The dire nature of the replies of SNP MPs to their constituents was highlighted in an earlier blog. There are signs that the SNP are beginning to get their head around this issue and adjust their position. Several SNP MPs have been told in no uncertain terms, some face-to-face, that they need to smarten up their act to avoid voter disillusionment.
Such firm briefing is beginning to bare fruit. The latest response I have been shown promises that the debate on banning driven grouse shooting will be well attended by SNP MPs – we’ll see.
Here is a piece of analysis that might persuade SNP MPs to attend the Westminster Hall debate and take a questioning attitude to driven grouse shooting (many thanks to Alan Cranston for doing all the hard work on this).
As well as our e-petition, several others have passed the magic 100,000 UK signatures threshold and others are getting there. We (mostly Alan!) looked at the following open e-petitions on the Westminster parliament website which deal with UK-wide issues and have had lots of signatures – we didn’t look at those that are concerned with English legislative issues (eg academy schools).
With some work (mostly Alan’s) one can work out what proportion of the signatures on these e-petitions come from Scottish, Welsh, Northern Ireland and English constituencies (and in all cases some come from UK citizens living abroad too). You might think that the SNP would have a glance at these too, in a similar way, and notice that some e-petitions are much more popular in Scotland than others. Here is the ranking:
Ban driven grouse shooting 10.1% Scottish signatures
Pursue a free movement treaty between the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada 8.5% Scottish signatures
EU Referendum Rules triggering a 2nd EU Referendum 8.4% Scottish signatures
Britain must not turn its back on child refugees in Europe 8.3% Scottish signatures
Reverse the ESA disability benefit cut 8.3% Scottish signatures
Make it illegal for a company to require women to wear high heels at work 7.2 % Scottish signatures
Stop spending a fixed 0.7 per cent slice of our national wealth on Foreign Aid 5.2% Scottish signatures
Call on David Cameron to act to protect our steel industry & recall Parliament 3.7% Scottish signatures
So we could all speculate like mad on what this might mean about those living in Scotland and their attitude to life, but c8.4% of the UK population lives in Scotland and only our e-petition exceeds that percentage. So, SNP Westminster MPs, many of your constituents are energised on this issue and want to see progress. Maybe you had better brush up on what you might say.
Come back a bit later for news on how Firm Briefing seems to be affecting Conservative MPs.
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If the SNP do something about this it will be a first!! Hopefully they are at last listening to us but, the on going fiasco of wind turbines makes me a bit cynical.
Hi Mark, I have had a response from my SNP MP – here is an extract, looks like a stock answer.
‘I fully recognise the positive role that is played by shooting estates in the management of Scotland’s natural environment and in wildlife conservation, as well as the positive effect on employment in rural areas, and the Scottish Government will continue to work with shooting estates to achieve positive outcomes in this area. The Scottish Government and Scottish Natural Heritage support the Wildlife Estates Scheme – an initiative to encourage high standards of wildlife management led by Scottish Land and Estates – and also values Scottish Land and Estates’ role in the Partnership Against Wildlife Crime. I also recognise that well-managed grouse moors can make significant contributions to biodiversity targets, particularly with regard to upland wader species such as lapwing, curlew and golden plover.’
I have responded explaining the fallacy here, but have asked that she goes to the meeting and listens to the input, or at least informs herself as this is damaging to Scotland. I’ll tweet to ask if this is coming from Fergus Ewing or Roseanna Cunningham…
Eileen – many thanks! Firm Briefing!