See this piece in tomorrow’s Daily Mirror which is already online.
@HuntingSolution is followed by 1000 people – I would just ask them whether they follow this account because of, or despite this type of ignorant rudeness. I haven’t seen a RT of any of this by Nicholas Soames MP and I rather hope he didn’t re-tweet it as I would think better of him than that.
But please feel free to RT the Mirror story as it has a link to our e-petition in it – and that is clearly what Hunting Solutions is really worried about. The way to deal with this type of ignorance is to stand up to it – please sign the e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting, supported by me and Chris Packham (and Bill Oddie and the League Against Cruel Sports).
I’m not expecting Nicholas Soames, as a former trustee of the GWCT to RT the Mirror story with a link to our e-petition, but he might just like to clear up whether he did or did not RT this offensive tweet from @huntingsolutions.
Judging by @HuntingSolution – we have reached the ‘then they fight you’ stage. I look forward to the next one.
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Soames did re-tweet it on the 10th. Not the standard I would expect from an MP. If he isn’t ashamed then he should be. Presumably his nanny didn’t teach him good manners.
But then one wouldn’t expect an MP to condone illegal hunting either.
Meanwhile, in other news noting that Laura Kuenssberg conducts her journalism with no objectivity or critical faculty is apparently sexist. The PM said so….
Good to see that Ochil, Cambridge and West Dorset have all reached 100 now!
Criticism of her journalism is not sexist but I understand that the 38 degrees petition calling for her to be sacked attracted a lot of unpleasantly abusive and misogynistic comments against her. That was sexist. Not the fault of the person who launched the petition (who agreed for the petition to be withdrawn as a result) but as reprehensible as slurs made about Packham’s Asperger’s.
exactly
You are wrong. You are listening to what David Cameron said. Out of the 878 comments on the petition roughly 1-2 could be construed to be sexist. I understand that there was something of a twitterstorm that included sexist comments but there is no evidence that these were supporters of the petition. The internet attracts trolls. How do you deal with it?
Such ignorant, offensive and objectionable language is almost expected from someone who likes to shoot things for fun. Soames on the other hand is a public servant and should be taken to task, as well asbeing sent for reprogramming … We are with you in the fight Mark
This must surely backfire wonderfully on ‘them’ as it clearly shows contempt for people with Aspergers?
For the record Mental Health Awareness Week is next week (16 – 22 May) so maybe an opportune time for Soames to retract his disgraceful slur?
Rt Hon – really?
Didn’t the Prime Minister come out claiming to want to address mental health and wellbeing as a priority, or was it just rhetoric? Perhaps Dave should have a word with his MPs?
Yes, I agree. Whilst it must surely be unpleasant for Chris to be described in this way, I hope that he can nevertheless take a grim satisfaction from the fact that it is a clear indication that the defenders of the indefensible have no proper arguments and have to resort to ugly slurs instead.
In other words, there may be political capital to be made from a random saying something nasty about a celebrity on twitter.
I think most will prefer Chris Packham’s principled, honest and deeply felt “madness” over their sick “sanity” any day of the week. Nobody with honest intent could be anything but moved and full of admiration for the way in which Chris overcame the difficulties he suffered at school to become an inspirational naturalist and highly successful presenter. Leaving aside his work as a conservationist, he will be long remembered as someone who, by his rawly honest memoir, did much to help children with Asperger’s (and their families).
‘The Rt Hon’ Mr Soames – an apology is in order, where is it and if not why not? You not only disgrace yourself by your comments but you insult thousands of people.
Prime Minister: is this acceptable from your MPs?
All soames has actually done is retweet something his only ‘comment’ was about how much wildlife he saw when he was out for a walk
And thus by RTing, perpetuated the slur and given credence to Hunting Solution’s comment. A man (and I use the term loosely) in his position should know better. I doubt whether he’d know a ring ouzel from a ring-tailed lemur!
Don’t let’s forget, Mark was also accused of ‘truth avoidance’ ……. bit more of an insult than was probably intended – the last time that phrase came to light was in reference to Call me Dave …….
It’s wrong to accuse people of being mentally ill. I’ve often been accused of being a nutter for standing up against the insane law which Chris Packham supports and Mark Avery may or may not support which requires wildlife killed. So yes the law that Chris supports is insane and his support of it makes him a hypocrite but not mentally ill.
Giles – I’ve been called names before too.
Just to be clear, was the nut-job comment about his depression (a mental health issue, about which the phrase would generally be held to refer) or his Aspergers (nothing at all to do with mental health)?
Kie – just to be clear; you’d have to ask him.
poor you 🙁
I had a whole web page on the ‘hunt scum gallery’ devoted to how I was a ‘countryside terrorist’ once (photo courtesy of your LACS buddies) put up by the ‘bumpkin harrassment squad’ 😀
Interesting point Giles – the ‘anti’ lobby frequently resort to calling shooters ‘psychopaths’ ‘nutters’ and a whole host of other insults.
