Michael Heseltine

On Saturday I will join hundreds of thousands of British people demanding a People's Vote on Brexit. The Put it to the People march will give voice to the growing concern in the nation that Brexit is going horribly wrong. Of course I argued from the beginning that we were better off in the EU than out of it. Better off resolving our differences from within the European family than as an isolated onlooker chipping in from the side-lines. I believe passionately that at a time when the far-right is on the rise in Hungary and Poland and populists growing in influence in Italy, France, Germany and Holland, Britain is needed to provide leadership in Europe.

The week began badly when I spotted three grey squirrels gathering beechnuts in our arboretum. During our time at our home in Northamptonshire, my wife and I have anguished over our reluctance to indulge in wanton killing — and how far our tolerance of damage to the trees and nesting birds will stretch. But two years ago, we resolved the dilemma when squirrels wrecked our 30 nesting boxes. They had gnawed into the entrance holes before destroying the eggs and chicks. We employed two expert keepers who, in nine months, shot or trapped more than 400 squirrels over the 70-acre area. The increase in young birds the following summer has made us determined to maintain our ‘no squirrel’ policy.