HAVING outraged millions of country folk last week, the Government is to throw two sops to anglers and rural residents.

It has announced that it will continue to pay a £250 million subsidy to keep loss-making sub-post offices and it may allow more cormorants - a protected species - to be shot under licence.

The first will please many residents of villages too small to support a profitable post office - but it is only temporary. The subsidy will be reviewed after the next general election.

The second will cause game fishermen to rejoice - if it is ever brought into force - because thousands of these voracious fish eaters have moved in land since stocks in coastal waters were decimated by over-fishing.

They are particularly common on North Country game fishing rivers and have drastically reduced numbers of salmon parr and trout. But the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is already warning that it will take the Government to court if it decides to go ahead with the cull.