17,000

Mark 15 Comments

I’ve been away birding for a few days and am thrilled to see that our e-petition is still steaming ahead: 17,000 signatures reached in three weeks!

Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey was the first constituency to reach 100 signatures with Ross, Skye and Lochaber not far behind.

Here are the top ten constituencies so far:

Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey 109 signatures –  Drew Hendry MP, SNP

Ross, Skye, Lochaber 107 signatures – Ian Blackford MP, SNP

Calder Valley 91 signatures – Craig Whittaker MP, CON

North Norfolk 86 signatures – Norman Lamb MP, LIB

Argyll and Bute 80 signatures – Brendan O’Hara MP, SNP

West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine 74 signatures – Stuart Blair Donaldson MP, SNP

High Peak 71 signatures – Andrew Bingham MP, CON

Brighton Pavilion 69 signatures – Caroline Lucas MP, GREEN

Stroud 68 signatures – Ian Carmichael MP, CON

Ochil and South Perthshire 67 signatures – Tasmina Ahmad Shaikh MP, SNP

East Lothian 67 signatures – George Kerevan MP, SNP

 

The very strong, and very welcome, Scottish showing persists but there are a lot of constituencies in the north of England, where grouse shooting is practised, which are just off the top-ten list.  The support, so far, in Northern Ireland, Wales, urban areas, and Labour constituencies, is much less strong.

It looks touch and go whether we could reach 20,000 signatures by lunch time nest Sunday – but we won’t be far off that score in the first four weeks of the e-petition’s existence.

Please ask a colleague at work, today, to sign this e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting and trigger action from our politicians on this unsustainable and damaging pastime.

 

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15 Replies to “17,000”

  1. It is good to see so soon a few Scottish constituencies pass their totals for the 2nd ban driven grouse shooting petition.

    1. Owen – it is very good. To some extent, Scotland is leading the way this time around.

  2. Maybe we need a petition to the Scottish parliament…. we need the SNP to wake up to the plight of our wildlife.

    I saw Country file try a justification of Muir burn. Stressed the difference between bog and heath….then showed fire brigade training on bog?

    1. Yes I think a petition aimed at the Scottish parliament is definitely needed to comp!ement this one. I was involved in a petition to Holyrood in 2012 and they only run for six weeks so you really have to hit the ground running. It would be good if before the official launch the Scottish Green Party, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Scottish branch of the League Against Cruel Sports etc were well briefed to mobilise their supporters. Letters could be draffted for local papers spilling beans on how bad grouse moors are for wildlife, water quality, flooding and hoovering up subsidies. I know a falconer who does very popular displays in which he might be happy to campaign against Raptor Persecution and promote a petition. The one thing you need is a proposer prepared to talk about the petition to MSPs who has direct personal experience and a comprehensive background knowledge of what grouse moors do to our uplands, wildlife and rural communities.

    2. I’ve spoken with a lot of SNP people, including a few candidates, and they are afraid to put it out there too obviously because of who owns or controls the media and the already rabid hatred most of it has for the SNP right now, but it is high on the agenda if they get back in. Just, right now before the election, they are concerned that it’ll cost them seats due to the landowner and media reaction. I’ve also spoken to my local Labour group and I can say without fear of contradiction, they don’t give a shit about wildlife law. All they are in this election for is so they can say at the next Westminster elections that they took back Scotland for the UK Labour Party.

      The SNP have definitely been timid and disappointing in how far they have been prepared to go on land reform and wildlife protection, but they are still light years ahead of the alternatives right now. That is depressing.

  3. My personal thought is that the order in which driven grouse shooting will end up getting banned will be;

    1. Scottish National Parks
    2. Rest of Scotland
    3. UK National Parks
    4. Rest of UK

    Its looking to me that the key element in Scotland (and the one that is going to distinguish it from the situation elsewhere in the UK, at least in the immediate future) will be the linking up of the ecological issues with the land reform issue. There seem to be hints that the grouse industry is starting to realise that to; trying to get the sheep farming community on board to put Raven on the General License may well be an example.

  5. The Scottish share is increasing;

    5th April
    1793 (Scotland total) of 15677 (UK total) = 11.4%
    1793 ÷ 59 (Scottish Westminster Constituencies) = 30.4 signatures per constituency
    15677 ÷ 650 (UK Parliamentary Constituencies) = 24.1 signatures per constituency

    11th April
    2145 (Scotland total) of 17532 (UK total) = 12.2%
    2145 ÷ 59 (Scottish Westminster Constituencies) = 36.4 signatures per constituency
    17532 ÷ 650 (UK Parliamentary Constituencies) = 27 signatures per constituency

    1. Interesting! The six local constituents in Oxfordshire average 31.8 (Witney: Con. D Cameron 34). Just put out a plea on the local bird blog so will watch with interest to see if there is any surge in numbers!!!

  6. Does anyone have (or could provide a reference for) a comprehensive UK wide list/map of grouse moor localities? I’d like to do a grouse moor vs. non-grouse moor analysis of signatures per constituency.

    1. Jim – I don’t. Easily identifiable on googleearth but not easily assessed fora large number of Constituencies. Barking has none though (Corby neither).

  7. Well, unless anyone else can help, it looks like I have my work cut out! Most are pretty self evident but i’m anticipating that working out whether or not smallish northern English constituencies contain any grouse moor on the fringes of towns will take a bit of time.

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