Banning driven grouse shooting – we are in the end game

While we wait for the Petitions Committee to be formed anew after the general election, and then have a meeting, and then decide on when to debate this matter, the world must look like a hostile place for the grouse shooting industry. The recent floods point again to land use in the uplands needing to…

An interesting petition

This is, as it says, a petition to save the last known nesting site for Turtle Doves in Rye, Sussex. It’s worth signing even though loss of nest sites is not the most important thing affecting Turtle Doves across the UK. This very rapidly declining species is almost certainly declining because of intense farming rather…

An unresponsive MP

So far I have had no response from my MP to my letter to him of a month ago – see here. This is very disappointing and I hope it doesn’t mean that Mr Pursglove has a more sizable majority he is going to ignore his constituents… Note added later: A response arrived in the…

Hen Harrier Day 2020

Hen Harrier Days celebrate a fantastic bird and highlight the illegal persecution that it faces. They are a family occasion, a show of solidarity with nature and a call to action. The Hen Harrier is a rare native bird and it would be much commoner if we could end wildlife crime. Yet public awareness remains…

Letter to my MP

Dear Mr Pursglove I must write to congratulate you on your return as my MP and with a significantly increased majority. I voted for your main opponent in the election, Beth Miller, but I still wish you well in parliament. However, I do have several concerns about the direction that the Johnson government is going…

Campaign of the year

The Birdwatch Birders’ Choice nominations are published, and the closing date is the end of this month – click here. The short-listed nominations for Campaign of the Year are: #NetsDownForNature made a lot of useful noise and drew attention to the netting of trees, buildings, hedges back in the spring – it made a difference…

The final scores

If you signed this e-petition then ‘Thank you!’. If you signed it recently and haven’t clicked on the confirmation email you were sent then it might be worth finding it quickly (though it might already be too late). Here’s the list of constituencies with more than 200 signatures, an entirely random cut off point, with…

Closed – at 111,963 signatures

Well, that happened a bit earlier than I expected but all good things must come to an end. Many of you will have received the same email from the Petitions Committee that I did which included this message; The current Petitions Committee, the group of MPs who decide whether petitions are debated, won’t exist after…