Bob Berzins and his merry march of madness

With the start of the new season just days away inevitably the usual critics start banging their drums, criticising all aspects of moorland management and those whose livelihoods depend on it. 

With no shame they will spout lies to an often unsuspecting public and seek every opportunity to vilify those working on the moors. 

This week in the Peak District the Marxist campaigner, Bob Berzins, has been up to his usual insanity, this time organising a ‘protest walk’ near Redmires Reservoir, close to Moscar Estate. 

That is the same estate Berzins tried to run a campaign against earlier in the year to force the owners to sell it for £1 in a cheap publicity stunt, whilst failing to recognise the enormous public benefit the estate brings to both the public and wildlife, not to mention the countless hours spent fighting wildfires this year.  

To coin a recent phrase from Labour, Berzins is guilty of persistent knobheadery.

In a recent public presentation which was secretly recorded, Berzins was found to have told 22 lies about moorland management to an audience of Sheffield Green Party members in just 45 minutes of his incoherent ramblings.  

His hard left doctrine has also managed to reach his local Labour MP, Olivia Blake. In the recent Westminster Hall grouse debate Blake was the only MP speaking in favour of a ban on grouse shooting, simply reading out statements that had been provided to her by Berzins. 

These warped views achieved little beyond making Blake seem as ignorant of the reality of moorland management as Berzins, whilst every other MP in the debate spoke credibly with an opinion based on facts, not ideology. 

Berzins has also been closely affiliated with Luke Steele’s Moorland Monitors, who operate by filming and photographing gamekeepers using covert surveillance. Gamekeepers have reported feeling harassed and misrepresented by activists who broadcast unverified allegations to an army of social media followers before law enforcement has even weighed in. 

He is not a licensed investigator, ecologist, or conservation scientist, yet he presents himself as an authority on land management to those who do not know better.

In a world where expertise matter more than ever, Berzins undermines every credible conservation effort taking place across the country. 

Despite his efforts to accuse those working in the moorlands of illegal predator control, ironically it is Berzins himself who has likely caused more damage to our endangered bird populations through his unedifying passion for dressing up in tight red lycra and going fell running. 

Unlike most runners, who stick to the appropriate footpaths, Berzins is amongst a minority of fell running ‘ultras’ who fetishise a straight path to the top of a hill.

This often means disturbing huge numbers of rare ground nesting birds and, as recent video evidence in the Peak District shows, even a pair of breeding hen harriers. Funny how he fails to mention that in his campaigning efforts.