There is a ridiculous article in The Field, penned by Andrew Gilruth of GWCT, which starts with the sentence ‘Our raptors arguably live in a golden age’ which sets a new standard for nonsense, even from the once rather impressive, and now rather irrelevant folk in Fordingbridge.
Chipping in, in the race for the most ludicrous comment, is Amanda Anderson who claims that brood meddling, which wasn’t carried out anywhere in 2018, ‘has played a central part in this year’s [Hen Harrier] success story’. Yeh right!
Tempting though it is to take the article apart line by silly line, this would be a waste of effort.
Utter tosh!
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They remind me so much of the Israelis and their supporters,lie upon lie repeated because if they admitted the truth they would be finished. Pure propaganda for the uninformed.
Comparing the clever Israelis with our relatively dim shooting fraternity is dodgy.
There are large sections of Israeli society (Jewish and Arab Israelis together) campaigning for the Palestinian cause. There are no equivalent activist groups within the world of field sports fighting against raptor persecution.
Utter tosh indeed but unfortunately the readers of the field will all believe it and their belief that pressure from conservationists is just part of a sinister politically motivated conspiracy will be reinforced.
I don’t know if you saw these recently but I was interested to see that Lord Birt is taking an interest “to ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to counter the unlawful killing of hen harriers”
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2019-01-07.HL12536.h&s=hen+harrier#gHL12536.q0
Also Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP appears to be concerned how Hen Harriers are faring on RSPB-managed land; perhaps she’s thinking of volunteering as a nest monitor?
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2018-12-18.203413.h&s=hen+harriers#g203413.q0
Thanks Jeff, very interesting, and a strangely useful answer from Therese Coffey. The answer from Lord Gardiner of Kimble gets us back to brood meddling.
Better leave that subject until we hear from Mark, and then the result of the Judicial review. Everything crossed.
Utter and complete rubbish indeed. However the rather scary thing is that if rubbish is repeated enough times people start to believe it. So those that are angry about all this must speak out. We must not fall into into the trap of doing nothing.
Is said guff online, Mark?
These people need saving from themselves.
Every time I hear these completely false arguments from the shooting lobby I wonder what the hell is going on. Are they just trolling us? Are they just complete strangers to the truth? Is it some sort of attempted rallying call to their own supporters? Is it part of some sophisticated propaganda exercise, a sort of psyops operation? Overall, what lies behind it.
This is because to the informed, the expert, they just wonder why is this person lying to me? Do they mistakenly think they are very clever, or that I am very stupid and gullible?
However, let’s get one thing very clear, we do know they are lying to us, and whilst they continue to do this, we cannot take anything they say seriously, and they have zero credibility.
They are not trying to convince us, they know we know they are incorrigible liars, it is however human nature to believe people in your “interest ” group so they are making sure the ” Shooting lobby” are all on board and none are seduced by the truth.
” Is it part of some sophisticated propaganda exercise, a sort of psyops operation?”
Hilarious, especially considering you were the one who announced to the world you had been subject to psyops operations with your phone being hacked, together with infiltration and infection of your PC by unknown sources!