Even the Telegraph…

Mark 38 Comments

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Just look at the tone and content of this piece in the Daily Telegraph – it’s not exactly like previous years is it?  We did that.

No really – it was us.

Sign up to ban driven grouse shooting – what day could be a better one than the Inglorious 12th – and help us on our way to a debate in the Westminster parliament on the future of grouse shooting.

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38 Replies to “Even the Telegraph…”

    1. 88761, woops no 88764!
      Average Central at 137 (needs to be 154)
      522 in last hour
      A new stat: 11,236 needed to 100k
      Just refreshed the screen again and now 88774 – b***** ****!

        1. Hi Anand – Mark refers to the ‘average’ constituency needing to reach 154 signatures, so this is a mythical constituency called Average Central. Dividing the total number of signatures by 650 gives the figure for this pretend constituency – so a measure of how close ‘we’ are to the magical 154.
          Given the speed the petition’s adding signatures I’m not sure it was worth bothering 🙂

        2. While I’m here, 91,262, 664 in last hour, 8738 needed to 100k and ‘Average Central’ now above 140. All out of date before I even press the send button.

          1. Now 91,307. I’m going to make a very bold prediction – the petition will get to 100k by midnight tonight!

          2. Thanks. Got it.

            791 in last hour at about 17.55.
            It is like the curve of Red Kites at the Chilterns where as it was previously like Red Kites in the Black Isle.
            We, unlike Red Kites, appear to thrive on persecution. More please Hogg, Gilruth, Botham, Anderson etc.

        3. It’s the current average (mean) figure for 650 constituencies, Anand. Now this will be rapidly out of date but, at the time of writing – 91,569 ÷ 650 = 140.9. With the ‘golden mean’ being just under 154 per constituency for the 100,000, Argyll and Bute being, by handy coincidence, is exactly double that figure as I write!

          1. WWI; a steady rate of about 565 signatures an hour for the last 8 hours of the day will get us 10,000 signatures for the day. 100,000 will require an average of a little over 1000 signatures per hour. The highest I’ve seen today (though I haven’t been constantly monitoring) is 802 per hour. Early -mid evening is typically the highest signing rate so we may well get an increase, so I think it will be pretty close at the close of play, but currently I’m anticipating crossing the line tomorrow. I’d be very happy to be wrong!

          2. Thanks Jim – 844 signatures in the last hour! Gone from 93,019 to 93,085 in about 5 minutes!

            PS I wondered why you were referring to World War One there before the penny dropped 🙂

          3. Thanks Jim.
            I am sure i saw 842 per hour at about 16.10 but i clicked on it before it sunk in so can’t be sure.
            It would be great to get to 100,000 on the 12th!

          5. Signing has peaked, so far, (unless anyone knows better?) at 879 signatures per hour around 5PM.

  3. Love that “heather moorland is even rarer than rainforest. The UK has more than 75% of what is left”!

    So the uninformed amongst the Telegraph’s readers will be led to believe that heather moorland is somehow as important as and faces an even bigger crisis than tropical rainforest unless those kind gamekeepers keep on “protecting” it!

    2. Not to mention grouse actually do better in open birch and scots pine woodland, which is their natural habitat.

      I dispute the amount of skill needed too. Especially when people who have never held a gun before and are usually well warmed by brandy and scotch before going out can “get their eye in” within an hour and carry a reasonable bag of them by the end of the day. It is no better than Nintendo Duck Hunt. Maybe walk up grouse shooting requires a level of skill, but having a bunch of semi-tame birds driven into flight on cue a few yards ahead of a person is not sport but slaughter.

  5. We need Ian Botham to do more radio interviews on driven grouse shooting, his performance on Today this morning appears to have almost sent the epetition viral.

    At this rate I’m a little concerned for the state of our hosts liver come Monday morning – I hear every 1k signatures is being marked with a Famous Grouse.

    Slainte!

    1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07p15rq

      “0820

      Today marks the Glorious Twelfth, the official start of the grouse shooting season. More than 80,000 people have signed an online petition to call for a ban on the pursuit. Former England Test cricketer Sir Ian Botham is a shooting enthusiast and Chris Packham is a wildlife presenter and vice president of the RSPB.”

