Lib Dems all bogged down – Firm briefing 20

There are only eight Liberal Democrat MPs in Westminster and I have now been sent responses from six of them to their constituents.  They are all over the place!  There are more varieties of response from six LibDems than from scores of Conservatives or tens of Labour responses!

Here is a composite letter:

As a Liberal Democrat, I am strongly supportive of measures that help our rural economy, improve the environment, and enhance the quality of life for people living in the countryside.

In considering an issue such as that I start from a position of wanting to protect two interests, namely the protection of the economy in our rural communities and the protection of our natural environment. Viewed in this way I can see that grouse shooting has an important part to play. Obviously it must always be done responsibly, sustainably and in a way that is compatible with improving biodiversity. Ideally I would like to see that grouse shooting is reliably self-monitored.

Many people take great pleasure in shooting sports and shooting creates around £2 billion for the UK economy. Shoot providers contribute almost £250 million per year on conservation, which is positive, and means these activities help to protect natural habitats and uphold biodiversity.

As you will know the Liberal Democrats want to protect habitats from forests to oceans, and the creatures that call them home, from bees to birds. And because we believe everyone should have access to nature, we’ll complete the coastal path around the UK, improve the Right to Roam, protect more of the local green spaces people value as National Nature Parks and protect our forests for future generations.   There is a fine balance which need to be found between animal protection and the continuation of such habitats and their management. I will of course take your points into consideration alongside the number of people who have express (sic) their support for shooting as a sport.

I share the strong concerns raised by some, such as yourself, regarding the decline in the UK population of wild hen harriers. As we know, hen harriers are a protected species and so far in 2016 the RSPB says there have been around only three nesting attempts. It is crucial that everything is done to protect these birds.

Under provisions in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, killing a hen harrier constitutes a wildlife crime. Despite this, the illegal killing of wild birds of prey continues. The Liberal Democrats are therefore glad that the National Wildlife Crime Unit, a specialist unit dedicated to tackling all wildlife crime, regards raptor predation as one of its top priorities. Thanks to Liberal Democrat pressure last year, the Government agreed to continue funding this Unit’s work, at just over half a million pounds over the next four years, 

Whether to ban driven grouse shooting or not is an emotive issue, with strong views held on both sides of the argument. However, encouraging partnership working between conservationists and the shooting industry is the best way to ensure that the hen harrier population can be managed effectively. We want to see greater cooperation between those on both sides of this argument and will continue to monitor the developments and options surrounding it, for example, licensing.

While I understand your concerns, the Liberal Democrats are not in favour of a ban on driven grouse shooting, and believe that where it is conducted within the law it can offer benefits to rural communities, such as job creation, supporting local economies and peatland environmental management when carried out in a manner that is sensitive to the environment. However, we would like to see the British Association of Shooting and Conservation, and the Government, do even more to promote best practice and step up efforts to stamp out illegal and bad practice.

I accept the evidence of widespread concern about the current legislation for driven grouse shooting.  Animal welfare has always been a matter of high priority for me and so I would naturally support the call for the debate on the effect that driven grouse shooting has upon the environment and wildlife.  Decisions on the future of this so called sport should be reached on the basis of the evidence that can be produced upon any possibility of mis-management of our precious countryside and its wildlife.

As I say, this is a composite letter constructed by me from various responses – but it hardly hangs together! Why they didn’t all send out the last paragraph on its own I don’t know. That seems to nail it if you are a LibDem who doesn’t know that much about the subject but wants to appear sympathetic, and buys time to get to grips the subject.

However, you can see that many of the responses seem to be living in the days of the coalition government when LibDems had to take the Conservative line (and they still are for heaven’s sake!) or perhaps in never-never land as they promise what they will do in government.

Some LibDems think that having a chat about things will solve everything and are unaware of the fact that we have had three or more decades of that and it has failed completely to resolve anything.

There is little in here to suggest that the LibDems have assimilated the fact that grouse shooting depends on widespread wildlife crime.

For those of you with LibDem MPs, I suggest that you wait until the evidence session on 18 October, and then go back to your MP quoting the evidence that will have been published.

 

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