A black comedy maybe. I do think it's quite disturbing and imagine his family would be concerned if they knew how he behaved. Some of the mods on here don't help by humouring him and pretending he's a normal, well-balanced individual when he clearly isn't.

I've set your profile to ignore so I never have to read your nonsense again. Bye

If I ignore something you say it's because I don't think it's relevant and I'm not interested in engaging with you on it. Why was the elephant on a rampage? It wasn't, it's what they do.

I wouldn't consider myself an expert as such but I do think I'm somewhat better placed to understand the issues that the over population of elephants is having on Botswana and other species. I don't pretend that I know what the solution is but I do speak with conservationists on the ground there who believe that the situation is so precarious now that hunting has to be considered as part of the solution. My family owns shares in game reserves in both South Africa and Botswana and I have witnessed with my own eyes a single bull elephant completely destroy acres of mature woodland in just a few weeks. This has a devastating effect on all other life forms that depend on such environments, both directly and indirectly. It's not unlike the effect that logging has on the Brazilian rain forest. You correctly identify that elephants are a tourist attraction but fail to recognise that so are many other species - whose existence is being threatened by the habitat loss caused by elephants. Nobody would be interested in safari tourism that just featured elephants, but that's where this is heading. If the elephant population in Botswana halved tomorrow, there would still be 100,000 elephants to see. And they're not exactly difficult to spot. At Limpopo Lipadi we can sustain a small population but many times that number of migrant elephants regularly enter the reserve via the Limpopo river, circumventing the game fencing and trashing the habitat. In 2020 alone it cost $150k (the entire annual conservation budget) to translocate 20 bulls and within 15 months that number had re-established itself in the reserve. Many arboreal species too numerous to mention are now absent from the reserve. This situation is replicated across Botswana and beyond. In Kruger National Park in South Africa the elephant population is at its highest level ever despite major culling programs. I've visited Kruger for decades and noticed that visitors don't even stop at elephant sightings anymore as they're so numerous. You can criticise the Botswanan government all you like but bunny-hugging armchair conservationists Googling 'Botswana' are not going to identify the solution until they have a meaningful understanding of what the problem is.

It has 'loads of space' but 70% of it is the Kalahari desert which can only support a very limited number of elephants. Elephants don't eat diamonds or any of the other 'natural resources' you listed. Clearly I was referring to food resources ie vegetation. Thanks for the links but I'm quite up to speed with pretty much everything I need to know about Botswana.

Thank you for re-editing my post. No, I don't mean Botswana is literally overrun with humans. Why would I when it's one of the most parsley populated countries in the world? Its population density is just 4.52 people per sq km, compared to 270 in the UK. The human population isn't the problem, at least in Botswana, it's how we manage our co-existence with other species and conserve them, all of them. Sure we need to control our own numbers but that's just an aspiration, it's not a solution to the immediate problem or even at all. The elephant population in Botswana has doubled in the last 20 years and Botswana's finite natural resources aren't capable of sustaining such exponential population growth. Something has to give, it's just a question of what.

Please stop editing my posts in your quotes. You've got form for doing this. I said that ''Botswana is literally overrun with elephants'' (remember?) But you substituted ''elephants'' with ''humans'' presumably to distort my opinion to suit your argument. I'm always happy to participate in informed debate, but only if it's in good faith.

The president of Botswana has a good point. Botswana is literally overrun with elephants. They've become an invasive species that destroys the environment for every other living creature and have to be controlled somehow. The devastation they cause has to be seen to be believed. Don't get me wrong, I'm not pro hunting but hunting has more than just the benefit of controlling numbers. It provides employment to an impoverished nation and most importantly, managed hunting reserves maintain pristine environments (to the benefit of all living species) that would otherwise be concreted over or turned over to intensive farming. Botswana threatens to send 20,000 elephants to Germany WWW.BBC.CO.UK Germany wants tougher limits on hunting the animals, but Botswana says it has too many of them.

All the relevant politicians have been scheduled to give evidence to the Horizon Inquiry now, plus Vennells (3 days) and Gareth Jenkins (4 days). Bring popcorn. Phase 5 and 6 Timetable WWW.POSTOFFICEHORIZONINQUIRY.ORG.UK Heari

The inquiry has published an email exchange between some PO execs and Angela Van Den Bogerd from 2010. POL00091384 - Email chain between John Bredeen, Angela Van-Den-Bogerd, Sue Higgins and others RE: Follow up to BIS meeting on JFSA WWW.POSTOFFICEHORIZONINQUIRY.ORG.UK Here's a snippet.

Oops indeed. You edited out the rest of the 2nd quote that specifically referenced the evidence given in the inquiry.

There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that ministers are ''trying to stop any police investigation into Vennells and others''. Where is the argument to support saying it? I think those who run forms of social media (which this is) have a responsibility to separate fact from fiction.

As some kind of moderator shouldn't you be discouraging conspiracy theories rather than inventing them?

This was reported in the media, where a Fujitsu manager dissed Lee Castleton in an email before his court hearing. He was being questioned by sub postmaster's barrister Flora Page (who my partner works with). You can't really see him but Lee Castleton is sitting right behind her, so It's pretty cringing stuff. Fast forward to 47:00.

I always find it better to see the actual evidence rather than some journalist's interpretation of it. It's at the very start of this evidence session. And before you start slagging off the Fujitsu witness, he's actually a good guy.