Ban driven grouse shooting

18 Replies to “Ban driven grouse shooting”

1. will we have any publicity at birdfair?.. get me a card to hand to folk and I’ll help hand them out……….

2. I don’t think the LibDems have much of a policy on Driven Grouse Shooting do they? May be it’s time they did?

3. All very interesting to myself as well. It is not surprising that rural people support a ban. The other thing that interests me is the fate of the petition. I’ve signed, of course, But let’s think what is going to happen. I hope that there will, after some wrangling and other things which cannot be as yet determined, be a general election. The petition will be shelved because of the general election, and I find it hard to see how it could get to parliament beforehand due to the mess the government and people in this country have allowed themselves to get into. We’ll have to do it all again, but this may force the parties to state their official view on banning, and they will certainly be asked before an election.
   Interesting, indeed.

   1. Alex – I’ve given up predicting things like that! Let’s get to 40,000 by 11am (or soon after) and 100,000 in August (that must be possible) and then see. You never know, we may get a response from Defra very soon – but that certainly isn’t a prediction.

      1. Wow. Good estimate. 40,000 at 11.00!! Great momentum.

         1. Chris – yes I was watching too from a Waitrose car park! Just after by phone clicked to 11:00. It’s nice to get some things right. The pace has slowed now and it probably will slow further over the weekend although the Bird Fair may well help move it on a bit for next week. These things are difficult to predict because hardly anyone has perfect knowledge of what has happened so far. Very happy so far, though.

      2. Our grandfather clock struck 11 as 40k rolled past – well-predicted!

         1. Lyn – grandfathers are very reliable, I find.

4. Now there’s a rather strange thing. I noticed that the Bristol West constituency of Thangam Debbonaire MP is very high up on the list especially for an urban seat that’s nowhere near grouse moors. The first time I did the petition to get an economic study of DGS I noticed there was a Bristol constituency which shone way, way above the rest. I assumed this would be Kerry McCarthy’s one and she’d been giving it a bit of a plug. Not so, she’s in the neighbouring constituency. The petition finished with Thangam’s patch having 38 signees and Kerry’s 11!!! So that’s approximately a 3.5 fold difference between two adjoining constituencies that I suspect have demographically, socially or politically very little difference between them. Imagine if we could find what the secret ingredient is in Bristol West and add it to all our other urban areas? Methinks there’s a particularly energetic individual or group there who/which doesn’t like grouse moors probably. Maybe the local branch of Labour or some other party sent a strong message to supporters to get behind these petitions? Intriguing and potentially very useful to know the answer.

   1. Les – as Bristolian, and having lived in both constituencies (and Bristol South) at various times in my early life, there is a massive difference between the two constituencies in what we could call social class. The secret ingrediet isn’t very secret – it’s how many middle class people there are.

      1. This constitunecy difference is probably down to both middle and professional classes… similarly, Cambridge and south Cambridgeshire constituencies score highly on Marks petition, (and on remain-type eu stuff)… because although its quite rural, a lot of the villages comprise professionals and middle class educated folk who follow and understand this sort of stuff.. compare Hunts and east Cambs, far fewer cambridge professional commuters.

      2. Thanks for putting me straight Mark I know you’re a Bristolian and although I lived in Gloucester for six years I only got down to Bristol twice (to my regret) so could only say I suspected they were similar, knew you’d have a point to make! However, both still Labour constituencies and I would imagine there are a lot of similar ones demographically, so why such a big difference even so? I know Kerry McCarthy spoke up at the parliamentary ‘debate’ about BDGS and she was kind enough to email me back last year when I asked for support about the grouse moor economics petition, but in comparison to Thangam’s constituency her’s was very poor re signatures – doesn’t she ask local LP activists to sign relevant petitions given her very critical stance on grouse moors and shooting? If I were Kerry McCarthy I’d be somewhat embarrassed the neighbouring constituency repeatedly outstripped mine in support of petitions on matters that were supposed to be significant personal concerns. Still querying this, but one thing Labour seem to be one hell of a lot better at public gestures than behind the scenes support.

         1. The Green Party has traditionally done well in Bristol West. It was one of their targeted seats in the last general election.

   2. Using the results of the recent European elections to estimate and map the number of votes per Westminster constituency Prof. Chris Hanretty’s estimates suggest that Kerry McCarthy’s Bristol East would have been won by the Brexit Party while Thangam Debbonaire’s Bristol West would be a gain for the Green party.

      https://medium.com/@chrishanretty/ep2019-results-mapped-onto-westminster-constituencies-8a2a6ed14146

      1. Thanks, not entirely surpised. I know that Bristol had a rather progressive conservation and environmental scene – was a front runner in the field of urban conservation. I also visited a recycling project there in 1989 and was impressed by a neighbouring scrap store where people would come to collect ‘waste’ items that were safe to use in children’s playgroups. It was like watching a surreal statement on consumerism to see people pushing old supermarket trolleys down aisles and inspecting wonky cardboard tubes, badly moulded bits of plastic etc, then put them in the the trolley. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s something a bit extra special about Bristol West, interesting place Bristol.

5. A few thoughts on Bristol West and Grouse shooting:
   * As a voter in Bristol West I believe the constituency has a reputation as having the highest number of constituents with degrees and post 18 qualifications in the country. As a result they are pretty well-informed.
   * I have found when I ask people to sign the petition they are pretty well aware of Raptor persecution and are more than eager to do what they can, even if it’s only to sign a petition.
   *I made a real effort to ask people to sign in the last petition and got a brilliant response, the response is even better this time.
   *I wrote to Thangam Debbonnaire to speak at the Parliamentary debate, she said she would try, but that was the last I heard. The Green Party is now polling very highly in Bristol West coincidentally. As far as I am aware the Labour Party has done nothing to raise the profile of Raptor persecution in Bristol West.
   *As a volunteer with Avon Wildlife Trust I’ve found it particularly easy to get fellow volunteers to sign the petition and ask them to approach partners, families and friends to do likewise. I would urge others to do the same.

   1. Andrew – brilliant, thank yu for your first comment here.

   2. So it looks like the very high number of signatures in Bristol West has a lot to do with you! Cheers Andrew, from my perspective up in Scotland the situation looks very intriguing.

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