Is the British countryside racist? In parts of it... yes

Strap in, folks, and listen out for the dog whistle.

- MARY-ANN OCHOTA

Apparently, it's an outrage that the government is working to make our most treasured national landscapes more welcoming, safe and accessible to everyone – or, as a new report commissioned by the environment department, Defra, put it, less of a “white environment” principally enjoyed by the “white middle class”. Shock horror.

Defra is helping the teams that manage national parks, national trails and national landscapes to make all visitors feel welcome, and support local communities to be thriving, diverse and sustainable places to live, work and visit. Erm, I'm still waiting for the bit I'm supposed to be outraged about.

My mum is Indian, my dad is Polish, I was raised in North West England and I have family all over the world. So I feel confident saying that the truth is, making these landscapes welcoming to all is part of their legal duty and why these national parks, trails and landscapes were established in the first place. They were set up in the 1940s and 1950s at the same time as the NHS - one body was the National Health Service, and these wide, beautiful landscapes were the “natural” health service. Even back then, the government understood that access and connection to nature, to beauty, to history were essential for healthy bodies and minds in a nation recovering from war.