20,000 signatures, 10,563 ahead and the third way

Mark 12 Comments

This morning, Gavin Gamble’s e-petition passed a big milestone – it reached 20,000 signatures.  Well done Gavin and let’s hope that the e-petition continues to make very significant progress – I think it will.

But there’s no getting away from the fact that the rival e-petition, the Griggs e-petition, had a very good week and has added over 9,000 signatures in a week (though, understandably, it has slowed down considerably in the last few days) and has reduced the gap by over 8000 signatures.

And, in the crowded world of e-petitions about grouse shooting, Friday saw the emergence of Ed Hutchings’s e-petition in favour of licensing which has already passed 750 signatures.

 

Here are the leading constituencies supporting a ban of driven grouse shooting so far – many of them are old friends (all with 50+ signatures).  Last week there were 64 of them, this week there are 74:

  1. Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, Drew Hendry MP, 114 signatures
  2. Westmorland and Lonsdale, Tim Farron MP, 98 signatures
  3. Ross, Skye and Lochaber, Ian Blackford MP, 96 signatures
  4. Suffolk Coastal, Therese Coffey MP, 96 signatures
  5. Skipton and Ripon, Julian Smith MP, 95 signatures
  6. Sheffield Hallam, Jared O’Mara, 95 signatures
  7. Calder Valley, Craig Whittaker, 92 signatures
  8. High Peak, Ruth George MP, 90 signatures
  9. North Norfolk, Norman Lamb MP, 89 signatures
  10. Isle of Wight, Bob Seeley MP, 86 signatures
  11. Stroud, David Drew MP, 85 signatures
  12. Penrith and The Border, Rory Stewart MP, 84 signatures
  13. Thirsk and Malton, Kevin Hollinrake MP, 84 signatures
  14. Dumfries and Galloway, Alister Jack MP, 81 signatures
  15. Argyll and Bute, Brendan O’Hara MP, 80 signatures
  16. Sheffield Central, Paul Blomfield MP, 77 signatures
  17. South Norfolk, Richard Bacon MP, 77 signatures
  18. Central Devon, Mel Stride MP, 74 signatures
  19. Derbyshire Dales, Patrick McCloughlin MP, 74 signatures
  20. Harrogate and Knaresborough, Andrew Jones MP, 73 signatures
  21. Richmond (Yorks), Rishi Sunak MP, 72 signatures
  22. Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas MP, 67 signatures
  23. Wells, James Heappey MP, 67 signatures
  24. Ludlow, Philip Dunne MP, 66 signatures
  25. Perth and North Perthshire, Peter Wishart MP, 66 signatures
  26. Norwich South, Clive Lewis MP, 65 signatures
  27. South Cambridgeshire, Heidi Allen MP, 64 signatures
  28. East Lothian, Martin Whitfield MP, 64 signatures
  29. Ceredigion, Ben Lake MP, 64 signatures
  30. Waveney, Peter Aldous MP, 63 signatures
  31. Scarborough and Whitby, Robert Goodwill MP, 62 signatures
  32. Beverley and Holderness, Graham Stuart MP, 62 signatures
  33. Tiverton and Honiton, Neil Parish MP, 62 signatures
  34. Rutland and Melton, Alan Duncan MP, 62 signatures
  35. Ochil and South Perthshire, Luke Graham MP, 61 signatures
  36. South West Surrey, Jeremy Hunt MP, 61 signatures
  37. Ribble Valley, Nigel Evans MP, 60 signatures
  38. Broadland, Keiith Simpson MP, 59 signatures
  39. Stirling, Stephen Kerr MP, 59 signatures
  40. Arundel and South Downs, Nick Herbert MP, 58 signatures
  41. Somerton and Frome, David Warburton MP, 58 signatures
  42. Edinburgh South, Ian Murray MP, 58 signatures
  43. Hexham, Guy Opperman MP, 57 signatures
  44. Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, David Mundell MP, 56 signatures
  45. Lancaster and Fleetwood, Cat Smith MP, 56 signatures
  46. Torridge and West Devon, Geoffrey Cox MP, 56 signatures
  47. Mid-Norfolk, George Freeman MP, 56 signatures
  48. Cambridge, Daniel Zeichner MP, 56 signatures
  49. East Yorkshire, Greg Knight MP, 55 signatures
  50. Bridgwater and West Somerset, Ian Liddell-Grainger MP, 55 signatures
  51. St Ives, Derek Thomas MP, 55 signatures
  52. York Outer, Julian Sturdy MP, 55 signatures
  53. Colne Valley, Thelma Walker MP, 54 signatures
  54. North West Norfolk, Henry Bellingham MP, 54 signatures
  55. Keighley, John Grogan MP, 54 signatures
  56. Bristol West, Thangam Debbonaire MP, 54 signatures
  57. Taunton Deane, Rebecca Pow MP, 54 signatures
  58. West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Andrew Bowie MP, 53 signatures
  59. Banbury, Victoria Prentis MP, 53 signatures
  60. West Dorset, Oliver Letwin MP, 53 signatures
  61. Witney, Robert Courts MP, 53 signatures
  62. North Wiltshire, James Gray MP, 53 signatures
  63. Moray, Douglas Ross MP, 53 signatures
  64. York Central, Rachael Maskell MP, 53 signatures
  65. South West Norfolk, Liz Truss MP, 52 signatures
  66. North East Bedfordshire, Alistair Burt MP, 52 signatures
  67. Ipswich, Sandy Martin MP, 51 signatures
  68. Berwick-upon-Tweed, Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, 51 signatures
  69. Bromsgrove, Sajid Javid MP, 51 signatures
  70. Preseli Pembrokeshire, Stephen Crabb MP, 51 signatures
  71. orth Devon, Peter Heaton-Jones MP, 50 signatures
  72. Edinburgh North and Leith, Deidre Brock MP, 50 signatures
  73. North West Cambridgeshire, Shailesh Vara MP, 50 signatures
  74. South East Cambridgeshire, Lucy Frazer MP, 50 signatures

