The British countryside has never had it so bad

Two weeks ago, Clive Aslet wrote about how the countryside had never had it so good. Tobias Jones argues that the reality is very different

Two weeks ago these pages featured one of the most bizarre encomiums to the countryside I've ever read. Written by Clive Aslet, editor at large of Country Life magazine, the argument went that the British countryside is a far better place than it was when Aslet started travelling around it, first class, in the 1970s. It read like a parody: things are improved because it's no longer "ruinously expensive to heat a country house", Anglesey is now OK because Waitrose delivers there, and - "hurrah!" says Aslet - you can easily source Baron Bigod brie.

If you read the piece carefully, it demonstrated the opposite of Aslet's argument. In a relatively short article the word "look" appeared nine times. This, it became clear, was the countryside as spectacle, something pleasing to gawp at, photograph and visit. Aslet wasn't just looking through rose-tinted specs but through a windscreen.

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