Readers’ survey – should grouse shooting be banned in England?

You think it should be…

 

 

… and even 45% of those who say they would be Tory voters if there were a general election tomorrow agree with a ban.

[Click here, here, here and here for other results from this survey]

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9 Replies to “Readers’ survey – should grouse shooting be banned in England?”

  1. Here we go again

    Mob rule? Vote Labour

    Class-war anarchists? Vote Labour

    You know it makes sense!

    Go visit Labour’s recent “One Nation” publication – it’s all about banning the shooting of grouse !!

    ps I keep telling you all – RSPB wants to be nice to the government – so it can continue getting its large grants – ‘quelle surprise’ as they say the French Countryside

  2. I went to a meeting with some shooting folk and asked them if they supported my wish to ban Association Football – I explained why – all the clubs are broke – they are elitist – they charge outlandish prices – keep changing their shirt design – swear at refs – generally cheat by pulling shirts, diving etc etc most ‘players’ are sooner or later disrespectful – showing very bad examples to impressionable children – encourage betting and drinking etc; the mob is racist and homophobic etc etc

    I even said that most of the supporters were – if they bovvered – Labour supporters !!!

    But they all greed – Association Football should not be banned !!

    There’s ‘grown-upness’ for you – as the rugby-loving Welsh say !!

    1. Trimbush – and it would be a strange sport that didn’t clean up its act to reduce support for banning it. But then, grouse shooting is a strange sport.

      I’m not keen on banning things. I’m not yet sure that I am keen on banning grouse shooting, and probably only driven grouse shooting anyway (which I suspect is a widely held view amongst those who know much about the subject) – but I am interested in seeing what people think. If I were a grouse moor owner I’d be regretting not doing more to rid my sport of the criminals before now. A sport that protects its own criminal element is on very dodgy ground.

  3. Yes Mark you’re right

    I’d forgotten about the criminal element in Association Football – match fixing and the owners’ dodgy financial ‘management’ – not to mention convicted criminals – as a quick ‘google’ will reveal.

    Incidentally – the two big Manchester clubs are interesting business models – one backed with loads of dosh – one with loads of debt – but cash (revenue) is still king

  4. I voted against banning grouse shooting, and I’m certainly no tory. But I am involved with the RSPB’s Skydancer campaign, and, as I have just said on another thread, I would rather see shooting continue, but with healthy raptor populations. Driven grouse shooting should be regulated, and we should have vicarious liability (although its effectiveness has yet to be proved). And it would be great if estates has more incentives to abandon illegal persecution, such as examples set by forward thinking public figures (Prince William?), and selling meat to retailers like M&S. That is the essence of the Skydancer campaign.

  5. Unless you enjoy doing something you will never be competent – so does the RSPB check that its employees / agents that shoot ‘their’ foxes to protect ‘their’ birds enjoy shooting accurately and thus reduce the chance of effecting just a wounding shot?

    And what would the RSPB do if it couldn’t shoot foxes!

    The RSPB must take out more foxes than all the UK hunts put together !!

    Do we have any statistics on this matter?

    1. Shooting foxes is legal, shooting hen harriers isn’t. If the driven grouse shoots need to rely on criminality to stay in business they should be banned. I would expect any responsible grouse shooter to keep within the law including Mr Windsor so why he doesn’t speak out is a mystery. If we get the bit between our teeth it will be released pheasants and partridges next.

      Trimbush if you want to save driven grouse shooting, don’t moan about it, get your chums to clean up their act.

  6. ‘You think it should be’, is of course not correct. The actual situation is that approximately 500 of the thousands of people who you tell us eagerly follow this blog ticked the ban grouse shooting box.
    I’m not surprised about such a lack of interest in the subject amongst the wider population but it is a surprise in the context of your blog.
    What was also interesting was the significant number of Labour voters opposed to a ban, again, in the context of your energetic and skilful anti-grouse shooting campaigning this must have been a bit of a disappointment but it does incline one to think that some of the stereo-types which one sees paraded on blogs such as this may not be as cast in stone as people believe.

    1. Ian – yes, 515 people ticked the box that said ‘yes’ to banning grouse shooting – out of 816 who answered the question at all (out of 854 who answered any question at all). And this is the readership that voted Owen Paterson into being the 2nd most popular environmental MP!

      I haven’t yet mounted an energetic and skilful anti-grouse shooting campaign. If I do, you’ll certainly notice it.

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