ANDREW MURRAY surveys a quaking continent whose leaders have no idea how to respond to an openly contemptuous United States
Silent spring?
Spring has sprung in all its glory — but DAVE BANGS is disturbed by the absence of a crucial sound
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I HAD planned a more sharply political topic for these notes, but spring has arrived full-on. It demands attention. If you’ve any free time, then let it demand yours.
The oaks are in golden-green leaf. The bluebells are a hyacinth-scented carpet of blue-purple. Small lanes and woodland rides are a garden of colour. Cuckoo flower, stitchwort, wood spurge, bugle, fading primroses.
Only one thing spoils it. It’s full of odd silences. Odd absences of hoped-for sound.
More from this author
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From John Clare country to ancient fenland, Ed Miliband’s solar farm approvals risk industrialising precious rural spaces — we must find greener solutions that don’t sacrifice our countryside’s beauty, writes DAVE BANGS
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Decades of right to buy have eroded the social balance of our countryside — and now holiday lets and second home owners from the cities are compounding the crisis, writes DAVE BANGS
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These twin Sussex co-ops selling their produce directly to locals offers a glimpse of a future of sustainable, democratised food production – all in harmony with nature, says DAVE BANGS
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Gangs, flat champagne, nightmare island and completely cuckoo: the Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews new releases Cadejo Blanco, Widow Clicquot, Blink Twice and Cuckoo
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From John Clare country to ancient fenland, Ed Miliband’s solar farm approvals risk industrialising precious rural spaces — we must find greener solutions that don’t sacrifice our countryside’s beauty, writes DAVE BANGS
by Jemima Foxtrot
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DAVE BANGS catches up with some loveable feathered friends