It feels a bit like the eve of a mighty victory. At the battle of Agincourt, the English and Welsh plebeian archers (plebs – the common people, not a perjorative term) gave a metaphorical and actual two fingers to the toffs (a mildly derogatory term for the landed gentry but actually merely a term for…
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What a glorious Inglorious 12th
We started the day in the 86,000s and we will end the day in the 96,000s or higher. Have you heard? There’s an e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting. Please sign it.
BTO Press release
Sir Ian Botham told the world on the Today programme about a grouse moor, surveyed by the BTO that had oodles and oodles of Lapwing, Curlew and Golden Plover. Apparently the BTO knows nothing about it… British Trust for Ornithology Press Statement – Pennine Grouse Moor survey report A bird survey that was reported to…
Guardian gets it right
Experienced journalist John Vidal calls it right in the Guardian on the attacks on Chris Packham by YFTB. ‘Adding to the shooters’ pain is a parliamentary e-petition that has more than 89,000 signatures calling for an end to the sport. Not since foxhunting with dogs was threatened with legislation in the 1990s has a country…
Flock back to M&S, grouse over
M&S will not stock grouse meat this year. Phew! I’ve been missing shopping in M&S. I may buy a bottle of their champagne to celebrate. In a statement posted on their corporate blog M&S say that they will not stock grouse because there aren’t enough of them on the estate which they intend to use…
Look in to the Mirror
I can go for weeks at a time without remembering that the Daily Miror still exists – but it has done us proud this week. Yesterday there was this piece on grouse shooting. Today there was this authored by Chris Packham. Doesn’t he look so out of date with that placard with the number 73,316…
Even the Telegraph…
Just look at the tone and content of this piece in the Daily Telegraph – it’s not exactly like previous years is it? We did that. No really – it was us. Sign up to ban driven grouse shooting – what day could be a better one than the Inglorious 12th – and help us…
Why driven grouse shooting is doomed
I’m quite often asked whether I really want a ban on driven grouse shooting – I do! And then I’m sometimes told that ‘It’ll never happen’ and I say ‘It will’. This is why. Let’s start with the very obvious, but rarely stated, fact that driven grouse shooting is not essential. We don’t need it….
What I said on Farming Today
Yesterday I took part in a discussion with Andrew Gilruth of GWCT for this morning’s BBC Farming Today programme. Our discussion followed nearly four minutes (3:42 I make it) of a positive piece about grouse moor management with the Chair of the Moorland Association and a gamekeeper. There then followed a four minute discussion. Of…
Golden Eagles disappear too – mostly over grouse moors
RSPB press release: RSPB Scotland has issued an appeal for information following the disappearance of another young golden eagle, the eighth of this species to vanish in the same area in less than five years. The young female golden eagle, named Brodie, hatched two years ago and was fitted with a satellite transmitter shortly before…