What The Times, Spectator, and Guardian Agree On: Wildfires Are Out of Control

The Times, The Spectator, and The Guardian have recently drawn attention to the worsening wildfire crisis across the UK and beyond. Each highlights different aspects of the same challenge: how rising temperatures, accumulated fuel, and divisive policy decisions are combining to make wildfires more frequent, more damaging, and harder to control.

Record Fires, Record Warnings

Reporting for The Times, Adam Vaughan reveals that the UK has suffered its first official “mega fire”, the Carrbridge and Dava Moor wildfire in the Scottish Highlands, which burned more than 10,000 hectares of peatland and forest.

Scientists described it as unusually fast and destructive, fuelled by dry spring conditions and dense vegetation. Britain, the article noted, has now recorded the largest area burned and the most wildfires since records began, with more land lost to fire this year than in Greece.

This comes amid global concern. The Guardian reports that 2025 has seen the biggest rise in carbon dioxide emissions in years, with wildfires a major cause. Around a fifth of the world’s “carbon offset” forests were affected by fire, erasing years of climate gains.

The paper warned that escalating emissions from uncontrolled wildfires are now a serious driver of global heating, a problem increasingly visible on Britain’s doorstep.

Policy vs Practice

Matt Ridley, writing in The Spectator, argues that government policy risks making a bad situation worse. He criticised Defra’s new ban on burning peat deeper than 30 cm, with proposed subsidy penalties for burning on peat as shallow as 10 cm, calling it a measure “riding roughshod over advice from scientists, firefighters and land managers.”

Ridley pointed out that managed burning has been part of moorland care for centuries, helping reduce fuel loads and create habitat mosaics that support species such as curlew and golden plover.

He also cited Defra’s own 2007 Heather and Grass Burning Code, which warned that stopping burning would leave old, woody heather prone to uncontrollable wildfire.

Gamekeepers and farmers, he noted, play a central role in fighting fires, using local knowledge, machinery, and experience. Banning this form of management, he argued, risks removing the very skills and equipment that make rapid fire response possible.

A Call for Common Sense

Taken together, these reports show the scale of the challenge, and the consequences of ignoring practical experience. Britain is facing hotter, drier conditions, while policies intended to protect peat may instead increase the risk of it burning.

As the debate over moorland management continues, there is a clear need for balance: modern science must inform policy, but traditional knowledge must not be dismissed.

Controlled burning, when carried out responsibly, remains one of the most effective tools for reducing wildfire fuel and safeguarding both carbon stores and wildlife.

Defra’s approach should not be ideological. It should be evidence-led, locally informed, and focused on preventing the next “mega fire,” not inadvertently fuelling it.

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