Saving Our Streams: The Role of the Anglers' Conservation Association in Protecting English & Welsh Rivers

Rating:
Summary: There's Nothing Fishy About this book.
Review: Roger Bate follows in a long line of authors who have written for the London based free market institute, the Institute of Economic Affairs. Capitalism by Arthur Seldon, Education and the State by E. G. West and Working Class Patients by David G. Green have all explored the development of solutions to social and economic problems without the state being involved.

The broader historical context can be found in the writings of the Scottish enlightenment, notably Adam Smith who saw the virtues of the free market and the superiority of men acting together to generate a solution which was not planned. later, hayek through his insight of dispersed knowledge recognised the limits to state action which could be overcome through individual economic actors working in concert together.

In this admirable little book, Roger Bate explores the fight that the (now) Anglers' Conservation Association has fought in cleaning up English and Welsh rivers and streams from pollution and other environmental damage. This voluntary club or society if you like has used the tools provided by the English Common Law to battle against polluters whether they be individual farmers, commercial enterprises, local authorities, government agencies (including environmental ones!) or nationalised industries. They have been remarkably successful in saving our streams and rivers despite being of small membership and limited in funds. Despite those handicaps they have fought against all powerful government and it's statute law to establish the pre-eminence of riparian rights.

Roger Bate sets out with remarkable clarity the history of the Anglers' Conservation Association and the principles upon which it is based. He examines the legal basis of the cases which have set the precedents for later action, landmark cases and shows how they have impacted on British Government policy.

If I have any reservation about this book at all it would be that there is not sufficient consideration of the impact of current European legislation and the possible impact of European policy on this area. However, this may be the subject of another research monograph for another day.

The book provides further support and evidence, if anymore were needed, for the superiority of individual action or individuals acting in concert over the futile although well meaning actions of the state. I commend it to all readers.