Closer to home, Mark wrote a little while ago:
Second, I used to think that LACS was full of nutters but looking at their website I see those nutters include revolutionaries such as Tom Conti, Colin Baker, Roy Hattersley, Sue Cook (you know – Woman’s Hour!), Baldrick (aka Sir Tony Robinson) and Sir David Jason. This looks as much like the ageing middle classes on the march as does the RSPB. I might even bring down the average age of the members a bit! When I look at the website I see a lot I agree with, some things I don’t agree with, but not a bunch of nutters – they’ll do for me.
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone perhaps?
Kie – indeed. But you’ll notice that wasn’t a stone was it?
Are you supporting Hunting Solutions and Nick Soames – or not? It’s not clear is it? But, as always, you are having a dig at me. And I let you. Don’t mention it.
Oh b#gger’ here’s Chris Packham calling people ‘psychopathic’
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/let-hunters-kill-deer-and-mink-for-a-fee-says-tv-naturalist-chris-packham-9716594.html
Mark are you supporting Chris Packham here?
Just to be clear – does it really matter which condition the the remark was referring to? Asperger’s and autism may not be mental health issues but people with those conditions often find themselves labelled as ‘nutjobs’ and other such derogatory terms. Depression is a form of mental illness but are you suggesting the term ‘nutjob’ is therefore valid and appropriate? If that is not what you were suggesting what exactly was the point of your little intervention?
Probably depression, schizophrenia &c are best termed mental states which get labelled as illness because they are problematic sometimes to the subject of them and sometimes to others. Whether the ‘fault’ lies with the subject or not is a matter of opinion. It could be said that insanity is a sane reaction to an insane world.
I have just blogged about this http://wp.me/p3vKib-HO
Miles – so I saw (and RTd)
thanks Mark – I included a call to sign up to your petition.
“Every little helps”
I think the use of the words ‘self confessed’ indicate that Hunting Solutions knew exactly what they were saying. This was no off the cuff ‘you must be crazy’ comment. So no apologists or hair-splitting please.
As a father of a (terrific!) son with Asperger’s, I truly, truly despise these people. It’s not an emotion I feel very often, and it’s not something I’m proud of. But there it is.
I have just phoned Hunting Solutions thier sales team were unable to pick up my call but I left a message expressing my anger in thier tweet towards Chris Psckham, I would suggest others do likewise. Logan Steele.
Unpleasant though the comment was, it doesn’t seem to be doing the petition any harm; quite the contrary, motoring along nicely today. Perhaps an Own Goal of the Year award should be considered, Mark? Considering the quality running so far (and no doubt much more to come) I don’t think this nasty little effort will be up for a medal, however.
Long may their offensive comments contribute to create a stronger coalition to champion conservation and hold to account those who find it acceptable to act illegally.
Interesting that some comments seem to wish to distract from the need for a public servant to apologise for supporting offensive language?
I’m glad to see that this was also followed up in the Liverpool Echo – Hunting Solution’s local evening paper on May 13th …… with reverberations from his fellow city dwellers. The shop was named and Soames RT was also mentioned.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/suicide-agony-springwatch-host-chris-11326917
Tweets from @HuntingSolution’s Twitter page have been removed from May10th to May 12th, including the one where he was asked was he going to apologise for the original attack on Chris and the answer was ‘Err….no’.
I will work my backside off to stop the use of mental health issues for personal attacks on anyone and will increase that effort a thousand fold to get DGS banned.
“I will work my backside off to stop the use of mental health issues for personal attacks on anyone” Does that include Chris Packham labelling people as “psychopaths”?
By definition, a person who kills for fun, gaining pleasure from their actions, is termed psychopathic. This, I believe, is what people who hunt do – they secure enjoyment out of their actions …….. so anyone achieving gratification from killing is psychopathic …… Chris Packham was not singling any one person out with regard to his thoughts … HS made a personal exclusive pre-meditated attack on someone who was brave enough to bring his disability into the public arena. That is despicable.
Mark I am genuinely curious – do you support Chris Packham calling people”psychopaths” in order to make a political point. Is it appropriate to use mental illness in that way? I it somehow ok for Chris to call people “psychopaths” whereas it’s not for others to call him a “nutjob”?
I did post a tweeted comment from one of your supporters stating that it was I’m interested to know why you won’t publish that one?
giles – you are indeed genuinely curious. Your tweets are getting very repetitive -as they often do. Could you possibly think before you comment, say what you want to say, and then that’s it?
Hi Mark – no where near as repetitive as your blog posts.
I was asking if you supported Chris Packham’s use of mental health labels for political ends .
giles – but I have to read your comments in order to moderate them – you don’t have to read any of my blog posts.
Giles might be less repetitive is you answered his (perfectly reasonable, polite and on-topic) question over whether it was OK for Packham to use slurs about peoples mental health, but not the opposition.
kie – he might, although experience shows that he wouldn’t be.
Do you support Hunting Solutions’ comments about me?
To answer your question – anyone that kills for fun is by definition a psychopath and should be locked up so Chris Packham is quite right to point that out.