If you were to take a walk, or a drive, or a cycle, from North West Hampshire (maybe Andover, but I prefer Whitchurch), or from somewhere even nicer, perhaps Beaulieu Road Station (where I saw my first Hobby in about 1971?) in the New Forest East constituency then you could pass through Salisbury (a place of great renown these days, and not only for that spire) and on to South West Wiltshire. Then by way of South West Wiltshire and Chippenham you could move through North Wiltshire and into the Cotswolds (and check whether the Great Grey Shrike I saw last week is still there (although it was just over the border in Tewkesbury)) and through David Cameron’s former seat of Witney into West Oxford (and Abingdon) to have a look at some dreaming spires. If you did that you’d see some nice scenery but what would the nine constituencies have in common? Answer – they are all gagging to get a few more signatures and join the ‘100 signatures’ club for Gavin Gamble’s e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting.
You might live in one of those constituencies, so why not walk through the streets asking people to sign this evening? No, don’t do that, but you might mention it to some people over the next couple of weeks before the e-petition closes on Easter Monday at midnight.
Or there might be that relative of yours who lives there, and you were meaning to phone weren’t you? And it’s always difficult to know what to say – so why not ask them to sign this e-petition. That would give them a bit of a shock, I bet.
Well, anyway, here are those constituencies:
South West Hampshire, Kit Malthouse MP, 93 signatures
New Forest East, Julian Lewis MP, 92 signatures
Salisbury, John Glen MP, 96 signatures
South West Wiltshire, Andrew Murrison MP, 99 signatures
Chippenham, Michele Donolan MP, 98 signatures
North Wiltshire, James Gray MP, 91 signatures
The Cotswolds, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, 91 signatures
Witney, Robert Courts MP, 93 signatures
Oxford West and Abingdon, Layla Moran MP, 97 signatures
Please sign the e-petition calling for a ban of driven grouse shooting and ask your friends to do the same (wherever they live, please)
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