These are your guesses as to the number of signatures that will be attached to our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting when it closes on 21 January. Closest estimate gets a copy of one of my books – if the guess (or brilliantly worked out and thought through estimate) is exactly right then you get two copies.
Everyone is still in with a chance, even the pessimistic Fraser Cottington, whose figure has already been passed – but he is still, for a little while the closest guess.
Your guesses are a bit higher than my head tells me is likely, but my heart is with Paul Fielden on 45000!
But going with the wisdom of crowds, the mid point of your estimates is 29401 (the mean would be higher) and that is certainly a total to aim at.
And those of you have predicted totals of over 30000 – please get sharing the e-petition with everyone you know so as to get the final figure up there!
Fraser Cottington 27462
Robert Ince 27727
Jeff 27844
Paul Bray 27856
Chris Batey 27,960
Lisa Mobey 28,001
Northern diver 28,046
Ross Mason 28,057
John Sargent 28,101
Ali C 28132
Graham Sorrie 28208
Adam Jasper 28217
David McGrath 28258
Tom Willis 28321
Richard Wayre 28478
Caroline Colingwoood 28659
Nick Bee 28681
John Conlin 28,756
Jo 28771
Chris Wing 28850
Paul Arestides 29002
Robert Locock 29010
John Armitage 29218
Jeff NE London RSPB Group 29292
Jo 29310
M Parry 29401
Michael May 29410
Ben Iddon 29456
Neil McKenn 29456
Martin Bailey-Wood 29501
John Beal 29504
John Harrison 29639
Richard Ebbs 29692
Dytiscus 29925
Alan Warford 30002
Ian Sutton 30045
John Turton 30102
Susan Cross 30103
James Marsden 30105
Owen 30200
Roger Crofts 31126
Nigel Jennings 31498
Carole 31654
Gerard Hobley 31742
Les Wallace 31876
Barry O’Dowd 32500
Paul fisher 32796
Colin McP 33133
Tony McDougal 33473
Mark Fitzpatrick 38510
Paul Fielden 45000
I expect you’ve seen this letter in today’s Guardian, Mark. A good reply from you in tomorrow’s edition could get the petition racing again!
• George Monbiot is wrong (This flood wasn’t just foretold – it was publicly subsidised, 29 December). Grouse shooting is one of the few uplands land uses that is not directly subsidised by the government (Thirgood et al, 2000). As Defra minister George Eustice said in a response to a parliamentary question last February: “Payments under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are not targeted at owners or operators of grouse moors.”
Good grouse moor management contributes to stopping flooding. Over the last decade, members of the Moorland Association have plugged 1,250 miles of moorland draining ditches and created 4,485 mini moorland ponds, which slow water runoff and reduce the flood risk downstream.
BASC’s 2015 white paper “Grouse shooting and management in the United Kingdom: its value and role in the provision of ecosystem services” shows the importance of grouse moors to landscape scale conservation of upland biodiversity and habitats.
Richard Ali
Chief executive, British Association for Shooting and Conservation
My guess although not before midnight on the 5th! Would be 31026.
Would love it to be much higher of course, and am sure there will be a surge in the last few days.
Isn’t George Eustice’s statement a classic piece of Westminster wordplay ? Payments may not be targeted but they certainly hit the mark, to the tune of £60m per annum if Inglorious is to be believed. Speaking as a land manager, I can say I’d dearly love a slice of that sort of non-support !
But this is important for the future because, in line with Sir James Bevan trying to shift the spotlight to wildlife, we are going to see strenuous efforts prevent the possibility of changes to agricultural (and that includes upland management for sheep/grouse) land use being discussed as part of the flooding debate.
That will be £60 million spent on burning related issues alone in the uplands, most on grouse moors and much of it on blanket peat. There will be loads more spent in addition on grazing related payments.
4,485 mini ponds? How many in England and how many on designated sites? How many received consent from Natural England? Since when did it become a requirement to dig ponds on grouse moors? These people are an embarrasment with their perverse and selfish approach to the treatment of the land. It’s enough to make one a socialist!
they might have plugged some drainage ditches but how many more new miles have they dug in the last decade, take a look at Marks latest wuthering moors blog, looks like a new ditch to me!
£60 million in grants per year, they’re building roads on SSSI while our councils cant even afford to fill potholes, Our lowland Dairy farmers are resorting to taking milk from supermarket shelves in order to make a living wage, can you honestly believe a single word these lot come out with.
Merlin (the Moorland peoples front)
just another point why would you need to create ponds on Moorland, answer because Grouse need to drink and bath too, anything else that benifits only does so by accident if the water was not draining off the hills so quickly there would be no need for ponds. oh and huge difference of opinion on how many miles/kilometers have been blocked up, the website claiming 4000 kilometers as opposed to the 1250 miles (2011km) claimed in this release
yes, the wisdom of this crowd was how I got my estimate! Is that cheating?!