The RSPB would like us to ‘Vote for Bob‘ who appears to be a Red Squirrel.
Is Bob promising:
- an owl for everyone?
- a Red Squirrel for everyone?
- nuts for everyone?
- pointy ears for everyone?
- no grey days at all?
I’m not really sure – Bob is like real politicians in being just a little vague about what he stands for.
But what he actually stands for is a better deal for nature. The more of us who vote for Bob, the more politicians might realise that we care and therefore, that they should act.
So, even if you wish Bob were Roberta. or a Hen Harrier not a squirrel, or were a little less nutty, or had some better defined policies (like this one), or were an all-NGO proposition rather than an RSPB-only squirrel, then please do Vote for Bob!
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I’ve signed but agree that Bob could be a lot more specific and less childish – he’s more likely to appeal to those too young to vote. A more grown up campaign involving more NGOs might have carried more weight?
Also, manifestos are not legally binding so parties can promise what they like in order to get votes but then ditch those ideas as soon as they are in power – anyone remember the Conservatives promising to be the greenest Government ever? Now how has that turned out…
seems to me, and I didn’t think this could be possible… that the RSPB are even more out of touch with the general public than the politicians they aim to influence!?
I’m not convinced a campaign like this will resonate well with the public, and more importantly, will have any weight with politicians and those in power.
If you were a policymaker who would you listen to; a captain of industry aiming to make thousands of jobs, or a naff squirrel that’s extinct in most of the UK?
The RSPB have over 1 million people giving them and their ideals hard cash every year. That’s more than every political party in the UK combined. They have a credibility and a democratic mandate that in some ways is stronger than that of the political parties.
Are they really using that to the best of their advantage with this campaign?
As Red Squirrels in most of Britain are not native I feel this is the wrong species to use. Only in the Highlands of Scotland are they supposed to be native. One of the easy ways to tell that your squirrel is a ‘continental’ is the tail colour and to think I have seen full ‘black’ red squirrels here in Cumbria!! Notice the ‘game keepering’ remark about greys. An important food of Goshawks [and Pine Martens if there were any left down here!]
Channel Islands have native red squirrels does that count
I also think the ‘Vote for Bob’ campaign is better suited to CBeebies than a supposedly intelligent adult population. I wonder if the bright young thing that thought it up worked previously on Blue Peter?
However, if Bob was promising ‘nuts for all’ to would be infinitely better than our present political masters whose message seems to be ‘nuts to all’ when it comes to the environment!
Sorry Mark, I won’t be voting for Bob. This just seems like yet another example of the RSPB stepping on the toes of other wildlife NGOs. We already have groups working hard to protect our remaining Red Squirrels, and even to bring them back to some areas from which they had been lost.
I have great respect for the local staff and volunteers of the RSPB who are doing a great job; but they are being let down by those at the top who seem to have lost the plot.
“We already have groups working hard to protect our remaining Red Squirrels, and even to bring them back to some areas from which they had been lost.”
The Vote for Bob campaign, as far as I can see, is not a campaign to save Squirrels specifically but to get political parties to recognise the importance of all wildlife and to persuade them they need to address it more seriously in their party policies. I don’t think it is treading on the toes of squirrel conservation groups therefore, or of other conservation NGOs but potentially helpful to them. I am aware that Butterfly Conservation, for example, has promoted the Vote for Bob campaign through its own social media.
Having said that, if the campaign comes across to some people as only or mainly being about squirrels then perhaps the PR and advertising people have not quite got the message right. Nevertheless I have signed it in the belief that everything that tells our politicians that the health of nature is important to the electorate, can only be helpful.
Did the RSPB hierarchy encourage their membership to sign your Hen Harrier / Ban driven grouse shooting epetition Mark? Yet, typically you encourage others to support them.
We desperately need collaborative critical mass but there are always those who seem to take the stance that they have to lead, so no more a democracy than we currently suffer? Independent inspiration, what happened to the voices of State of Nature conference (thinking particularly of Iolo)?
Many good points made by others about RSPB (good as well as criticisms).
Improving RSPB or other large NGOs rating is not our role, writing a weekly letter to MPs could be – then they might take notice? I say might, because politicians are (in the main) an incredibly arrogant species who tend to emerge every five years or so.
Mud-lark – the Vote for Bob campaign is generally a good campaign which needs all of our support. I wish the RSPB had joined with the Wildlife Trusts and others to take this forward then they could have avoided the type of accusation you make of them. And NGOs working together would be more impressive. But signing up for Bob is a good thing to do.
The RSPB has, wrongly I think, decided that the solution to driven grouse shooting’s impact on blanket bogs, water quality, hen harriers etc is licensing. I don’t agree with them on that but it is a difference of opinion between friends (I hope). The RSPB could come round to ‘our’ point of view quite easily if their members asked them to do so.
