We’ve passed 116,000 signatures and as I go to sleep we are close to 117,000. Woohoo!!!
Here’s a list of all the constituencies over 350 signatures:
- Calder Valley 741
- High Peak 538
- Ross, Skye and Lochaber 493
- Bristol West 485
- Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey 459
- Derbyshire Dales 450
- Sheffield Central 429
- Skipton and Ripon 424
- Brighton, Pavilion 421
- Westmorland and Lonsdale 404
- Edinburgh North and Leith 401
- Sheffield Hallam 398
- Isle of Wight 387
- Argyll and Bute 386
- Stroud 381
- Lancaster and Fleetwood 381
- Ribble Valley 375
- Thirsk and Malton 369
- North Norfolk 357
Those underlined and in bold have had at least one constituent writing to the sitting MP and expressing their support for the ban driven grouse shooting e-petition. That’s most of them, but come on, please, fellow Bristolians and get writing, and you in Stroud too, and where are the letters to the former Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, in Sheffield Hallam?
Over 200 of you have written to your MP (about 160 of them) and asked them to attend, and speak in favour of change in the uplands. That’s fantastic – but more letters will help get an even better response.
Just as an aside, the gender of those getting in touch with me saying they have written to their MPs is 2men:1woman, which might indicate a lot of response from men, but I’d interpret it differently. I think most of the comments on this blog come from men, and every poll I have had here, without checking, I believe has had a preponderance of blokes too. Feels to me that when there is some real work to be done, writing a letter, it’s the ‘fairer’ sex which leaps forward with most enthusiasm. So come on blokes (and gals!) get writing, please. The response so far is fantastic – amaze me even more, please.
And responses are coming back from some MPs – thanks for sending them through. Some are good and some are pretty bad. The bad ones are standard replies provided by the political parties, and so many people are getting the same words back. On Friday I will start giving you words that you can use in response to some of these words (a job for the weekend?). By replying to your MP you will show her or him that you know what you are talking about (and that she or he doesn’t) and you will help improve the factual accuracy of what other writers receive – ‘Firm briefing’ will keep MPs honest and help raise the level of accuracy of the debate on driven grouse shooting.
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Good to see our area,Skipton & Ripon getting decent numbers considering much of it is surrounded by Grouse moors,maybe people are getting fed up of being top of the “raptor hit list” league.
Pete – very good. Thank you for your comment.
Still awaiting response from my MP, now ex-Chancellor. Last seen/heard of in Vietnam playing with a machine gun so no great hopes he’ll be amenable but who knows? Maybe he will have worked off some of his anger & frustration by paying £1 a pop to shoot the machine gun and will come back purged?
Whatever, I will be in touch with him.
Now a Companion of Honour, for outstanding contribution to …… [fill in gaps] ???
I’m sure we could have come up with more deserved nominations, just goes to show ….
Not envy but total frustration at the system that permits such practice?
I’ll be penning something to my local MPs, Mark. Local support for a ban is now very impressive, e.g.;
Peak District constituencies in the top 12: High Peak (2nd), Derbyshire Dales (6th), Sheffield Hallam (12th)
Adjacent to Peak District constituencies: Calder Valley (1st), Sheffield Central (7th)
PS. Sheffield Central hasn’t been blue since 1945, Mark. In fact if it ever changes its colour from Red it’s likely to be to Green.
Jim – in relation to the PS – I’m glad to hear it! Those colours are the bane of my life! When you move constituencies around, as you must to try to get them in numerical order (itself quite a chore) sometimes the colours change and sometimes I don’t notice1 The sooner we get to a debate the better!!!
Rather you than me, Mark! No offence whatsoever to me personally but, seeing as I’ll be writing to Paul Blomfield MP, and i’ll be referencing your blog, we wouldn’t want to aggrieve him unnecessarily would we!
And Hallam has crossed the 400 line today, neat!
Good to see that, with 272, Canterbury has, at last, something approaching a respectable count. It’s now the highest for the county but 300 has got to be a realistic target! Also, I see 117,000 has been passed.