Further communication this week in an attempt to encourage the conservation bodies to promote the Parliamentary debate on Grouse Shooting....
The RSPB campaigns manager told me she completely understood why I was disappointed in the RSPB's failure to encourage members to write to their MPs about this. Not sure where that leaves us.
The Cumbria WT have yesterday tweeted and posted on Facebook to ask members to write to MPs - this is good but rather 'buried' - not quite hitting the headlines ! They have had 'robust' discussion with the Moorland Association about raptor persecution - this is good !
The oral evidence session yesterday in preparation for the debate was a mixed bag. Jeff Knott spoke well but he was 'off message' with regard to the the central tenet of the petition - how did that happen ? Promoting licensing of Grouse Shooting seems a strange stance to take after the RSPB did not support the petition for that. Jeff Knott blogged about the session and suggested writing to MPs in advance of the debate - good but it needed some 'digging' to find it. Mark Avery was good but given a rough time by the MPs, one of whom is former Countryside Alliance director !!
The Countryside Alliance and Moorland Association provided 'evidence' for the other side. This was insubstantial, anecdotal and of questionable validity. The MPs gave them a pretty soft ride.
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