Richard Collins: We can use 'consumer activism' to encourage change

Birds flying over Valletta harbour in Malta. Richard Collins visited the island ahead of a referendum on spring hunting

Europe must wean itself off Russian oil and gas. It’s a moral imperative. Putin’s brutal assault on Ukraine has brought the ethics of the marketplace into focus as never before. Every purchase has political implications; we ‘exercise the franchise’ not only at the ballot box, but also in the supermarket. Ireland pioneered a version of ‘consumer activism’; thanks to the Land League, Charles Boycott’s name entered the lexicon.

Malta and Cyprus are vital staging posts for birds crossing the Mediterranean in spring and returning to Africa in the autumn. The unfortunate migrants, exhausted from their long flights, face a ruthless enemy. Armies of hunters, armed with guns mist-nets and bird-lime, lie in wait for them. Hundreds of thousands of birds, including species nurtured by conservationists in Europe, are slaughtered mindlessly. European Union directives demand an end to the massacres, but the destruction continues.