The Westminster government e-petition site closed about six hours early yesterday – at around 6pm rather than at the scheduled midnight. Is that the first broken promise of the general election campaign?
Our e-petition disappeared with no warning, along with all the others, but with around 22,400 signatures supporting the call to ban driven grouse shooting. This makes it more than twice as successful as Chrissie Harper’s e-petition on vicarious liability, more than twice as successful as John Armitage’s e-petition on licensing of game estates and more than twice as successful as Andrew Gilruth’s e-petition on the non-joint, non-published, non-plan.
Thank you, again, to all who signed, and all who promoted this e-petition. We have changed the tenor of the debate. We have made a start. We will not go away. We will be back.
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Because the e-petition has not had the normal full time to run, having been cut short by ?the general election?, the Government should give it a prorata increase in numbers by the amount it has been cut short in time. However this Government would not do that of course.
Excellent, a sort of Duckworth-Lewis score in reverse!
An incredible effort from all concerned, you’re Absolutly right Mark, we will fight on and we’re not going away until the Hen Harrier and all wildlife on the Grouse Moors get a chance to live without persecution.
Thank you, Mark, and congratulations. It was more than an e-petition.
The recent BAWC Conference was about wildlife crime across the piece but the cause celebre for obvious reasons was the plight of Henry’s family.
Out with a WCPO yesterday to show him a crime scene (badger dig) he admitted precisely what Chris Packham highlighted, wildlife crime isn’t a reported statistic so senior staff are reluctant to commit resources to investigating and the conference was right, this kinds of attitude needs to be challenged and changed?
One hopes that Henry will find a mate and that they fledge some ‘moor’ excellent strategies and tactics ….
Well done Mark. Great effort. You’ve helped catalyse a movement of all the good people who want to see an end to this archaic ‘sport’.
It used to be considered downright low to shoot driven grouse. An article in “The Field” dating from the first half of the 19th century accused a certain Maharajah of driving grouse. This provoked a response from his Head Keeper in a subsequent issue, ‘begging to report, that all His Highness’s birds were shot to dogs, in a gentlemanly and sportsmanlike manner”.
As Susan rightly stated – it was more than an e-petition. It was a shot above the heads of an industry whose role in the persecution of wildlife to enable an elitist ‘sport’ is as firmly established as you could wish for. The future for Hen Harriers – and those broader issues surrounding, that bird – is under greater scrutiny than ever before. We should celebrate that.
Well done, Mark. I hope ‘Inglorious’ is a great success. It deserves to be.
Anyone seen Beefy Botham?
Congratulations on a campaign which has really focused minds Mark. Keep it up!