I’ve been at the Bird Fair all day – I’ve just got home and opened a bottle or two of wine which friends are drinking downstairs.
What a great day!
Just a quick note of thanks to Simon Lester for coming to the debate on grouse shooting. All credit to him for coming when not a single staff member or member of either the Moorland Association or the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust was prepared to put their case in front of a packed marquee of 500+ people. The audience deserved better from the shooting community than avoidance (no disrespect to Simon who was great but not able to speak for the moor owners and the people who sat with Defra and came up with a nonsensical Hen Harrier Plan which is now in shreds).
And all credit to Natalie Bennett for coming to the Bird Fair – the most senior UK politician I have ever seen there while doing their day job (all credit to birder Sir John Randall – former MP – who was present today as well) – and who spoke with knowledge and passion. To hear Natalie and Simon was worth the effort for many people of coming to the event. But it was shameful that the leaders of the ‘sport’ of driven grouse shooting weren’t prepared to turn up and show their faces. It#salmost as though they have something to hide.
The Bird Fair, having screwed its courage to the sticking point and had this event – ought to have many more in future. Next year why can’t we see politicians addressing the subject of agricultural payments from the taxpayer to farmers in the new Brexit world? Or maybe we should hear about what different parties would do for the marine environment? This afternoon the main event marquee was packed – I got the impression that the event was welcomed but was probably a bit tame for some. Having dared and won, the Bird Fair should dare a little more each year…
I’ll write a more considered view of the Bird Fair after it’s over, but probably I’ll write some snippets tomorrow and Sunday evening too.
For now, I aim to join my guests downstairs before they drink all my wine…
[registration_form]
Enjoy your wine!
Yeah, but the best bottle was upstairs with you wasn’t it!
Good to see a packed house at the debate on DGS today. Your right again! We need more of these discussions/debates at future Birdfairs. How else will our ruling classes understand the depth of feeling we have on nature issues?
And saying that, top prize must go to the discussion given by Charlie Moores of BAWC and Dominic Dyer of the Badger Trust. Should have been entitled ‘Crime and Passion’.
Dominic won the day on the clapometer.
Good show all round. Still two days left to attend everyone!
A good day I think. A great pleasure meeting you and thank you for signing your book for us. (A first for this book You said.)
I look forward to September 20th when, I’m now told, parliament will debate the subject.
You deserve your glass of wine!
Linda & Malcolm
A well deserved drink Mark. It was a good debate, perhaps a little too polite.
This evening’s seminar with Chris Packham, Helen Meech and Derek Gow on Rewilding was outstanding.
Jealous or what. I wonder if either you or Hilary got the ticket I couldn’t?
Mark, would be great if someone would do a write up on the evening. Guest blog perhaps? Or was it recorded in some form?
Paul, we got our tickets some while ago. We were warned that demand could be high.
I believe the whole session was filmed, I hope it will be available somewhere soon. Perhaps Mark will tell us in due course. Certainly worth seeking out.
A great day, some fantastic lectures, presentations and especially THE debate.
Yes, it was a tad tame, but it was conducted in a polite manner (not that I’d have expected otherwise) and significantly the marquee was packed to the gunnels which should (a) tell the cowards who hid, that they missed an opportunity and in doing so also showed their true colours (b) it should also give the BF confidence and courage to do a similar event next year – I like your suggestion of a discussion around agri-welfare subsidies or rather ‘nature-first’ / environmental and public benefit funding (c) to record thanks to Simon Lester for his attending and for publicly acknowledging that walked up / over dogs is simply not economical.
I’ve come away determined to do better, and if everyone else felt the same then the next chapter in the long slog has already begun?
To Charlie and BAWC, to Simon King, to Dominic Dyer, to Chris in his pink “Truth” design t-shirt keeping pace with the petition update it was great day and to you Mark, you deserve that drink – take care and thanks.
Every event, every signature, every new face who wakes up to this is another nail in the shooters’ coffin. Maybe not the massive debate we would have liked but very worthwhile.
The presentations and discussions today certainly moved the argument forward in a great leap. An excellent seminar this evening with lots of well argued ideas for a more sustainable direction in rural policy and re-wilding. It’s All out there for debating and winning. The obvious commitment of so many Bird Fair goers is very encouraging. Derek Gow was outstanding and so to the point.
Well then, shall we?
The day ended on: 114,821
Last week (6th-12th August)
Peak day (12th) = 11,689
Total for week = 25,635
Daily average = 3662
Petition total (end 12th) = 97,895
Constituency average (end 12th) = 150.6
This week (13th-19th August)
Peak day (13th – as far as we know) = 6504
Total for week (possibly subject to some revision) = 16,926
Daily average = 2418
Petition total (end 19th) = 114,821
Constituency average (end 19th) = 176.6
The signing rate at midnight was 29 signatures/hour; let’s see what the morning says!
15 additional signatures by 1AM.
