19,000, 20,000 and 21,000

Mark 25 Comments

21000

Yesterday our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting passed 19,000 signatures: today, so far, it passed 20,000 and 21,000 signatures.  As I write it is the top trending e-petition on the parliament website and has amassed 1100 signatures in the last hour.

Thank you to LACS for an email to their supporters (which include me!).

We are still in Week 4.

Have a good weekend everyone!

 

PS 22,000!

PPS 23,000!!

PPPS 24,000!!!

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25 Replies to “19,000, 20,000 and 21,000”

  1. Just passed the total for the 1st petition (gathered in 11 months) in less than 4 weeks.

  2. I’d already signed, but got the e:mail from LACS – great stuff. Wouldn’t it be nice if the RSPB and Wildlife Trusts got involved..?

  3. For whatever reason (pride?) the RSPB leadership doesn’t look like it’s going to budge any time soon, so the key is contacting all the local RSPB groups and getting a grassroots rebellion going. Mark, are there any mechanisms whereby the membership can replace the leadership, e.g. at the next AGM?

    2. Section 3.3 of the RSPB statute (http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/charter-and-statutes_tcm9-382216.pdf) states:

      3.3.1 An Extraordinary General Meeting of the Society may be convened by resolution of the Council. Such a meeting may be requested in writing and signed by not less than half a percent (1⁄2%) of the Members entitled to vote. The request shall be addressed to the Council and shall state the proposed business of the meeting. The only business which may be dealt with at an Extraordinary General Meeting is the business of which notice has been given in the notice convening the meeting.

      If the RSPB membership is around the 1.1 million mark, an EGM could be triggered by 5,500 members. Maybe Mark (assuming he is still an RSPB member following his NGO disinvestment policy) could get the ball rolling by requesting an EGM to debate the RSPB’s policy on driven grouse shooting. I’d hope that there at least 5,500 RSPB members who are dissatisfied by the RSPB’s choice not to support Mark’s petition.

        1. PS. If you don’t except the challenge Mark I may have to resort to getting a ‘Never Mind The Bollocks, Where’s The RSPB?’ t shirt printed (if you don’t mind the boldness Chris P!) and seek sponsorship money based on the amount of RSPB reserves I can get banned from!

    3. I thought the fairly solid rumour was that the current regime in Westminster have the RSPB well and truly nobbled. Along with a lot of other charities. Put a foot wrong, show even a token hint of opposition to their polices, declared and undeclared, rock the boat even a little, etc, and it is not only goodbye royal charter but hello wholesale “reform” of the charities laws and basically gagging the entire sector as well as defunding and maybe even prosecuting any that got in their way before. That is what I heard anyway. Certainly I can believe that the Tories, or at least this particular vindictive and authoritarian iteration of them, would do something like that.

      1. This could well be true but recent evidence is showing that the Government is nowhere as strong as it would first appear.

        1. PS. If you are correct, why doesn’t RSPB come clean and tell their members exactly what is going on? This really should be brought out into the open.

  5. 23000. North Norfolk has just joined the 100 Club. Next in line appear to be Argyll and Bute (94), Brighton Pavilion (91), and High Peak (88).

  6. Half these birds are hand-reared and have to be frightened into flight so that the morons who consider killing small, living things to be a sport can blast them to bits!! Barbaric and pathetic and should be stopped. Akin to fox-hunting, badger baiting, hare coursing and cock and dog fighting in my eyes.

    1. Just have to make a wee correction there Ian. Red Grouse, unlike most Pheasants & Red-legged Partridges, aren’t hand reared. They certainly have to be frightened towards the guns though.

    2. Yeah can’t even say that it is canned hunting. Deer stalking is canned hunting, where a keeper walks a shooter out onto a hillside that deer have become accustomed to being fed on and does everything put help put their finger on the trigger for them; walk up shooting is canned hunting, where birds that have been raised and fed are kept at high enough numbers that an idiot blundering through the woods would stumble upon them; driven grouse though? The only difference between driven grouse shooting and Nintendo Duck Hunt set on easy mode is that you’ll get wetter with the former and have to tip the keeper. If anything there is more skill on display with Nintendo Duck Hunt than there is on driven grouse shooting.

  7. Argyll and Bute just done the ton. Brighton, Pavilion (93), High Peak (90), and West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (87) next in line.

  8. We already had a surge a few days ago due to the LACS sending out their enewsletter which mentioned the petition. Very interesting to compare that with specific email asking to support it! Every signature counts and it is gratifying (and fun) getting family, friends etc to pull up the total, but strategically in getting the big numbers then official support from other organisations is key. If Greenpeace UK supported this as well as LACS have done, and I think they should, we could be talking about adding tens of thousands of signatures at a stroke. If, another if, those who should be supporting this petition were doing so the parliamentary debate would be in the bag and I’m sure more of the media would swing round in support. Very proud to be a member of LACs and bloody well done Mark.

    1. Yes, LACS is excellent.

      I have asked the Badger Trust, both national and my local branch, if they would give formal support, but have had no reply at all to my messages.

  10. …… Countryfile beckons! Only kidding, but it would be nice if the press noticed the growth of support…

    1. Countryfile is horrid lately. It really has become the televisual equivalent of The Daily Mail.

  11. You should continue to include a link to the petition in all such posts, Mark, for readers who’ve yet to sign

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