Back in April they said this – we’re going to have a rally.
And they had help, advice and support from the Countryside Alliance, the National Gamekeepers Organisation (I always want to put the apostrophe in there, but they don’t…) and BASC (but it’s not just shooters, oh no!)
And they did get a crowd of 250 perhaps…
… on a stinking hot day after the general licences has been revoked, partly reissued by Natural England and reissued by Defra.
I applaud anyone who gets off their backsides and organises anything. And it’s a nerve-wracking thing, organising any event. So hats off to these two blokes.
I wonder what the crowd will be like at Hen Harrier Day on Sunday 11 August at Carsington Water, Derbyshire. All welcome, if they support the ending of illegal persecution of Hen Harriers. It’s not as big an issue as ‘the countryside’ but it matters to some of us.
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Hi Mark – what’s the latest with the further general licences related legal challenges from WJ? I haven’t seen anything put out by WJ or you, unless ive missed it?
Also haven’t seen you comment on the Governments response to the general licence call for evidence? Sorry if I mistaken – I’m keen to get your view.
S – the absolute latest on the general licence challenges is that we ahve been waiting ofr NE and Defra to respond and we are having a phone conference with our lawyers tomorrow where we will have to decide some stuff. And then, at some stage, we’ll let you know.
Thanks Mark
“What are we going to do the weekend now we can’t shoot pigeons?” Nice touch slipping in that Wilding book at 1 53. Suppose you and yer mates could try reading that instead.
It’s baffling that these people claim to have ‘no voice’. Apart from having the same right as anyone else to march in London, write to the press, publish a blog, etc, etc, the self-appointed guardians of ‘country ways’ also have their own specialist magazines, sympathetic friends in large sections of the general press and the ear of ministers and other prominent politicians. Presenting themselves as voiceless victims is basically a disreputable ploy to try and win the sympathy of the uninformed.
As Mark says, organising any event is difficult enough( ask my missus, we’ve just had our village fair), and your always on a hiding to nothing.
However, this seems a far cry from the glory days of the Hyde Park rally of 1997, and the Liberty and Livelihood march, five years later.
Happy memories, and I’ve still got all the badges, though little good it did in the end.