainrowan

We didn't agree to it and we're not subjects.

Show threadckDec 10, 2022

@siobhansarelle

I'm not so sure about the agreeing part

https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkg35b/queen-protesters-arrested

People Are Being Arrested in the UK for Protesting Against the Monarchy

A 22-year-old woman will face charges for holding up a sign that said “fuck imperialism,” while a man was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police van for asking who elected King Charles III.

Show thread🏳️‍⚧️ Siobhán SarelleDec 10, 2022

@ck

Absolutely no-one agreed to have a monarchy.

Show threadJohn KrummDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan England needs a revolution.
Show threadMarkDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan Disreputable isn’t it? He bought it knowing people could wild camp there, and now he wants to change that.
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEDec 10, 2022

@iainrowan Some National Trust properties have gates that you could use to leave the property *without* running the infection risk of walking through the gifte shoppe (though you can usually get through holding your breath).

And these gates are ... you've guessed it, locked. In the middle of a plague.

Show threadthesweetcheatDec 10, 2022

@iainrowan "it's a barbed wire fence, which side d'you choose?"

(Julian Cope, Autogeddon Blues, 1994)

Show threadDavid ShepherdDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan Sad that landowners are still behaving like that 90 years after the #Kinder Scout Mass #Trespass.
Show threadSarahbelDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan This is awful! Yikes, camping is vital to my mental health. I'm in the U.S.- we've got our problems but that isn't one of them.
Show threadCarrieB ☕🐱 📚Dec 10, 2022
@iainrowan This explains why my area gets a good amount of visitors from England each year. I'm in the high Sierra-Nevada mountains. I have never seen people more excited about camping than when I meet folks from England.
Show threadJames BakerDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan Time for another mass trespass? God made the land for the people!
Show threadTom StonehamDec 11, 2022
@JamesBaker @iainrowan Is Nick Hayes on Mastodon yet? The Book of Trespass is brilliant!
Show thread🏳️‍⚧️ Siobhán SarelleDec 10, 2022

@iainrowan

No-one actually takes notice of this law and it's unenforceable. The police are too busy sat in traffic to come into the woods in the middle of the night and bother me with my fire and skulls on sticks and stuff.

Show threadBrian C. Martinson, PhDDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan What a shame. Many years ago, we traveled to England, visiting the Cotswolds, and marveling at how excellent it was we could just hike through all the fields without having to worry about anything other than avoiding stepping in the sheep-dip.
Show threadLaurence M 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Dec 10, 2022
@iainrowan nothing gets done in the Tory world unless someone makes a buck from it . And in return, donations feed back to the Tories. Utterly corrupt horrible Dickensian principled party. And yet working class people vote for that lot ? Britain’s broken 😞
Show threadJustin K HaywardDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan isn’t Dartmoor one of the areas in the proposed Freeport areas? I might be misremembering…
Show threadIain RowanDec 10, 2022
@justinkhayward I'm not sure, sorry.
Show threadJustin K HaywardDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan seems so - https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/whole-dartmoor-south-hams-included-7486222.amp - so looks like mission creep…
Dartmoor and South Hams included in Plymouth freeport area

“The outer boundary does not confer any special planning or regulatory status”

PlymouthLive
Show threadShield MaidenDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan "Take are cuntry bak" eh?
Show threadOrsonZeddDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan beat him up and tell him
Show threadHenry HorseDec 10, 2022

@iainrowan

Hey, they're stopping anyone going on their land in order to preserve it for the future, so their grandchildren can prevent your grandchildren from going on it too.

Show threadAwesomeJess 🏳️‍⚧️Dec 10, 2022
@iainrowan In Finland where I live, there's a thing called Every Man's Right, which means if someone owns the land, you can walk through it as long as you don't hurt nature. You can gather mushrooms, berries, go hiking in it, use dead wood for a campfire, etc. Highly recommend it!
Show threadArchaeoIainDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan time to revive "Property is theft". And to campaign that the rich are the problem and that philanthropists are not to be admired but to have that wealth clawed away from them. They stole it anyway.
Show threadIanNickDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan It’s “their” country and we are just here on sufferance. The response should be for 10,000 people to go wild camping there.
Show threadSocialistStanDec 10, 2022

@iainrowan One good thing about the US is the area is simply too big to completely lock down or buy up and the population is too belligerent to tolerate it even if it wasn't.

Looking from the outside, the UK does seem like one of those creepy artificial utopias sometimes.

Show threadEmilysgonebikingDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan responsible trespass and rule breaking needs to become normalised. I make a habit of it.
Show threadMilanDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan when the law is unjust, the right thing is to disobey
Show threadChristineSaysHiDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan That's so sad. I've been watching a doco about some people walking across your country and how very beautiful it is. Are there national parks, places the public own which can't be swooped up by developers and billionaires?
Show threadDarlene CypserDec 10, 2022
@iainrowan Is his name Frankland?
Show threadWendyDec 11, 2022
@iainrowan my daughter did her DofE gold on Dartmoor. The Ten Tors is held on Dartmoor. Both involve wild camping. Both involve teenagers learning about life and themselves. I hope these activities are not affected.
Show threadJayDe GeeDec 11, 2022
@iainrowan you gotta love Capitalism! A greedy few own everything and put up fences to keep everyone else out.
Show threadReddogDec 11, 2022
@iainrowan Time to disobey. Mass trespass worked in the past, only this time, we take the house as well. Time to finally pull down this feudal system. No kings, no emperors, no rulers.
Show threadCeriDec 12, 2022
@iainrowan I love the freedom to camp I have in Orkney so much.
Show threadQuentin Stafford-FraserDec 12, 2022
@iainrowan On the other hand, when I go to some other countries, I realise just how wonderful our system of public footpaths is!