Just noticed the ‘Protect grouse Moors and grouse shooting’ petition has been changed again:
‘Stone Curlew’ is now ‘Curlew’
‘Countryside alienate’ was previously changed to ‘Countryside Alliance’.
I wasn’t aware that you could change the wording of a petition once started. Were you, Mark?
No, I wasn’t, and that seems very irregular to me. What else could one change?
Exactly.
I’ve written and asked for an explanation;
[email protected]
Yes noticed that the wording had changed – ‘poor’ Jack Bryant the petitioner came in for some horrendous abuse from what must be his own side for the ‘stone curlew’ and ‘alienate’ mishtakes. Dam shame they’ve been fixed! None the less hardly an enlightening text, very weak. Hopefully we’ll still get a good few thousand signatures before the end and it would be the icing on the cake if Greenpeace etc backed the petition after the 100,000 mark was breached. Another 40 or 50,000? It’s remarkable how far up the political and public agenda grouse moors are now – the figure quoted last week on Countryfile of there being 3.5 MILLION acres of them in the UK is staggering. This should have been happening years ago! Well done Mark, this is a fantastic achievement.
Looks like it might just get to 10,000.
I expect the response to our 10k from DEFRA will just be dusted off and repeated. After all, the response was pretty much a defence of the status quo.
Other HoC petitions have had their wording changed ……. by the proposers I believe ….. Not sure that it is correct after the petitions have started to gain signatures though …..
All quiet on the petition front overnight, Mark;
1AM +15 signatures
2AM +3
3AM +2
4AM +1
Jim
Yes. Understandably given the huge surge we’ve had. We aren’t pushing the e-petition very hard except by talking to people at the Bird Fair over the weekend. But leaflets are flying off the BAWC stand and that alone will keep things ticking along for a few more weeks.
Interesting that a certain employee of the GWCT has had time to write and article for the Telegraph on the ‘benefits’ of driven grouse moors for wildlife, to attend RSPB Rainham on Hen Harrier Day, taking misleading photos of the crowd take a from a mile away, criticising every little thing he could possibly find like the design of the centre, then has the gall to moan he wasn’t invited to speak at Hen Harrier Day, but he can’t attend an event at bird fair that he invited to speak at!? Avoiding a situation where he actually has to answer the question he was asked I guess, rather than just make an unrelated point like he does on twitter….
What is happening in St.Albans?
I’m just happy it wasn’t something like the following!
1AM: 15
2AM: 3
3AM: 18,749
4AM: 0
Whether Parliamentary Petitions are now primed for the bot attacks, or the perpetrators were just having a night off, we will have to see. Someone does seem to be playing around today though; random petitions like ‘Call for a vote of no confidence in David Cameron’ (!) have been trending briefly.
And as I write Ban Driven Grouse Shooting is trending at a high rate; we will have to see what comes of that.
66 signatures in the last 10 minutes.
128 in last 20 minutes
Figure going up without me refreshing screen
St Albans has leapt to 459 signatures. They ain’t being to subtle are they?
I’ve checked through a log I’ve been keeping; there don’t seem to be any problems with the selection of constituencies I’m using to monitor the situation, so I think we have found our problem.
Yep, checked my 50 random constituencies and they are all showing reasonable growth; bot focused on St.Albans, so expect a couple of hundred signatures from there coming off soon courtesy of the Petitions Team.
The map was briefly cleared of all but about 3 signatures. Looks like somewhat more serious problems today.
The underhand actions against the petition just amplifies to the public the deceitfulness of those involved in driven grouse shooting.
I enjoyed the debate yesterday but was less than impressed when Simon suggested the Grouse shooters, or should we call them grousters, like banksters and gangsters, wanted more carrot before they could compromise and comply with the law of the land. The gall when they are already creaming us taxpayers and many of them should be in jail for their criminal activities. He doesn’t seem to realise that the only compromise the grousters deserve is to be allowed to keep their pastime in a less intensive kind of way if they stop killing birds of prey.
Phil Espin
If you recall he also admitted that walked up / over dog was not viable / economical. See my comment (c) above?
There is a case for the removal of all subsidies to such estates unless they can demonstrate public benefit and representations need to be made. Rest assured they’ll be ‘wining & dining’ or ‘days out grousing’ with establishment figures etc. etc. If each of us present yesterday wrote just one letter to MP / Minister et. al. then the message will begin to get through?
Well done to Simon Lester.Having followed his career since his Shooting Times column of twenty years ago,i was unsure if he was the right man for the Langholm post.
However he showed great commitment, and genuinely thought he could make a contribution to the problem. His championing of diversionary feeding showed a stark contrast to other more entrenched voices in the grouse fraternity.
Agreeing to attend what could easily have been a hostile event,after his resignation from Langholm and what some would see as failure did him great credit.
This as already noted did not reflect well on senior members of the shooting organisations.I shall be penning a note to the sporting press reflecting on this matter.