So much apathy shown from the above comments and your blog. The campaign is to get the general public and politicians thinking about nature conservation and including this in their pre election manifesto. I signed and sent an online message to my MP and in August I received a one page A4 reply from my MP listing what positive conservation actions the government had carried out and what actions they still intended to carry out upto the end of their term of office and what they intended to carry out if reelected. The campaign has had 91,800 votes so far and would have had more if more people had backed it.
Of course the reason that a Red Squirrel has been used was I believe to show that the RSPB is not only involved with birds but the whole spectrum of wildlife. For me this campaign has been a great success !
Dave – it’s certainly heading in the right direction.
Well if it’s having a positive effect that’s all that matters.
I signed it, haven’t seen any impact myself but if others have (including children) then that’s good.
How on earth can an organisation expect to be taken seriously when it ‘fronts’ a major campaign with such cute and cuddly frivolity. No wonder real conservation issues don’ t get a look in on the political agenda.
Well I voted for Bob. If the campaign is perceived as childish, and not sure that is the case, it’s pitched ideally at the numpties who currently govern us.
I have voted as I want the environment to be a main part of all the parties’ manifestos but I do find it vague and slightly juvenile (Tell Sid anyone?) and sometimes wonder whether it’s a means to the RSPB sending yet more emails and mailing campaigns….
Jeez. Stop reading so much into a simple campaign to mobilise people to tell politicians that wildlife matters.
Has it not occured to people that the general election is a little while off. Bob’s message will surely build over that time. If it seems simple now, it is surely designed to be trying to draw people in and leave them wanting to go on that journey.
And you guys are the informed audience, the one’s who probably write to their MPs about environmental issues. Do you know how many others actually do – even RSPB members? Very few. If this gets a new more social media savvy audience to email their MP and tell them they want them to act to safeguard wildlife, then surely it will have succeeded.
As with much of what the RSPB is doing, it isn’t setting out to please Mark Avery and the rest of the traditional audience. It is trying to broaden the message and make the wildlife lobby even stronger. What it hopes to do is keep that traditional audience on board and people like Mark could do well to remember that instead of stirring for stirrings sake.
And if it looks like it is treading on the toes of other NGOs, I believe it has consulted and brought those NGOs on board. Look at the State of Nature report. None of those NGOs could have brought that report together. The RSPB played a lead role on behalf of them all. And when the report launched, I saw a great spread of media representation from them all. Media profile none of them would have got otherwise.
The RSPB is trying to make a bigger contribution. It is trying to reach to the audience all NGOs will need in the future to survive. It isn’t perfect – no organisation or group of people, no matter how like minded is. But it is doing a fantastic job of trying to survive, evolve, move forward, grow, do more and save nature.
Bob has my vote…
I too find this latest RSPB campaign childish and felt slightly insulted when the original letter arrived.
I also found it incongruous whilst at Titchwell last week how well attended the ‘squirrel feeding station’ was but alas not by reds. No ‘votes for Bob’ there then. Without the continued removal of greys Bob himself is doomed to extinction in this country in the future.
This brings me to a question I have being wondering about recently. Is there any European law/directives etc etc that require or recommend that non-native species that are having a proven negative affect on a countries native wildlife be controlled?
I seem to remember reading something about the above a while back but can’t remember if it was a suggestion or news.
I won’t be voting for ‘Bob’ – the RSPB should be putting its weight behind your petition to ban driven grouse shooting. Currently their vague and puerile Bob campaign is showing over 98,000 votes, votes that could be more usefully employed protecting the handful of hen harriers left in England.
Just what is the matter with the RSPB Council?
Ian A – there is no problem, to me, with doing both!
Well, that’s because you’re a nice guy! 😉
If you think about it, finding a suitable vertebrate to “front” something like this is quite tricky because your candidate has to be:
a) Recognisable to people who know almost nothing about nature.
b) Not one where you’ll have to spend ages explaining what the picture is meant to be (water voles look too much like rats or mice and almost no-one understands hares and rabbits aren’t all the same species).
c) Not a species significant numbers of people have phobias about (reptiles and amphibians are out and birds are iffy – surprisingly large numbers of people are really scared of them).
d) Not politically controversial (sorry badgers & foxes)
e) Not one that the Countryside Alliance can say must be killed to preserve the countryside (sorry deer, sorry hedgehogs)
Which doesn’t leave a lot of choice.
Personally I think I’d have had a punt on otters which are reasonably non-confusible and have a meaningful back-story about pollution of rivers but you can see why a red squirrel would be a safe option.
Rosemary – thank you for your comment.
Good points Rosemary, but otters are highly disliked by some fishermen.
Your comment got me thinking though as to what animal to use if I were to launch a similar ad campaign………..and I’m still thinking!
But hang on, isn’t it the RSPB? doesn’t the B stand for anything? Perhaps Bats could be confused with birds and begin with B, but to change a squirrel to Bob, is stretching it a bit far. And at least one of my ‘influential’ friends was sent a squirrel shaped biscuit by the RSPB…. Sorry, I do think this is way off message. And by the way Red Squirrels are quite good bird predators…. I think the RSPB is losing touch with its older members….