I had a chat with Fieldsportschannel.tv ‘s Charlie Jacoby last week. I was lured to a field in Yorkshire en route to meeting Henry Morris and friends on their run across the moors.
I am, it seems, The Joker to ‘their’ Batman (which one is Batman then? Andrew Gilruth? Tim Bonner?) and the Vader to ‘their’ Yoda (which one is Yoda? Teresa Dent or maybe Matt Cross?).
Charlie jacoby seems quite a nice bloke – we got on just fine – but I did have to keep reminding him that in an interview he was supposed to ask me what I thought instead of telling me what I thought.
The comments below the piece show what a great thing it is to talk honestly and openly and answer questions – no-one believes you. Oh well …
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The comments below that video say everything you need to know about how vile and arrogant the shooting community is. They seem entirely rattled by your willingness to question clearly destructive practices. Well done.
You said Charlie Jacoby seemed like a nice bloke but to me he came across as pretty passive agressive on the video. The comments were good to read in that that indicated what we are dealing with!!!
Gerald – he’s the type of bloke who would be fine to spend an evening in a pub with – just like Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage. I wouldn’t necessarily vote for him (or them!)
I’ve just watched all of the interview/discussion. One thing that struck me immediately was the bad apple argument. Mark could have done better here not that the interviewer wanted him to. Its not just Hen harriers and their widespread disappearance which strongly supports the idea of lots of bad apples but the distribution of successful/ failing and currently vacant Peregrine sites on upland shooting estates shows the falsehood of the few bad apple argument even more. A question we cannot answer and the other side won’t or cannot either, is how many Peregrines are being killed annually to keep those many sites vacant or failing. One thing for sure it is not a few bad apples, the absence of Goshawks in our uplands away from large state owned forests is also telling, what an earth happens to all those presumably exported into the wider countryside young Goshawks? The natural mortality rate of young Hen Harriers is and has to be much lower than the 60-70% the game lobby think it is, it is much more likely to be in the region of 25-45%. Is there a harrier population in the UK that this can be true of——— NO!
Many of us would be prepared to accept the sort of shooting regime the interviewer would like us to think is current reality, with a little modification BUT WE KNOW this is currently a countryside MYTH.
I really enjoyed the interview and watched it all the way through. Whilst it came over that dear old Charlie appeared to be an affable chap it seemed that he continually tried to characterise your views, Mark, to fit his idea of what he thinks someone-like-you would have about people-like-him (and the things they do) and you had to spend quite alot of time putting him right. Further, the points he made were mostly based on conjecture and that people in the countryside should be left to manage the land in a way they saw fit (i.e., without ‘government control’) whereas the arguments you made were made were based on scientific evidence and the undeniable fact that taxpayers should have a say in how the countryside is managed since we pay for it. There is an interesting sociological aspect to this which I’m not really qualified to comment on but it strikes me as being somewhat similar to the Brexit debate. And I somehow suspect the views on either side of this particular conservation argument might also reflect support for either side of the Brexit argument too. (Ref the comments under the video on Youtube.) What will be interesting to see is how long the government is prepared to subsidise agriculture in a Brexit future (assuming it happens)(or how long Trump and his ilk will let us subsidise agriculture when we have a trade deal with the US). I suspect the countryside and the way it is managed might be facing a big shake-up. Whether this affects the shooting industry I am not sure but it will almost certainly affect uneconomic farming – which is most of the uplands.
I recommend watching 39.48 when Mark asks
‘would you like to get rid of gamekeepers who are breaking the law’
the interviewer answers
‘That…is…absolutely….[Shaking his head]…Everybody says that. ..We, we..we….every…every in shooting errr who says err who comes out and says says things err we do not support raptor persecution’.
Brilliant even without the shaking of the head!
Wish Mark has asked him as directly to explain the 10x fatality of HH on DGM.
I also wish Mark had asked him at 50.10 to explain the increase of zero to 20 pairs of Hen Harriers at Langholm. Mark answered his own question so let him off the hook.
I know it wasn’t Mark’s job to interview the interviewer and it may have been part of the agreement but it would have been fun to watch.
Apart from that wish , it was an absolutely brilliant interview.
The interviewer came across as not appreciating the splendour of any of our threatened birds of prey at all. I`m sick of hearing about “livelihoods in the rural economy” whilst turning a blind eye to the horrific persecution of native wildlife ,including hares. Wildlife can no longer be killed for fun or profit. I believe these “tradition dinosaurs” have had their day. Kill one thing and feed your family, but don`t slaughter animals for your pleasure.