AN IRONY of campaigning is that the biggest breakthroughs are often the result of apparent defeats. So it was in January, as multi-millionaire hedge fund manager Alexander Darwall won a legal case that resulted in the abolishment of the rights of millions of people to sleep under the stars in Dartmoor National Park.
In the case brought against the Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA), Darwall’s lawyers argued that the 1985 Dartmoor Commons Act act did not include camping overnight, as it did not explicitly mention it. The judge Julian Flaux ruled that this was correct, a decision that absurdly hinged on whether wild camping counted as one of the ‘recreational