    2. BBC Radio Scotland led its 9AM phone-in show (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07m8lwt – from 7mins for about 24mins) with the grouse shooting debate. While Alec Hogg, Chairman of Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association, was unable to answer questions well and sounded tired and out of touch — the lapwing and curlew are doomed without grouse moors and £200-300 for a day’s shooting is something ‘ordinary’ people do? — members of the public were well informed. Mark and this community have undeniably had a significant impact; well done.
      (I’m updating the petition page every so often just to see the numbers clocking up!)

  6. Hey! I’m having great difficulty keeping up with everything that’s happening – this snowball is really rolling. Great isn’t it! Still need to keeping letting folk know what’s going on and getting more signatures – we can’t just leave it to Beafy to shoot DGS in the foot, even if his rate of gaining signatures is far better than mine!

  7. Just start saying….” more than 90000 people have signed….”. It seems more accurate. Speaking of accuracy… does anyone feel like bringing the driven grouse wiki page up to date?

  9. So – 90,147 will beat yesterday in terms of the day’s signatures. We should be there in 20 odd minutes, with around 10 1/2 hours left to run. If we manage to sustain anything like an average of 500 signatures an hour, we are on for a 95K+ finish to the day. No more numbers from me until the close; i’m just going to go into agog mode!

    1. Jim – sorry! I didn’t get to this comment until its total had been passed by 500 signatures.

      It’s a busy day. I made a couple of phone calls (one to Chris Packham) and by the time I had finished them we were up by several hundred. Amazing.

      1. I hope you congratulated Chris on his (unedited) debate on The Today Programme this morning. I thought he out batted Sir Ian by a tidy few runs.

        1. Richard – we talked about it but I haven’t heard it yet (I was doing a radio interview elsewhere). Chris is a perfectionist – he wasn’t completely happy with it (he never is!).

          PS 91,000 as I write!

  10. 13.09 – 14.09: 783 signatures.

    Looking good for 100K by the time Countryfile airs on Sunday.

    1. At this rate I am thinking that there could well be an announcement over the PA system at the Birdfair on Friday?

      Then again someone calculated Monday.

      Countrywash? It’s the BBC don’t forget and thus far I suspect they’ve only (selectively) reported on the issue because they would look more foolish by not doing?

      Then again we’d be churlish not to recognise they really did us proud by letting Botham speak (I use the term loosely) and we should acknowledge his help in ensuring the continued rise in signatories?

      Every time you look there’s hundreds more – could we really see a conservation “Glorious 12th”? Now that would be worth stopping up late for ….

      Chris, Mark, Bill, BAWC, LACS, the Green Party and all the others who have got behind this issue, serious congratulations. I sense the next chapter looms on the horizon for the campaign?

      1. ‘At this rate I am thinking that there could well be an announcement over the PA system at the Birdfair on Friday?’ I doubt the tally will have quite reached 150k by the 19th, but I do admire your optimism..

        I only mentioned ‘Countrywash’, or Countryfacile to call it by it’s proper name, as I believe they are running a (sycophantic?) feature on Grouse Shooting on Sunday.

        The BBC Radio Scotland feature linked by Cicely gave the subject a pretty fair airing I thought.

    1. Get in, Anand! Sheffield Central went through the 300 barrier yesterday, currently 315 (77 signatures in a little over 5 day!). I think we just acquired the rights to the phrase ‘Glorious Twelfth’!

  13. “At 100,000 signatures, this petition will be CONSIDERED for debate in Parliament”

    It is important to think ahead to what happens next. When 100,000 is reached it will be important to ensure that MPs up and down the country are bombarded with mail to ensure that:

    a) there is no wriggling out of actually having the debate;
    b) As many MPs as possible are persuaded to attend;
    c) MPs that do attend the debate are properly informed about the issues and can’t be fobbed off with the likes of Nicholas Soames pretending that grouse shooting is nature’s saviour.

    Likewise every opportunity to bring this to the attention of the media should be taken to make sure that the issue is as high profile as possible which, again will help to prevent the government from sliding out of actually having the debate.

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