Yesterday, in London, I spent my time with an Indian conservationist, a former colleague from the RSPB, a former Labour Minister, a Turner Prize winner, an expert on marine conservation, a former Greenpeace director, a Hen Harrier enthusiast, a journalist, an employee of WWF-UK and a talented singer. Sounds like I had a busy day…
Category: BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING
19000 signatures – thank you.
Another milestone passed – our (for there are 18,999 of you and only one of me) e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting today passed the 19,000 signature mark. I would like to thank all who have signed and all who have promoted this e-petition. This latest 1000 has taken just under a month to achieve…
What they say
I’ve had a reasonable, in an unreasonable sort of way, amount of abuse over my position that we should ban driven grouse shooting. Most of it is anonymous, most of it on Twitter, and almost all of it from people who have a tiny Twitter following. This reassures me that the people who don’t like…
The non-joint non-plan is still a non-joint non-plan.
I have had a response (Tuesday evening) from Defra to my request for information on the Hen Harrier Sub-group. Most of it is a series of e-mails trying to fix dates for meetings but there are just a few interesting bits too. The information will also be published on www.govuk – good luck to you…
Something from Defra
I had a response (yesterday evening) from Defra to my request for information on the Hen Harrier Sub-group. Most of it is a series of e-mails trying to fix dates for meetings but there are just a few interesting bits too. The information will also be published on www.govuk – good luck to you if…
Guest blog – Birders Against Wildlife Crime by Charlie Moores
A little over two years ago I interviewed a certain Dr Mark Avery for a podcast. Mark had prepared a list of ’10 things we can all do to become activists’, and it had some inspiring sentences written into it. Perhaps not ‘Ask not what your country can do for you‘ inspiring, but practical, sensible,…
Natural England coming clean, at last, on Hen Harrier tracking data.
Natural England has just published some of its data (that I believe we paid for – as taxpayers) on satellite-tagged Hen Harriers. This is to be welcomed as what can possibly be gained by keeping secret data that in some cases are seven years old? It’s not exactly data of the quality of those published…
Guest Blog – There is nothing Green about these Country ‘Sports’ by Caroline Allen of the Green Party
Caroline Allen is a practising vet and the Green Party Spokesperson on Animals as well as Co-Chair of London Green Party. Caroline has worked on many animal-protection issues, most recently campaigning against the badger cull, expansion of factory farming and the overuse of antibiotics in animal farming. Shooting birds such as grouse and pheasants is…
A few things
Here are a few things in brief: the farmland bird index declined in 2013 (as predicted here) – and to their lowest level ever. You are living in a country with fewer farmland birds than at any time in your life. Doesn’t it make you feel good? I’ll blog in more detail on this next…
Margate and more
Yesterday I went to Margate. I went to other places too, but I went to Margate. It was a funny day in a way – it had elements of looking backwards as well as living in the moment and a bit of looking forward. I woke early, I often do, and that made the rest…