On 9 December, the day before the close of the grouse shooting season, some of us are going to gather together at a rally to ask politicians to do more for nature.
One of the things that I will be asking my MP is ‘What will the Labour Party do, if it forms part of the next government, to end the illegal killing of birds of prey, especially Hen Harriers by grouse moor interests? And what commitments will you make in your electi0n manifesto?’. Actually, that’s two things isn’t it? But I do have quite a long list actually.
If you can come along on 9 December that would be great – we’d all love to see you and that includes the RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts, The League Against Cruel Sports, Butterfly Conservation, the Ramblers and the Mammal Society. There are still some places left – but not that many.
Many of you won’t be able to attend in person – it’s a working day and it’s in London! – that’s understandable. But you can play your part too – a really big part if enough people get involved.
Please contact your MP, of whatever political party, and tell them that you care about nature and you want them to act.
We’ve made it reasonably easy and there is a standard letter that you can add to or amend if you click here.
If you want to mention Hen Harriers that would be great. if you want to tell your MP that you would like to see driven grouse shooting banned that’s great too! Why not mention the success of the e-petition calling for a ban on driven grouse shooting in case they haven’t noticed it. But you may have your own long list just like I do.
Please take five minutes to stand up for nature and use your voice to tell politicians to do more for nature.
Don’t think that someone else will contact your MP so you don’t have to bother – they may be thinking the same! The more emails go to our MPs, highlighting the importance of nature, the better. If your MP gets half a dozen emails then that will seem like a lot. If your MP gets 20 emails then that will seem like an awful lot. If every MP in the UK got 20 emails they would all be talking about nature a great deal more. You can send one email to your MP – that’s what you can do. Please do it. Make your voice heard. And together we can make sure that nature’s needs are heard.
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I’d like to see wild animal welfare legislation reformed completely. Specifically I would like to see a law which clearly defined cruelty to wildlife and banned it completely without exemption. This would run hand in hand with the existing Animal Welfare Act for domestic animals.
As far as killing protected species I would like to see vicarious civil liability (as I believe is opposed my Mark Avery) properly implemented whereby any business or individual was made civilly liable (with potentially punitive civil damages imposed) for the intentional, reckless or negligent destruction of any protected wildlife (including plants) by any of their employees. Indeed I would extend this to cover all illegal environmental damage.
Hello Mark,
I’ve written to my MP (Duncan Hames, LibDem) and invited him to attend the rally on the 9th. I’ve already put forward my concerns and expressed a wish to see him on the day regardless. Although not of my own political persuasion he has a solid local reputation as a constituency MP. I await developments.
John
Thank you & others involved for organising & publicising the day on 9th December, I shall certainly write.
One from my list already – no reply from Defra via my MP on how they plan to prevent Emerald Ash Borer being introduced to the UK and, specifically, whether imports of timber from countries where it is active have already been banned. That’s after nearly a month. Surely it can’t be that they don’t know?
https://markavery.info/2014/10/26/sunday-book-review-ash-tree-oliver-rackham/#comments
In fairness, received a reply in the post about half an hour after posting this, and it was actually quite good. I knew the comment would work wonders!