We are 11,650 ahead

Here is an update on three e-petitions about grouse shooting:

Gavin Gamble’s e-petition in favour of banning driven grouse shooting – c26,550 signatures

Jane Griggs’s e-petition supporting grouse shooting – c14,900 signatures

Ed Hutchings’s e-petition in favour of licensing grouse shooting – c6,100 signatures

Last week saw the ‘Gamble-ban’ e-petition adding another 450+ signatures and pulling another c270 signatures ahead of the ‘Griggs-protect’ e-petition which accrued only c180 signatures. More progress in the right direction. But the Ed Hutchings’s RSPB-supported, e-petition in favour of licensing added c4000 signatures in a spurt when RSPB emailed a small fraction of its supporters asking them to sign up.

Here are the leading constituencies supporting a ban of driven grouse shooting so far – those with more than 100 signatures. The list has grown by the addition of Argyll and Bute.

1. 1. High Peak, Ruth George MP, 150 signatures
   2. Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, Drew Hendry MP, 134 signatures
   3. Sheffield Hallam, Jared O’Mara, 130 signatures
   4. Westmorland and Lonsdale, Tim Farron MP, 125 signatures
   5. Calder Valley, Craig Whittaker, 120 signatures
   6. Skipton and Ripon, Julian Smith MP, 117 signatures
   7. North Norfolk, Norman Lamb MP, 116 signatures
   8. Ross, Skye and Lochaber, Ian Blackford MP, 115 signatures
   9. Derbyshire Dales, Patrick McCloughlin MP, 113 signatures
   10. Isle of Wight, Bob Seeley MP, 111 signatures
   11. Suffolk Coastal, Therese Coffey MP, 110 signatures
   12. Thirsk and Malton, Kevin Hollinrake MP, 108 signatures
   13. Stroud, David Drew MP, 107 signatures
   14. Argyll and Bute, Brendan O’Hara MP, 107 signatures
   15. Sheffield Central, Paul Blomfield MP, 105 signatures

The strongest constituencies supporting the Griggs petition in favour of grouse shooting remain these same top-10:

1. Chelsea and Fulham, Greg Hands MP, 403 signatures
2. The Cotswolds, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, 301 signatures
3. Thirsk and Malton, Kevin Hollinrake MP, 278
4. Battersea, Marsha de Cordova, 255 signatures
5. Kensington, Emma Dent Coad MP, 247 signatures
6. Richmond (Yorks), Rishi Sunak MP, 263 signatures
7. Cities of London and Westminster, Mark Field MP, 217 signatures
8. Skipton and Ripon, Julian Smith MP, 212 signatures
9. Northwest Hampshire, Kit Malhouse MP, 187 signatures
10. South West Wiltshire, Andrew Murrison MP, 177 signatures

There are still 30+ constituencies which haven’t leant a single signature to this e-petition – just another example of how concentrated is the support in a few rich areas of the country at the moment.

The Hutchings RSPB-supported licensing e-petition has not yet got a constituency with over 50 signatures but it is certainly getting there.  Interestingly, despite currently having fewer than half the number of signatures of the Griggs petition, the Hutchings petition already has only 12 constituencies with no signatures. However, one of those is Barking, as it was for the Gamble petition for quite a while and as it still is of r the Griggs petition – the people of Barking don’t bother themselves much with this matter. I wonder whether the grouse-shooters or the grouse licensers will fill in that gap on their map first.

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