Then and now in Private Eye

5 Replies to “Then and now in Private Eye”

1. The majority of the media either support the vows of the Telegraph or try to show balance by pretending to equate their views with those who deplore the criminal behaviour going on in our uplands.
   Thank goodness for even the few who call out the criminals.

2. The earlier piece was clearly published after Richard Ingrams had ceased to be the editor of Private Eye. Ingrams, for reasons that are entirely unclear, appears to have a strong dislike for birds of prey and pursued his own protracted personal vendetta against them (especially Red Kites) in his newspaper columns.

   1. Jonathan – Ingrams left the Eye in 1986. Boris Johnson stood for Clwyd South (the constituency which includes Ruabon moor where (or very near where) two Hen Harriers have disappeared this year) in 1997 so I think we are looking at 1995-97

3. Then and now, Berwyn Moor:

   ‘The Berwyn Special Area for Conservation (SAC) is the most extensive blanket bog and upland heath in Wales. The site was also designated in 1998 as a Special Protection Area (SPA) for its internationally significant numbers of Hen Harrier Circus cyaneus, Merlin Falco columbarius, Peregrine Falco peregrinus and Red Kite Milvus milvus. Following the Second World War, moorland management for Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus declined and by the late 1990s driven grouse shooting had ceased. Numbers of Red Grouse shot peaked in the early 1900s, but declined thereafter. Red Grouse densities between 1995 and 2010 varied between moors, but not between years or through time. Between initial surveys in 1983-5 and a further survey in 2002, Lapwing Vanellus vanellus were lost, Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria declined by 90% and Curlew Numenius arquata by 79%. In contrast, increases were seen in Carrion Crow Corvus corone (529%), Raven Corvus corax (308%), Buzzard Buteo buteo (150%) and Peregrine (700%). Numbers of Hen Harriers declined by 49%’

   ‘Changes in the abundance and distribution of upland breeding birds in the Berwyn special protection area, North Wales 1983 – 2002’ Philip Warren and David Baines

   Uncannily similar to results for the Langholm Estate after the end of driven grouse shooting there in 1998:

   http://www.langholmproject.com/otherwildlife.html

   Hen harrier numbers also then fell off a cliff, see fig. 1 of this reference:

   https://www.gwct.org.uk/wildlife/research/birds/raptors/hen-harrier/hen-harriers-and-grouse/

   There is a lesson there for those who want to hear it.

4. Mark, by any chance are you aware of TV documentary programme, I think from the 1970s, which exposed raptor persecution on shooting estates? It showed trapped raptors flapping around after caught by the legs in pole traps. In fact, this is the first time I became aware of pole traps. I think it was likely World in Action, or Panorama, but I may be wrong.

   Not only did it make a very strong impression on me at the time, but it caused something of a scandal and public outcry. No one really knew this was still going on, and it had been presumed at the time that the persecution of raptors had ended with them being protected. I very clearly remember the excuse of shooting spokespeople at the time. They claimed that it was a few bad apples, left over from the days when killing raptors was legal. They claimed that modern shoot managers no longer believed it was necessary to kill raptors as part of game management. I vividly remember that the footage shown was on moorland, so likely grouse moor.

   It was after this event, that shooting interests started rebranding themselves as conservationists, and eventually changed the names of the organizations to include conservation in their name.

   Seeing this entirely changed my perception. I had initially wanted to be a gamekeeper when I left school, simply to work outside. And the impression created was all this bad stuff was in the past. However, I soon learned from this programme and other sources that this was just false.

   The reason I am so blunt over this, was because the lying of shooting interests was so cynical i.e. the claim that they no longer believed that raptor persecution was an essential part of grouse moor management. I forgot when and where, much later I learned that behind the scenes shooting interests had been lobby for the right to legally kill Hen Harriers. This was when it became apparent that the shooting lobby were deceitful liars. Not some of them, but most influential figures, because they all knew about this.

   If only a copy of this documentary could be found, and the press reaction at the time, it would be of great historical significance from a hindsight point of view.

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