Gamekeepers – don’t you just love ’em? They are a profession – did you know?
What would be the right collective noun for a group of gamekeepers?
This started as a discussion on Twitter last week – so here are some ideas to get your imaginative juices running:
- a ‘slaughter’ of gamekeepers
- a ‘dropped the ball’ of ‘keepers
- a ‘denial’ of gamekeepers
- a ‘profession of raptor haters’
You may be able to do much better…
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I think it’s about time the Lapwings gave it up and found a new collective noun. This one is needed elsewhere.
Dave – subtle!
How about…………. Get a life you sad bunch of utter servile sceptic jealous ill-informed, bad mannered loosers! Find something useful to talk about, or highlight to me the usefulness of this thread…….. You think this is helping the birds we all love, get real,,,,,,,, they’re dying out faster than you can write this shite! meanwhile you recline like fat toads, nievely safe in your preconceived opinions!! Grow up, Shut up, Do something positive!
A jury perhaps.
Andrew – thank you. Hung?
Maybe also a Perjury of Gamekeepers. 🙂
A throw back of keepers
A blinkered of keepers
A vermin of keepers
A renegade of keepers
A feudal of keepers
An outdate of keepers
An arrogance of keepers
A criminality of keepers
An ******* of keepers
A weakness of keepers
Steve – you’ve been busy (one suggestion deleted on grounds of ‘taste’)
hi look mr.avery it is about time that you smelled the coffee and wake up to the brilliant work that the GAME KEEPERS AND THE SPORTING WORLD DO ,JUST NOT FOR THE SAKE OF HUNTING BUT ALL OF THE CONSERVATION WORK THAT GOES ON THROUGH OUT THE U K AND OTHER COUNTRIES BY THE KEEPERS AND SPORTSMEN IN GENERAL ALL YOU CARE ABOUT IS TO GET YOUR BIG FAT WAGE AND TO HELL WITH WHAT ANYONE ELSE THINKS YOU ARE ALL DO GOODERS AND AT THE END OF THE DAY YOU DO NOTHING BUT TO JUSTIFY YOUR WAGES ALL YOU SO CALLED CONSERVATIONIST ARE ALL THE SAME CHRIS PACKHAM IS AN OTHER ONE THEN YOU LOOK AT THE R.S.P.B. THEY ARE THE SAME AS YOU LOT THE R.S.P.C.A ARE THE SAME BY JUST TRYING TO MAKE A NAME FOR THEM SELVES AT THE PUBLIC,S EXPENCE. AND TO HELL WITH WHAT ANYONE ELSE SAYS OR THINKS. I HOPE THAT THIS GETS A LOT OF RESPONCE TO AGREE WITH WHAT I AM SAYING THE BEST THING THAT YOU CAN DO IS TO RESIGNE. FORTH WITH AND THE LIKES OF PACKHAM ASWEL YOURS IN ANNOYANCE RAY OWLMAN.
A retrograde of gamekeepers?
How about a Virus of gamekeepers or better still , a Pandoras Box of gamekeepers ??
David – a Pandora’s Box – I like
Pandoras Box is superb! How apt on many grounds.
I’m sure the crows would agree with a ‘murder’ of gamekeepers
You got there before me Pete!
Let’s see… A Disgrace of gamekeepers? A Bloodlust of gamekeepers?
A flight
A ‘bluster’ of Gamekeepers, since thats the quality of statement we get from them.
An anachronism of keepers….
Collectively? ‘A bleating’
A Idiocracy of gamekeepers
A Denial of gamekeepers
A Busted Flush of gamekeepers
A Cover-up of gamekeepers
Call them anything you like Mark, they aren’t listening……
In the UK we have:
– a criminality of gamekeepers that kill raptors
– a stupidity of gamekeepers putting out poison baits
– a pollution of gamekeepers burning peat
– a selfishness of gamekeepers putting up your water bills
– a tweed of gamekeepers with bizarre dress sense
– an arrogance of gamekeepers thinking they are above the law
– a stink-pit of gamekeepers killing foxes
– a bygone of gamekeepers adopting outdated management practices
– a corruption of gamekeepers praised by DEFRA
Fueled by a denial of Game Conservancy
If they continue, we hopefully will have:
– an unacceptability of gamekeepers by society
– a minority of gamekeepers in employment
– an extinction of gamekeepers long-term
– an impotence of gamekeepers if they eat game shot with lead ammunition
A hoax of gamekeepers
Gamekeepers! Custodians of the countryside!
How about a ‘gibbet’ of gamekeepers? Also you may be interested to know that 7 years ago Farmer’s Weekly opted for a ‘tweed’
A band of criminals
An ‘extinction’ of gamekeepers.
The Last of the……………..would be very nice.
A poison?
A shame of gamekeepers
How about a “Maybe it’s time we all came clean” of gamekeepers.
I think a ‘yesteryear’ of gamekeepers as they belong in the past!
A plague of gamekeepers ?
A ‘Flatulation’ of Gamekeepers.
An Omertà of gamekeepers. There’s already a plague of lighthouse keepers 😉
Peter Hamill would be proud.
A ‘Bile’?
An ‘apple barrel’ of gamekeepers surely given how often they use the ‘only a few rotten apples’ analogy?
Whilst on subject of collective nouns, how about a ‘gout’ of grouse shooters?
How about a ‘provocation’ ?
A genocide of gamekeepers
A gathering of gamekeepers…. “a deal” or “conspiracy”.
