On Tuesday evening, as you know, I spoke in Glossop and one question that came up, which quite often comes up, is the question of the great power of the rich landowners to get their way. When a lady asks the question it is usually along the lines of ‘Won’t it be difficult to ban driven grouse shooting…’ but I’ve noticed that when it is a man it is often ‘You’ll never ban driven grouse shooting because…’. I think the difference is interesting and I wish I’d kept a count of the times it has come up and how, but you’ll have to take my word for it, or not; local knowledge you know!
On Wednesday morning I met an old friend, by which I mean a friend of long standing, whom I had not seen for about eight years. We had worked together on GM crop issues and we’d enjoyed the fun of it all and the progress we had made, and the times we had had. So we reminisced a bit.
My friend had wanted to come to my talk but couldn’t as it was sold out so she asked about it and I touched on this issue of people raising the power of the rich. She just laughed, and said, as I do, that the grouse moor owners aren’t very many and aren’t very powerful provided we get the people, lots of people like you and me, to speak out.
Of course, if we simply sit around moaning, or tell ourselves that we’re not in charge, then we are giving them our power. Nothing is achieved by sitting and moaning and feeling that you can’t win – we can win for we are in charge.
It won’t be immediate, but we will win in the end – provided we can mobilise more and more public opinion. One way to do that is to get some wildlife NGOs on board but they are all being a bit feeble – no matter, we’ll do it without them and on some future Crispin’s Day those that lay abed will feel themselves accursed that they were not with us. And hold their manhoods cheap, and womanhoods too, that they were not part of our band of brothers and sisters.
And to keep the Henry V theme going (you did notice didn’t you?), but switching back to Harfleur, there will be another e-petition coming along in a little while so it will be once more into the breach dear friends and this time there will be a request for funding too – so that we can do even better than the last two times by spreading the word more widely and effectively. We’ve gained a lot of support, we’ve learned a lot along the way, and we aren’t going away.
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Mark, please warn me in future, if you are going to suggest that NGOs are being limp and wet on this because they are busy holding their manhoods (and womanheads – hat tip to gender inclusion), so early in the morning. Laughed so much it woke the household. Yes, I noticed.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/13/peak-district-hen-harrier-birds-stone-circle-bronze-age#comments
Spreading the word. A bit.
A little touch of Harrier in the night?
Unfortunately, what I suspect will happen is that the RSPB will rouse itself the day before St Crispin’s Day then claim it led the victory 😉
But hey, the victory is what we want.
One very interesting consequence of the Defra HH plan is that regardless of what side you are one, there is now a general acceptance that persecution will continue as long as driven grouse shooting continues. There was a third way – which, of course, should have been the Government plan, which was a serious stab at Grouse and Hen harriers together but the Defra plan has cleared the air: it is now grouse shooting + persecution or no Grouse shooting + lots of Hen Harriers.
What would be the chances of a few of us standing at the entrance of the Birdfair and getting some signatures. Would they allow that? At the very least, it would give us a chance to spread the word. It may even embarrass some of the NGOs into getting on board.
It would also be a good way of targeting a fact sheet/leaflet.
Or…..remember when you had to sign a fish? Get them to sign a HH.
Have no doubt the persecution on shoots will be stopped eventually but the magnitude of stopping it is in the figures of how many people we are reaching.
By my reckoning we are reaching 0.05 of the population even with all the effort being put in by yourself and other special people.
Even if RSPB really get stuck in then that figure only goes up to about 2% supposing all their members support them.
It will be a very long road but lots of cruel things have been stopped after long battles usually with the swing going the other way so maybe the swing eventually if those shooters who are not committing crimes do not speak out and help raptors then though they may be innocent they will be affected.
Maybe my one concern is that so many petitions are out there that it gives the Government excuse to take no notice of any of them.
How many people who complain about the plight of our wildlife will then go and vote Tory “because they trust them on the economy”? Whilst the Tories are in power the rich landowners have little to fear. Everything that is happening to emasculate the environmental watchdogs, eradicate wildlife crime units (low priority for cash-strapped police forces), and roll back environmental and wildlife protection laws is happening under successive Tory controlled governments and, unless people start to realise that our environment and our wildlife is more important than the economy, which is largely driven by external forces, there will be no progress.
If Labour was any different on wildlife crime on shooting estates we would not be bothering fighting the Hen Harriers corner as they would have sorted out those Tory toff Estates years ago.
This is not a party thing,can never understand someone making it party political.
Loads of posh rich people could be called toffs and they vote Labour.
Personally, I think it’s far better to keep this whole issue of raptor persecution on a non party political footing. None of our political parties are inclined to put environmental issues high on their agenda, apart from the Green Party, and support for raptor protection cuts across all social strata and political persuasion. For example, there are many Labour grass-root supporters who don’t like peregrines or sparrow hawks and are quite happy to exterminate them when opportunity arises regardless of the law.
