Back in July a botanist friend from New Zealand came to stay. Anne, my guest, wanted to visit Hay-on-Wye for the books and to see some floral sights in Wales, so we spent a few days roaming around. Hay’s bookshops did not disappoint but I am not sure I can say the same for the…
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Listen again to Farming Today
Farming Today last Saturday morning had a discussion about shooting between Andrew Gilruth of GWCT and Pat Thompson of RSPB. Pat did very well but it’s more interesting to listen to Gilruth I think. He rarely answers the question. He reminds me so much of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s performance in Parliament yesterday evening – smooth, unruffled,…
Where we stand
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The ban driven grouse shooting e-petition is the thirteenth best supported of all the 2187 open e-petitions on the Westminster parliament website – that is, it has the thirteenth highest number of signatures. Here is the list with the title, the number of signatures earlier today, the dates when it appeared and when, in theory…
Look what we’ve done now – revisited
This is a blog I posted soon after the result of the EU referendum in June 2016. I think it stands re-reading. How will it all play out now? I went to bed worried on Thursday night (or was it Friday morning?) having heard the first few referendum results, and woke to be devastated by…
Wilful blindness continues, completely unabated
Here is an annotated (in bold and italics) copy of the government response to the phenomenally popular petition by Chris Packham to ban driven grouse shooting (see here). Basically, Defra maintains its wilful blindness of the issues and their responsibility to solve them. Grouse shooting is a legitimate activity [only in the sense of being…
A momentous day in parliament?
Today may be a momentous day in the Westminster Parliament but not because of the days spent toiling over the crafting of a response to the Wild Justice e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting. The response is the usual old guff, presumably signed off by Therese Coffey, and can be read on the petition site,…
Garden birds August 2019
August is a month of disappearing Swifts although I sometimes see them over the garden into September. The latest record so far this year has been 27 August. I wonder whether there will be any more over the next few days. If not, it’ll be about 8 months until I can look up from the…
The RSPB has a problem over its position on driven grouse shooting
Here are three somewhat disguised but accurate quotes from RSPB local groups on the subject of driven grouse shooting: I am Group Leader for the ******* Group. I have been an RSPB member for [decades] and a volunteer for [decades]. However, I struggle to see how DGS as a licenced activity would enhance biodiversity, combat…
Ban driven grouse shooting – 102,000 signatures
Here’s the ever-growing list of constituencies with more than 200 signatures already: Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, Drew Hendry MP (SNP), 467 signatures Calder Valley, Craig Whittaker MP (Con), 452 signatures High Peak, Ruth George MP (Lab), 445 signatures Bristol West, Thangam Debbonaire MP (Lab), 396 signatures Sheffield Hallam, Jared O’Mara MP (Ind), 386 signatures…
100,000 signatures in 20 days
The significance of the 100,000 signatures for a ban on driven grouse shooting in a UK e-petition are various. And they come not so much because of the number of supporters but even more so in the speed of that support. 100,000 signatures inside 20 full days is impressive by any standards. It is impressive…