ARISE (DESPISE!) SIR GRAHAM

In November 2009 my wife and I both resigned from the  RSPB because of their total incompetence over the Lagoa dos Salgados preservation affair. We had been members for a very long time and retained our membership after moving to Portugal thirteen years ago, even though we no longer partook of any RSPB facilities. There is no doubt that the RSPB has done some sterling work in the past, and may well do so again in the future (if they can stop Boris Johnson building another London airport in the Thames estuary I will applaud them again), but these are all "big ticket" campaigns and I now feel that the RSPB is neglecting more mundane projects.

I was incandescent with rage when I learned that Graham Wynne, RSPB Chief Executive Officer since 1998, was awarded a Knighthood in this year's New Year's Honours List; had I not already resigned, I would have done so immediately.

 

What has this odious non-entity done to deserve this honour? The "speil" states that it is "for services to conservation"  -  my arse it is. When he came into post the RSPB was growing (as it has since its formation) and had over 1.3 million members and was boasting of achieving 1.5 million in the near future. The membership now stands at just over one million, so what the grinning Sir Graham has actually achieved is to lose a third of the membership  -   and Her Majesty gave him a knighthood for it (remember it is the ROYAL Society for the Protection of Birds). What a f*****g disgrace!!

The RSPB do nothing to earn money, they rely on membership subscriptions, special appeals and legacies (the latter has been their largest income in most years). They should be much more accountable to their members but they are not. The society is "top heavy" with Presidents, Vice Presidents, CEO, Directors, Deputy Directors, Regional Directors, etc. all concerned with preserving their posts and final-salary pensions. As someone said recently: "The RSPB and the BBC have similar problems  -  if they were run as a business, more than 50% of them would get the sack".

The writing is on the wall for them; the legions of "old dears" who had nothing better to do with their money than leave it to the RSPB in their will are quickly dying out and the current membership is rapidly jumping ship.

Do a "Google" for Graham Wynne to see what the general consensus of opinion is on this man.