The days of 13-15 May 2014 were very important in the genesis of our campaign to ban driven grouse shooting – you may recall that the first of three e-petitions was launched just two weeks later and that started the whole thing rolling. I wrote about those days in short summary in this blog (see…
Category: BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING
Hen Harrier missing over…guess what?…a grouse moor
The RSPB announced today that a young male Hen Harrier, fitted with a satellite transmitter as part of the Hen Harrier LIFE+ Project, has gone missing on a grouse moor in the Monadhliath Mountains, south-east of Inverness. The bird, named Elwood, was the only chick to fledge from a nest in Banffshire, which was being…
Fizz! Cheers M&S!!
Well, sometimes you need to celebrate, don’t you. And although I would normally go up market from this I did want to spend my money with M&S to mark their sensible change of mind over selling grouse meat in their stores this year. Although M&S do sell champagne in their stores, my local outlet doesn’t…
Letter to my MP
Dear Mr Pursglove Do you remember that e-petition on the parliament website which I have mentioned before? My e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting? Well, it has recently passed 100,000 signatures (with five weeks to go) and so it will be considered by the Petitions Committee on 6 September and is very likely to be…
And from George Monbiot…
In today’s Guardian, from George Monbiot: The grouse shooters aim to kill: the first casualty is the truth Crispin Odey, Ian Botham, the Daily Telegraph, Paul Dacre, the Daily Mail, Jonny Scott, Ian Gregory, YFTB, Richard Benyon and David Cameron – all in one article. Please remember to ask your friends to sign the e-petition…
Advance warning
I wrote to the HoC Petitions Committee to find out as much as I could about when our expected debate might take place. Here is their (very rapid) reply: Dr Avery, Thank you for your message. We are always here, even in the depths of August! The petition will…
That other petition
The Scottish Raptor Study Group petition to the Scottish parliament to bring in licensing of gamebird shooting is in its last few days (it closes next Monday). It has gathered nearly 5000 signatures online and there are more that have been collected on old-fashioned pieces of paper. That’s pretty good by the standards of these…
Countryfile last night
I didn’t watch Countryfile live last night as I was doing some work – but I caught up with it in the evening. I thought Bob Elliot from the RSPB was great (as always) and I also thought that the edit was fair. It was filmed on 28 July at Geltsdale in Cumbria (and the…
Those awkward Hen Harriers
OK let’s get back to Hen Harriers. Aren’t they lovely? Those who have been defending or promoting driven grouse shooting find Hen Harriers difficult to talk about. It will be interesting to see how much utter tripe some MPs may come up with in the debate we expect to see over the future of driven…
The not-so-talented Viscount Ridley
Matt Ridley and I were friends a long time ago, but we haven’t seen each other for quite a while, and although I would gladly share a bottle of claret with Matt, we might start talking politics, climate change or grouse moors and that might spoil the mood. I remember we had a very good…