Ian ‘Beefy’ Botham is incensed by the BBC. They interviewed him on the radio, ostensibly to talk about his charity but then changed the agenda. Beefy’s charity the Country Food Trust, was to be the beneficiary of about 10,000 partridges and pheasants that will be shot on his estate. All the dead birds, to the foodbank. Feeding hungry people. But the BBC’s point appeared to be that possibly people would rather watch their children go hungry than have them eat food, the acquisition of which is morally questionable. Undoubtedly a ‘first world problem’. And undoubtedly an over-paid (BBC, they all are) anti-countryside, left-wing middle class tart asking the questions. To which Beefy swore. She’s lucky he didn’t punch her. He’d been hi-jacked because killing animals is ‘bad’. Even if its to eat them, its all about sport. Animals shot for sport shouldn’t be eaten by decent people. Not sure about hungry people. They’re generally not so sensitive.

Stan Kroenke is not sensitive. He’s the dude wot owns Arsenal. And he has a new tv program in America all about big game hunting. Ok, its not all about shooting elephants and cutting the heads off giraffes to put them onto the front of your Cadillac. They also show you how to clean guns as well. Buy ammo. Make bows and arrows. Give advice about hunting knives. Useful stuff. But mainly its about the animals. Well, about killing them. For sport. For fun. Not such fun for the animals but ‘ITS LEGAL’. Helps with conservation of animals, don’t it? Ok, not with the ones shot, obvs, but the others. It provides income for the game reserves. Kill one lion, save 3. Unpalatable but that’s life. Or death.

We know the maths, we know the moral arguments. What I don’t know is what possible pleasure an individual, even an American one, can derive from shooting a wonderful, beautiful animal.

Bizarrely, I don’t have such issues about birds. Mainly because there are so many of them. Ok, and they taste nice. If you love ‘big game’ and you’re a stupid, rich fat Yank, just send a cheque for $25,000 to the conservationists. Simple. Why shoot any of them? They’re all endangered species. You love your wife, does that mean you want to shoot her too? Don’t answer that.

So my vote is this: leave Ian Botham alone, he’s doing good work for a great charity. And lock Stan Kroenke up for life. His motives are purely profit-based and he’s related to Arsenal.

Happy Thursday