It’s interesting to see the top 10 constituencies supporting the Griggs petition in favour of grouse shooting:

  1. Chelsea and Fulham, Greg Hands MP, 313 signatures
  2. Kensington, Emma Dent Coad MP, 211 signatures
  3. Battersea, Marsha de Cordova, 198 signatures
  4. Richmond (Yorks), Rishi Sunak MP, 177 signatures
  5. The Cotswolds, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, 168 signatures
  6. Thirsk and Malton, Kevin Hollinrake MP, 166
  7. Cities of London and Westminster, Mark Field MP, 159 signatures
  8. Northwest Hampshire, Kit Malhouse MP, 130 signatures
  9. Skipton and Ripon, Julian Smith MP, 127 signatures
  10. Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, John Lamont, 121 signatures

An impressive number of high-scoring constituencies but those, of course, are balanced by scores of constituencies where the pro-shooters have not gathered a single signature.  And there is a delicious irony in the fact that three of the top five constituencies, and four of the top 10, supporting an e-petition which mentions ‘real country people’, come from central London.  But one gets signatures wherever one can, and there are quite a few signatures from grouse shooting areas too. Although nobody in Barking has signed this e-petition yet (I’m rather glad to see).

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12 Replies to “20,000 signatures, 10,563 ahead and the third way”

  2. Yeah, great.
    Gavin’s attempt to get his journalism career into the big leagues at the expense of proving that public interest in protecting our uplands has waned is really rattling along. At this rate there is a real risk of Gavin managing to prove that more people are interested in protecting grouse shooting than restricting it. Still, at least Gavin is getting a couple of articles in magazines about himself, so there is that. Thanks, Gavin.

    1. I think that the grouse shooting industry love it when their opponents argue amongst themselves. So I don’t think this comment is very helpful.

    2. Random 22,all that hatred bottled up inside you does you more harm than anyone else.We are all immune to it by now,take a tip from someone probably older than yourself,give up on it you are only hurting yourself.

    3. Well done Gavin! The more publicity about the issue the better. You clearly know what you’re talking about.

      Random – thanks for letting us know how successful Gavin’s been. I’ll be sure to look up all these great artickes.

  3. I was pleased to see Thirsk & Malton high up in Gavin’s petition but then I looked at the Griggs one. Disappointing but not surprising.

    1. Yes it is amazing how many ” country folk”, even those living in the wide open green spaces of central London are profoundly ecologically illiterate and probably proud of it. Criminal one might say!

  4. I think that all the tactics and activities that got the last petition up 123,000 must be looked at and revisited to get both of these moving along.
    The potential good news is that there is now the possibility of getting some serious help from the RSPB, given that Ed Hutchings’ petition closely reflects their own stated position. So, what’s the best way of putting pressure on the RSPB hierarchy to mobilise their huge membership to get RSPB policy put into practice?
    And if they won’t do anything much, what would that tell us about today’s RSPB?

    1. Alan Two,no chance the RSPB doing much to help Gavin they have taken flak all along and ignored it all for what must be a very good reason they will not disclose.

    2. The RSPB will be all too familiar with the views of this blog and those of us who comment on it. I can see no likely circumstances under which it will shift its position to favour a ban. Kevin Cox, the new chairman of RSPB Council, has already tweeted support in favour of the licensing petition, via @kevnjcox.

      The question is how much of its considerable weight will the RSPB be willing to put behind a petition that isn’t a RSPB initiative? Also, bear in mind that the RSPB has historically been dismissive about the value of online petitions as an advocacy tool. None of which should discourage members – and others – from making their views known.

  5. Mark,I think lots of us probably would like to help somehow and presumably, your think tank will have some ideas that we can help with.

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