Could the message finally be getting through to the RSPB that both the public and policymakers consider the organisation 'arrogant'?
On the back of some of the most hostility inciting campaigns against rural communities in recent years, which rarely contain any semblance of fact, it is little wonder the charity has lost touch with both the public and the politicians.
The Charity Commission sent a strong warning to the RSPB late last year when they were warned 'not to stifle and poison political debate', following their much derided campaign against government growth plans.
It seems the RSPB are now considering their position after undertaken an internal wide-ranging polling exercise on their purpose, which included questioning whether they were an 'arrogant organisation'.
The poll would also suggest the RSPB is becoming increasingly worried about its members resigning their membership, after testing the different reasons as to why they might do so.
The poll, which was conducted in November 2022 by Opinium, also seemed to suggest that there is concern within the RSPB that they are becoming too closely associated with controversial organisations like Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil.
Could this be the wake up call from the RSPB management that for too long they have drifted from their charitable charter under which they should be focused only on the protection of all birds?
Within the polling survey there were also some questionable efforts at 'push-polling'. Push polling is an ignominious, if not illegal, tactic used by those conducting the survey to attempt to influence participants' views under the appearance of conducting an opinion poll by drumming up support for issues to force a point.
In the RSPB's survey they also asked such questions as whether 'you avoided needlessly overwrapped plastic products' or whether participants had 'no interest in wildlife and nature as they are not important to me'. The answer to both these questions would be considered obvious to many.
What impact the results of this survey will have remain to be seen. However, given it seems it was only its existing membership that was asked, you might reasonably expect the charity is attempting to use it to reinforce its position on certain policy issues, rather than as a genuine attempt to reflect on its actions of recent years.
Let us see what 2023 brings. I think it is fair to say that, particularly with some the current management the charity employs and the public slanders that they continue to make, we are unlikely to see the relationship with rural communities improve anytime soon.
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