Seriously rattled – and rightly

Mark 17 Comments

In a long rant the Countryside Alliance shows just how rattled it is by the challenges to driven grouse shooting.  It’s all the usual stuff, in fact it’s quite a useful refresher course in the Alliance’s lack of solid arguments on the subject. But it’s interesting to think about why the grouse shooting folk have suddenly switched from ‘it’s all over, we won’ to attacking the campaign on driven grouse shooting once more.

The answer is twofold. First, we haven’t gone away. And we won’t go away. Hen Harrier Day events are planned as are other challenges to driven grouse shooting, and the arguments against this intensive land use, which depends on wildlife crime for its profits, are as strong as ever.  Scotland is potentially moving towards a system of licensing sporting estates and in Scotland at least, politicians are fed up with wildlife crime.

But second, the world has changed and shows signs of more change.  The general election result was a surprise to us all – well it was to me – but it changes everything. And in three ways. The first is very much

Franz Amling [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
to do with the Countryside Alliance.  The inclusion of a promise to have a free vote on fox hunting in the Conservative manifesto will have been seen by the Countryside Alliance as a great victory for their tunnel-visioned view of the world and no doubt there were high fives and whoops of ‘Tally ho!’ in their quarters until the toxic nature of that promise was made clear. It was a massive vote loser – again in a way that few would have predicted and that weakens the Countryside Alliance’s influence with the Conservative Party.  The Conservative manifesto was weak on wildlife but strong on the killing of wildlife and it offered little to the many who are, for example members of the Wildlife Trusts or the RSPB, and much to the few who want to kill wildlife in the countryside.  The Conservative manifesto, coupled with the track record of Paterson, Truss and Leadsom and the lack of a promise to maintain environmental protection after Brexit, left the Conservative Party, particularly the right of the Conservative Party, with nothing to say about wildlife except ‘let’s kill it’.  The manifesto had a clear commitment to help reverse the ban on fox hunting by taking us back in time, but no clarity on what the countryside as a whole nor its wildlife in particular should be like in future. Thinking Conservatives will realise, in fact many already do, that taking the money and views of the Countryside Alliance’s supporters did them harm on 8 June and will do them harm again in future.  Andrew Bingham lost his seat in High Peak and Craig Whittaker was close to losing Calder Valley too, and of course, the former chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, and paid consultant for them still, Simon Hart now occupies a marginal seat. The world is changing.

By Policy Exchange [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
And an aspect of that change is that we now have Michael Gove in Defra. Now I am not expecting much of Michael Gove although I can imagine being surprised and delighted by things he might do much more than was the case for Paterson, Truss or Leadsom, but he is no fool. Mr Gove will have read the runes too and he is much more interested in winning votes than killing wildlife. Gove is more of a wild card in Defra than his predecessors and when the card is revealed it might be a joker or it might be an ace. The Countryside Alliance has not had anything to fear from the Defra Secretary of State for quite a few years but it will now be feeling less confident of its position. And we know that when the Countryside Alliance is less confident it has a rant and lashes out – they don’t seem to have any other mode of operation.

And in the big scheme of things, we might have a Labour government some time, and it might be led by Jeremy Corbyn.  I do hope so, but that is not based on a strong belief that Labour will do a marvellous job for wildlife conservation as the signs are not strong. But we live in hope, whereas the Countryside Alliance lives in trepidation.  Labour will surely see that there are votes to be won if only they come up with a coherent plan for nature for the next general election. Labour doesn’t have one yet but it needs one, and time is short, perhaps, to develop one. It would be surprising if its first point of call were to be the Countryside Alliance.

What will all those young people who vote Labour want to see? They will want to see a real plan to tackle climate change, a plan to make wildlife cruelty history and a vision for our shared countryside that is fair to farmers, taxpayers and wildlife. They will want rural policies that are for the many (including wildlife) and not the few.  That is what they will want, and what I want as a slightly older Labout voter – please can we have it?

 

PS that image of a Red Grouse that the Countryside Alliance used is Tim Melling’s – I have used it with his permission on this blog many times. I’ll ask him whether the Countryside Alliance has permission to use it.

PPS (added at 17:10), the CA have taken down Tim Melling’s photo – I expect their cheque is in the post to BAWC.

[registration_form]

17 Replies to “Seriously rattled – and rightly”

  3. ‘we can stop our opponents from exploiting a ‘them and us’ narrative.’
    Hilarious.
    But just in case i split my sides, stopped there.

  4. Not the end, not even the beginning of the end but probably the end of the beginning.

    1. The Yorkshire Post article is very interesting and probably sums up the views of the type of shooter who actually enjoys the countryside, is interested in a wide range of native wildlife and not prejudiced against other predatory species. People like this need to distance themselves from the activities of intensive, commercialised shoots which wreck the countryside and its wildlife. Indeed, many do, and perhaps we should resist the temptation to lump them all together.

  6. I agree with everything you say in this post Mark, except the bit about Jeremy Corbyn. I don’t want to see him leading the next government. I’m an old voter but I assume that what many young people want to see at the moment is a strong move to keep us in the Single Market and Customs Union. The UK is sleepwalking to economic disaster (when there will be less money for wildlife and everything else) and the Labour leadership are almost as much to blame as May & Co. At the general election I spoilt my paper; everything that’s happened since makes me glad I did.

  7. So, Liam Stokes is saying that grouse shooting has an image problem with it being seen as an ‘elitist’ sport, and wants the industry to engage more with the public at events such as ‘Countryfile Live?’ I think he’ll find it always has been, and always will be an elitist sport and it will come as a shock when the public they engage with sees how much a day’s shooting costs.

    1. It can never be anything else but something for not even a tiny minority, but a minuscule fraction of the population – even with all their intensive ‘management’ we are not exactly going to have queues of people waiting to step into a butt so they can get a couple of hundred grice, nowhere enough to go round. It’s not even a spectator sport like Formula 1, either at the event itself or on television. They can only justify it by saying that it has massive spin off benefits – wads of cash going into local economy, lots more wildlife for all to see and a better landscape – one that’s admired the world over. We know these are all crap, that people and rural businesses are being compromised by using vast stretches of OUR country for a trivial, ludicrous hobby that only happens because its addicts happen to be very wealthy. The Emperor isn’t wearing any clothes or as both my Scottish grannies would have said ‘Aw fur coat and nae knickers!’

    2. I think the idea that it is not elitist is that the forelock tuggers do the beating: a place for everyone in the “sport”. The hoi poloi do the work and the rich (expletive deleted) reap the rewards.

  8. I’m inclined to agree with you Mark on Michael Gove, not a particular fan of his but he is not afraid to be controversial and for all his politics seems to be an intelligent man.
    Incidentally, in the ‘long rant’, I was perturbed to read (in Mr. Legge’s section) that Hebden Bridge has moved from West Yorkshire to Cumbria!

    1. Tim – yes, the CA don’t know where they are or where they are going or where anyone else is.

  10. I would bet that most people in the mainstream who enjoy nature and support animal welfare and conservation are a world away from supporting the kind of Labour politics that Mr Corbyn represents. I would not wish to see Corbyn anywhere near power.
    He would have totally open borders (worse than we have at moment) which would be a total disaster for wildlife and the environment. Of course that is not a subject which the left wants to ever talk about as they are happy for every bit of green space to be built on to accomodate mass migration.

Comments are closed.