Our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting has just passed 8000 signatures inside 72 hours – that’s fantastic! Thank you! (click here for up to date map of signatures).
Which parliamentary constituency will first reach 100 signatures on our e-petition to secure a debate on the future of driven grouse shooting?
Given the strong showing of the Calder Valley last time around (see below) they must be strong favourites.
At present, the leading scores are as follows:
Calder Valley 53 signatures – Craig Whittaker MP, CON
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey 52 signatures – Drew Hendry MP, SNP
North Norfolk 48 signatures – Norman Lamb MP, LIB
Ross, Skye, Lochaber 39 signatures – Ian Blackford MP, SNP
Argyll and Bute 38 signatures – Brendan O’Hara MP, SNP
Skipton and Ripon 36 signatures – Julian Smith MP, CON
Dumfries, Clydesdale and Tweedale 35 signatures – David Mundell MP, CON
Bridgwater and West Somerset 33 signatures – Ian Liddell Grainger CON
Ochil and South Perthshire 32 signatures – Tasmina Ahmad Shaikh SNP
Richmond (Yorks) 32 signatures – Rishi Sunak MP, CON
High Peak 31 signatures – Andrew Bingham MP, CON
Westmorland and Lonsdale 30 signatures – Tim Farron MP, LIB, and Liberal leader
East Lothian 30 signatures – George Kerevan MP, SNP
You’ll have noticed that there is a very distinct Scottish flavour to these signatures at the moment. That’s nice!
And you may well notice that this isn’t a list of urban constituencies!
The constituencies with at least 100 signatures on the previous e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting were as follows:
Calder Valley 457 signatures – Craig Whittaker MP, CON
High Peak 158 signatures – Andrew Bingham MP, CON
Isle of Wight 155 signatures – Andrew Turner MP, CON
Brighton Pavilion 148 signatures – Caroline Lucas MP, GREEN
Bristol West 147 signatures – Thangam Debbonaire MP, LAB
North Norfolk 142 signatures – Norman Lamb MP, LIB
Penrith and the Borders 142 signatures – Rory Stewart MP, CON, and Defra minister
Stroud 133 signatures – Neil Carmichael MP, CON
Cambridge 132 signatures – Daniel Zeichner MP, LAB
Sheffield Central 129 signatures – Paul Blomfield MP, LAB
Westmorland and Lonsdale 127 signatures – Tim Farron MP, LIB, and Liberal leader
Skipton and Ripon 127 signatures – Julian Smith MP, CON
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey 125 signatures – Drew Hendry MP, SNP
Norwich South 123 signatures – Clive Smith MP, LAB
South Cambs 122 signatures – Heidi Allen MP, CON
Torridge and West Devon 119 signatures – Geoffrey Cox MP, CON
Derbyshire Dales 115 signatures – Patrick McCloughlin MP, CON
Truro and Falmouth 115 signatures – Sarah Newton MP, CON
South Norfolk 114 signatures – Richard Bacon MP, CON
Thirsk and Malton 111 signatures – Keith Hollinrake MP, CON
Ross, Skye, Lochaber 110 signatures – Ian Blackford MP, SNP
West Dorset 109 signatures – Oliver Letwin MP, CON
Southeast Cambs 106 signatures – Lucy Frazer MP, CON
Northeast Bedfordshire 105 signatures – Alistair Burt MP, CON
Exeter 105 signatures – Ben Bradshaw MP, LAB
Central Devon 104 signatures – Mel Stride MP, CON
Richmond (Yorks) 103 signatures – Rishi Sunak MP, CON
Lancaster and Fleetwood 101 signatures – Cat Smith MP, LAB
Harrogate and Knaresborough 101 signatures – Andrew Jones MP, CON
Suffolk Coastal 101 signatures – Theresa Coffey MP, CON
Argyll and Bute 100 signatures – Brendan O’Hara MP, SNP
Edinburgh North and Leith 100 signatures – Deidre Brock MP, SNP
Keighley 100 signatures – Kris Hopkins MP, CON
Totnes 100 signatures – Sarah Wollaston MP CON
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Linked this to today’s Guardian Environment article on Brown Hares:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/125003
The shooting of Brown Hares is nothing compared to the mass culling of Mountain Hares for the sake of driven grouse moors.
REF: this petition. Ban driven grouse shooting. 8,000 sigs. in three days already.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/125003
Yeah, at time of writing, it is areas with a lot of traditional field sports that are in the lead to ban this practice. Of the last five hold outs, four are London based. That doesn’t fit with the story we are always fed of urban elites inflicting themselves of the countryside but rather the countryside trying to clean up the city boy’s mess and finding them dragging their feet on it. It is the Aldridge-Brownhills constituency that is the anomaly now, wonder what is going on there? Never been there, had to look it up on a map to find it, so no idea about the constituency make up other than they were stupid enough to elect a damned tory.
From the pragmatic point of view, it concerns me that the pettitions slow off the ground in urban areas, especially London. Think what 1% of a city of 8 million represents in terms of signatures. But it’s great to see that so many upland areas look to have had a bellyful of the grouse shooters!
Ian – well it’s a lot quicker off the mark than last time or the time before. That’s what is important.
Each constituency has approx the same number of voters in it (approx) so I really don’t care that much.
They must be sick of paying for rich folk killing for fun, or being annually flooded, or paying taxes for water treatment.
8556
Just sent a message to Greenpeace UK asking them to consider pushing the petition directly to their supporters. Stressed that not purely a national issue (tends to be one of their stipulations for supporting a campaign it has to be international) as driven grouse shooting is partly supported by by foreign hunters whose own countries aren’t stupid enough to have grouse moors and as migratory species can be affected by what happens on them, ecological catastrophe essentially. Also mentioned flooding, water quality and carbon emissions. IF Greenpeace UK openly promote the petition to their supporters as the League Against Cruel Sports and the World Parrot Trust did last time then that would be one hell of a step up in gear for this although it’s doing very, very well already with GP support thousands if not tens of thousands of signatures could be added literally overnight. So if you read this please send a message via their website, the more they get the more they’ll think there’s something to this. Can you imagine how the estates would feel if Greenpeace got behind the petition – delicious thought isn’t it?
Great idea Les and done.
PS. I also mentioned that direct action will be beginning this shooting season, they might like to get involved with that too; the Raptor Liberation Front Facebook page has just been set up and will go public very soon.
Number 8830 just added from the Delyn constituency in North Wales. Well done for keeping the pressure up Mark xx
Mark, the Norwich South MP is Clive Lewis, not Clive Smith.
9424. Ten thousand by teatime?
Courtesy of the Save the Free Beavers of the Tay fb page heard the utterly awesome Professor Carolyn Roberts on Radio Four’s The Life Scientific http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07428bk – she makes a very, very convincing case indeed for natural flood control, mentions how beavers could do a great deal to hold back flood waters and how farming practices in the uplands are contributing to flash flooding. If she were on the same stage as a NFU rep think she in the nicest way possible would utterly shred them to pieces. The points she makes must also be totally relevant to grouse moors, after all they are not exactly friends to the deciduous tree cover or beavers which she very convincingly asserts are good for flood alleviation, and it’s not as if by changing grouse moors we’d be harming our food supply! How can grouse moors say they should be exempt from measures to reduce flooding just so they can shoot more birds for fun? Bloody good piece to refer people too, fascinating and constructive.
10000 signatures at 1931 hrs 24/03/2016 – Brilliant!
I agree to ban grouse shooting.
I agree to ban grouse shooting.