But really when they start gathering for an event, all of the behaviours highlighted above start to become apparent… eventually, when they get to a critical mass, it all implodes on itself (the event horizon). At this point no rationale common sense or actual truth can get out…..and so a “black hole” of gamekeepers is formed.
A Deception of Self-Servers perhaps?
or maybe a Vermin of Victoriana?
A fusillade
how about a Subservience as they will apparently do anything the landowner wants, no matter how destructive and stupid.
Amusing as SOME of these collective nouns are, this current round of ‘bashing’ will ultimately only fuel antagonism between the many legit keepers and ‘conservationists’, who often have more in common than not.
I get the feeling many of these blog readers dislike predator control to enable a larger harvest of birds for shooting to take place. But in case any of you don’t realise you support predator control every time you buy food, but that’s different when it’s only sprays that kill insects and pollute water courses etc etc …….oh but insects are what many birds with recent massive declines in population eat isn’t it? Starts to get a bit muddy doesn’t it? The vast majority of predator control is carried out legitimately. So if that’s your ‘grouse’ (sorry couldn’t resist) take it up with the law makers.
This isn’t a post in support of game keeping and it’s associated activities, it’s just (hopefully) a reminder not to get carried away and keep debate sensible.
One of the best way’s for antagonism to cease, is if the good guys in the industry that don’t fill the above stereotypes oust the ones who clearly do. I suspect its a tall order as the rot is well set in, but the only way the divide will close, is if those who do routinely kill birds of prey, burn deep peat and damage our designated sites stop doing it – remember, some of this stuff is illegal and many disgruntled readers of this blog are as irritated by this as society is with pedophiles. It would also be helpful if some of their supporting organisations stop denying there is an issue with some of the widespread activities used.
There is a little difference in controlling ‘predators’ for food production vs producing obscene shootable surpluses of non-native birds like pheasants that only a minority benefit from. Economic scale is one thing but agriculture in the UK is regulated and shooting is not. If evidence comes to light that pesticides have detrimental effects on aquatic life or water quality for example, it is banned for use or regulated in its application to prevent its effects. Grouse shooting could learn a lot from this approach.
There is an inherent lie…they say that grouse are not farmed…and do so to side step rules and place themselves in a better financial position. Farming grouse could be a properly regulated and controlled activity. it would bring “game” into the normal food chain.
Well said Martin WW – the only reasonable Comment on this entire ill-considered thread. Name-calling, negative stereotyping and on-line cyber bullying, and all the baggage that goes with it, is invariably counter-productive and often leads the trolls who indulge in it on to greater excesses, sometimes with serious unintended consequences.
You only have to listen to the news or open the newspaper on a regular basis to hear and see evidence of that.
But it brought out the best in everybody
I actually agree with Keith Cowieson here. For once. At least in part.
I don’t think name calling helps here (nor does it help generally to be honest).
Doug – there did seem to be rather a lack of positive comments, which surprised me. Where was Keith with his well known wit and wisdom?
Mark.
Having now looked at all the comments… yes I’m surprised there weren’t a few or more people defending gamekeepers.
Doug – I might have liked a more balanced response but if people, like Keith, don’t post comments then that is up to them. On Twitter, there were a few more witty and positive comments (although not that many).
The sensible,
The rest of this comment has been deleted because the ‘person’ used an invalid email address.
The email address is valid Mark – I have logged on this morning. Why would you hide the rest of my comment really? Not very mature for a ‘Dr’!
Gordon – if your email address is valid then why does Yahoo refer to it as ‘This user doesn’t have a yahoo.com account’? I have emailed you four times in the last fortnight , from two different email addresses, with the same response each time.
Maybe you could send me an email from your account?
A lickspittle of gamekeepers
if they don’t like being despised as a group let them deal with the members of their profession who cause so much destruction, instead of standing together regardless of right and wrong
lol u fool. In that case all bankers ar cheats cos the good obes carnt do owt all coppers are bent cos the gid ones carnt do owt all old people are rude an ignorant cos of that one ald biddy that beat me to the reduced isle god save us all from u fools like an thank god u aint incharge
Well this is all very mature, isn’t it? The topic of gamekeeping is an emotive issue, but it’s disappointing to see this blog reduced to ****-slinging
gamekeepers have nothing to be ashamed about , maybe get your facts right before you preach lies and stereotypical facts and features about people who cull vermin to save beautiful English wild birds and mammals. It would be a completely different story if a gamekeeper began to preach something about ‘anti’s’ wouldn’t it? People do not know half the things gamekeepers do , I a gamekeepers daughter of 14 has more civil manners than a “group of anti’s like yourselves!
Is this for real u people should be ashamed of yourself i for blindly judging all my a few bad eggs kind of sounds like the ald guy that lived at the end of my road that was a masive rasist an would not listen to owt but his own opinion an force that rubbish down the throght of all in ear shot Also a keeper does wat many have done fr decades before preserving a habitat that benifits many differnt non game species an will end up if lucky and good at his job with a 35% return ( thats birds killed by shooting them) an hes labeled a butchering merderer dispicable human an such vile hatred by ” peacefull” antis yet if 100% of them pheasants went into a big shed fr a month an he bought a big machine that killed 100% of said pheasants and put them on a supermarket shelf 2 fr a tenner u guys wouldnt give a toss so my only concusion must be ur all crusaders that hav nowt to crusade for but are easaly led by others that also ghink they r right welldone u sheep why not try to live in the countryside instead of tryin to turn it into the town fools will medal like