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This chapter explores the role that birdwatching plays in The Archers. It demonstrates some significant similarities between the way that birdwatching is portrayed in present-day Ambridge, and the way it was presented in both fictional and non-fictional literature of the 1940s. These similarities suggest that birdwatching in Ambridge is an activity that tends to perpetuate traditional class and gender divisions. Particularly in terms of gender, this is a surprising discovery, given the many strong female characters in the show, and suggests that cultural assumptions about gender and birdwatching run deep in UK society today. The chapter warns that a failure to recognise these assumptions not only hampers the progress of women who aspire to be taken seriously as ornithologists, but also risks reinforcing dualistic thinking about humans and nature at a time when the environmental crisis makes it more important than ever to recognise the ecological interconnectedness of human and nonhuman worlds. However, the recent development of Kirsty Miller’s storyline, in which she is rediscovering her earlier love of the natural world, not only offers hope of a shift away from this traditional bias but also opens a space for a more nuanced examination of the importance of birds in human–nature relations.

Fraud is not yet universally recognised or understood as a crime, in the way that theft is. All sectors of our society recognise shoplifting as a crime, whereas an exaggerated insurance claim tends to be seen more as a matter of personal morality than public law and order.

This paper seeks to identify different medical strategies adopted in relation to the new hospital payment systems in Germany, The Netherlands and England and analyse how the medical strategies have impacted on the emergence of these New Public Management policy tools between 2002 and 2007.

A comparative approach is applied. In addition to secondary sources, the study uses publications in professional journals, official publications of the (national) physician organisations and a (non‐random) expert questionnaire to obtain the views of the medical corporate bodies in the three countries.

The results reveal differences in the medical strategies in the three countries that point towards the significance of institutional and interest configurations. The Dutch corporate medical body was most willing to solve the conflict, while the German and English corporate medical bodies seem to be keen to use a strategy of confrontation. The differences in medical strategies also impact on the ways in which hospital payment systems have emerged in the three countries.

Further research is necessary to study the medical strategies in healthcare reforms from a broader perspective, for instance by including other countries.

The paper gives insights into the interplay between the medical profession and the government in the context of new managerial governance practices in the hospital sector. It adds to the scholarly debates about the role of the medical profession in health policy‐making.