There is a widespread belief among the population as a whole that MPs are ignorant wastrels. So give me your views on these proposed amendments to the Environment Bill, please. How far did you get? There is a lot of good stuff in here, little of which will probably get adopted by government. Did you…
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When will the shooting industry get the message?
Following The Times‘s support for the RSPB’s moderate shuffle forward on gamebirds along comes The Guardian too. Maybe less surprising that the Guardian thinks that greater regulation is all very sensible – but they are right. Some quotes: Since some of the damage to wildlife associated with the dramatic recent intensification of shooting is widely…
Heading to 60,000 signatures
The Wild Justice Badger e-petition is heading for 60,000 signatures. I always think that’s a more useful milestone than 50,000. At forty-something thousand, people think you’re halfway there, and at 50,000 you are, and then at fifty-something thousand it still feels as if you are ‘about halfway’. But at 60,001 there are ‘only’ 39,999 signatures…
The RSPB and lead ammunition
The RSPB’s statements at the weekend have wrapped up within them a return to a publicly prominent position on lead ammunition. This must partly be because Debbie Pain is now an RSPB Council member. Since Debbie and I (in our previous existences) wrote to the Labour ministers in 2009 calling for a review of the…
The RSPB and burning in the uplands
The RSPB believes that; … new laws backed up by tougher enforcement will be needed to end … vegetation burning on peatlands. These practices are entirely incompatible with the imperative to address the climate and ecological emergency and there are perfectly practical alternatives. https://community.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/b/martinharper/posts/outcome-of-the-rspb-s-review-of-gamebird-shooting-and-associated-land-management DEFRA is dragging its feet on this matter and the long-awaited England Peat Strategy…