Sorry, but landscapes are better without barriers

From the moment I arrived in Bakewell, Derbyshire, as a carpet-bagger politician nearly a quarter of a century ago, I knew I’d never leave. The attractions of the county and its sweet green hills and dales only grew. And in the end, though I had meant the Peaks to be just rungs on my ladder to the peaks of politics, politics turned out to be just a rung on my ladder to the Peaks. Here I stayed and here, I hope, I always will.

So what comes next is difficult to write: so difficult that I’ve never written it before. But here goes…

I don’t like dry-stone walls.

There. I’ve said it. I don’t actually like the very thing so many tourists and residents love best and associate most with our glorious Peak District National Park. Dry-stone walls are in all the postcards: part of the brand. But given my way I’d bulldoze the lot.