Seriously rattled – and rightly

In a long rant the Countryside Alliance shows just how rattled it is by the challenges to driven grouse shooting.  It’s all the usual stuff, in fact it’s quite a useful refresher course in the Alliance’s lack of solid arguments on the subject. But it’s interesting to think about why the grouse shooting folk have…

Yet another letter to my MP

Dear Mr Pursglove Because we might have another general election some time fairly soon, I’d like to just share these thoughts with you, please. I was surprised, in a way, to read that the Conservative manifesto promised a free vote on fox hunting (and the Prime Minister voiced her support for it). You may remember…

Another letter to my MP

Dear Mr Pursglove Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 I am very concerned at the impacts of this piece of legislation on the ability of civil society to participate in the democratic process. You may have seen that over 50 charities wrote to all party members concerned about the ‘chilling…

Concerns about the Lobbying Act – the letter

  The Lobbying Act is really important and quite complicated so I’ll do my best to explain some things here. It’s worth saying upfront that I have spoken to various friends in NGOs about this issue and it is very clear that the Act is making many charities extremely nervous about speaking out about any…

And after High Peak? Calder Valley and Carmarthen West

I was very pleased to see that High Peak returned to Labour on Friday.  The seat looked winnable, although a bit of a stretch, and clearly it was.  The former Conservative MP, Andrew Bingham, had consistently voted for increasing restrictions on campaigning, against benefit improvements, for cuts in welfare spending, against gay rights, against measures…