Sadly, I believe members of all the wildlife NGO’s believe that the charities are standing up for wildlife against persecution. They believe that is what their subscriptions are paying for. They do get very upset when they find out it isn’t so. They don’t find out mainly.
A ban will never happen? It will take forever? Well, let’s take the Peak District for example; by my reckoning if, say, O.O2% of the people who cared enough about raptors and moor mis-management to sign the last petition, and there are many others locally with a grievance too, were to start protests on Natural Trust land this season on shoot days, and keep them up consistently, my estimation is that the Trust will capitulate by December. That would be a start. We will need a few more troops to roll things out more widely but I’m sure there is the potential for a rapid escalation. If we are prepared to make the effort, the National Park could easily see its last driven grouse shoot within 5 years.
I’m with Jim.
So am I but I think we need 2%.
Sorry to nit-pick!
Cheers Gerard, you are hereby inducted into the Raptor Liberation Front (High Peak Battalion).
Always happy to discuss the particulars of tactical deployment Terry but my current thinking is that 100 protesters (0.297% of 33653) would be plenty to start operations on any given moor (oh, for arguments sake, let’s say, and i’m clutching this out of the air for no particular reason, Howden Moor).
Sorry about the itchy decimal finger first time round though Terry, I’m no natural born mathematician!
Could you please put Tperry not Terry in my comments Mark? I really shouldn’t type when I don’t have my contact lenses in!
There is a group “Ban Bloodsport on Ilkley Moor (BBIM)” who have been hounding Bradford Council for the last 5 years or so and are making good progress, although Bradford Council are democratic to an extent. It may be an idea to contact them and get some advice about doing this.
Mark has had contact with the leaders of BBIM.
Hi Mark
I was the ‘lady’ in the audience on Tues at Glossop, who thought we are up against it due to the influence of the moneyed classes. Sorry if I sounded pessimistic. Caught me at a bad time as I’m in the middle of reading Owen Jones’s The Establishment!!
Another excellent tome, best read a chapter at a time or it could impact on the blood pressure!
I could imagine The Establishment, Inglorious & Fighting for Birds and from further north The Poor Had No Lawyers (Andy Wightman) being really popular with the big E?
We may be in charge but we do have representatives in Parliament we can write to and ask them to speak on our behalf: OR CAN WE.
My local MP. has just produced his regular column including the following –
‘An organisation called 38 degrees has concluded (quite incorrectly) that it’s a good plan to muster thousands of ‘supporters’ to bombard MPs with emails on every subject under the sun. In the last week I have received (and replied to) 570 letters on subjects as varied as: – Freedom of Information, the BBC, snaring, wild animals in circuses and climate change. They may come to realise that amusing as this exercise is, it irritates far more MPs than it persuades and may therefore be having the opposite effect to the one it sought.
In Parliamentary terms, the only numbers which matter are the 650 MPs, and the rather larger number of Peers. And given that when we ‘divide ‘ (i.e. vote), it tends to be more or less down the middle, very often only a handful of MPs one way or the other make the crucial difference.’
?????
Utter utter arrogance. But it’s no more than I’d expect from them. We need to learn to campaign the American way and hang individual votes and positions around politicians’ necks in campaigning literature, websites etc.
Haave you seen the article on Hen Harriers in this month’s BBC Wildlife mag. You get a mention, as does Andrew Gilruth.
Phuil – No! Not sure mine has arrived yet. Thanks
Bob – would it be speculative to suggest that your MP may be a Conservative ?
No it wouldn’t be speculation
Still no convincing reason why @Natures_Silence don’t come out in support of a ban on driven grouse shoots, we could also throw any number of others into the mix. Despite having served for Queen and Country, I do feel that regarding the RSPB and being a member, they have not asked members how they feel on the matter of DGS. Many decisions are taken by an executive- there is very little democracy- are we below being asked what direction we should take to protect wildlife.
They need to drop the Royal Society bit and get stuck in to what “Protection of Birds” is all about. lets get behind the next petition, lets have it better organized, and lets get the message out there re use of twitter/social media and campaigning that is co-ordinated, brings celebs on board (without any fence sitting).
The cause of proper protection for the Hen Harrier and wildlife will be better served if members of whatever society or club are listened to from proper , open and informed debate. The cause has been poorly served by the leadership of NGO’s that have unfortunately looked at the subject in a way that does not want to rock the boat – unfortunately because of this in-action, we are presented with solutions that are no where near where they need to be.
Members should demand and expect more from a leadership that seems more in touch with membership as a financial support than as a body of interest and passion that could be of so much more use than just the balance sheet.
Lets unleash this passion for nature that is at present under the lock and key of a leadership that hasn’t made best use of this support. Its not all about money you know, there is a huge moral question to answer too.