80,000 signatures and suspending parliament

13 Replies to “80,000 signatures and suspending parliament”

1. I was planning to put your poster in my local bird hide and will now overprint it with a message about the 12 September deadline.

2. You are a cad Sir! Yesterday I was celebrating the fact that Louth and Horncastle had reached your required 154 only to find you have now moved the goalpost to 200!

   1. Paul – well done Louth and Horncastle on 159. Corby (my constituency) is on 170!

      1. And my dads bigger than your dad 🙂

3. Sadly and in spite of my efforts, my constituency (Plymouth Sutton & Devonport) is lagging behind. I have contacted my MP (Luke Pollard, who is in the Shadow Defra team) and asked him to put the link on his social media platforms. As a member, I wish the RSPB would support this.

4. The rate of signing has certainly decreased recently but I guess that was inevitable after all the ‘clued up’ had signed. Also, was the last petition really in 2016? It seems more recent than that, and certainly does to the people I asked to sign back then.
   Last week was spent ‘oop north’ on holiday with six close friends. We are now so used to the phrase ‘Ban DGS’ that we use it glibly, without much thought, but I found that the sticking point was that word Ban. It’s a very emotive word.
   To ban something, you are taking away the liberty of some other group to carry on enjoying that which they have enjoyed in the past.
   If you ask for a ban, your case has to be rock solid. A good example would be the ban on smoking in pubs.
   I think our case is rock solid, but getting that across to intelligent people takes much time I find.
   ‘Isn’t there a compromise?’ ‘Can’t you talk to the other side?’ ‘Hasn’t the landscape always been like this?’ ‘If landowners and their staff were as bad as you say, they’d all be in prison.’
   You can’t answer these arguments quickly. You can’t force everyone to read ‘Inglorious’. And even if you did, it’s only one man’s opinion. But the final, ‘You’ve already had one debate, what’s the point of another?’ gets you into the Richard Benyon, Theresa Coffey discussion and bang goes another day and another case of wine.
   Yes, they have all signed, as they did last time, but the map clearly shows that people from our largest cities have more on their mind than DGS and need a lot of convincing.
   After all, it’s much better that people sign because they want to, after understanding the issues, rather than just because a friend is badgering them to do so.
   Time to invite a friend over for glass or three.
   We are a nation of animal lovers, 85% are in favour of the ban on fox hunting. We can do this!

   1. To nick-pick, Inglorious is not what i would call an opinion. It is a compilation of facts leading to an inevitable conclusion that no one has been able to debunk successfully. The conclusion of a scientific paper based on facts is hardly an opinion although occasionally it contains what i would call opinions as in GWCT studies.

      1. More importantly perhaps, even if were an opinion, it isn’t ‘one man’s opinion’ it is the ‘opinion’ of numerous researchers referenced in the book. Sorry for being a pedant.

         1. Anand, you are quite right of course, but I was putting the case as it may seem to those who don’t know much/anything about DGS. Recent talks with some intelligent friends has bought home how little is known about this subject in our cities.
            We need more coverage where it counts, and quickly.
            And no, they are not my dislikes! 🙂

            1. Thanks Paul, i didn’t think they were. They are just that gamekeeper who dislikes everything. We must be driving him mad.
               I got a copy of Inglorious to a shooter i know via his sympathetic father but doubt he has read it. He is a shooter who is part of a syndicate with green credentials. He met Mark once. But he doesn’t believe that persecution is as big as we say and this is a good guy whose whole profession is built on eco ideals. He has moved to Scotland so i am curious to see if he wakes up. As you say you can’t force anyone. I have offered to send one to my sisters MP in Bowland but didn’t get a clear reply.
               Maybe we need an equivalent of the Independence Wee Blue Book (72p). Inglorious condensed to its core, less than 100 pages.

      2. Nit-wit, nit-pick.

5. I see Frankie Boyle posted 2 tweets from Chris Packham about the petition, both on the 14th.
   Frankie Boyle has 2.73m followers!

6. Mark, have you not realised they are suspending parliament not to ensure a no deal BREXIT but to shut your petition down.
   Hence Royal approval

   Heavens forbid they would do such a thing.

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