Countryside Alliance News Release
MPs call for ban on game shooting
There is no shortage of organisations and individuals justifying their existence by taking pot-shots at the fieldsports community, but an uncomfortably high number of shooters insist there is no direct political threat to shooting. Given the outrageous amount of time wasted on devising unworkable and illiberal anti-hunting legislation, many wrongly assumed there is little appetite to launch an attack on shooting. How wrong could they be?
A recent Early Day Motion (EDM) put down by Labour MP David Taylor reads as follows: ''That this House notes that every year in Britain around 35 million pheasants and six million partridges are purpose bred in cages, sheds and pens so that they can be released and shot for sport; is concerned about the suffering endured by these birds and by the large number of indigenous wild mammals and birds that are trapped, snared, poisoned and shot to protect this activity; is alarmed by the thousands of tons of leadshot and plastic casings discharged annually by live quarry shooters, and also by the disruption caused to native wildlife at the start of each shooting season when the millions of pheasants and partridges are released; and calls on the Government to enact legislation at the earliest opportunity to prohibit the production of birds for sport shooting, in line with the ban introduced in Holland in 2002.'
It must be said that EDMs simply allow MPs to express their support for an issue. However, I find it extremely disturbing - but not surprising - that at the time of writing 65 MPs have signed Mr Taylor's EDM. That means more than 10% of MPs currently sitting in the House of Commons want to ban game shooting. While one Conservative MP, Ann Widdecombe, has signed along with a few Liberal Democrats, the majority of signatories are Labour MPs.
There are some Labour MPs, such as our own chairman, who support shooting, but it is an unavoidable fact that this is a predominantly Labour-driven EDM. I doubt the signatories have read Labour's Charter for Shooting (or even know it exists) and perhaps they have forgotten Labour's Manifesto commitment to protect shooting. It all reminds me of the desperate clamour by many MPs during the pre-hunt ban period when they attempted to convince the shooting community that their sport would be safe with Labour - it was only hunting they were after, they said. Yet since 1997, during the time it took to cook up a single piece of legislation on hunting, almost 30 laws were passed restricting shooting in one form or another.
It cannot be long before a private member's bill is introduced which calls for the ban on driven game shooting. While most of them fail and it is easy to be dismissive of EDMs, the shooting community should not forget the consistent annual bombardment of Parliament by MPs launching private members bills to ban hunting. Eventually they wore down a hostile House of Commons. They could do it again.
BASC Director of Communications, Christopher Graffius:
"BASC is never complacent about the political threats to shooting, but it is important to be clear sighted about the level of threat. EDMs are a form of parliamentary graffiti - they have no government support and are never debated. This EDM was tabled, probably at the instigation of an 'anti' organisation, in the early summer. The names of the signatories are all the old suspects.
“The fact that only 10 per cent of the current House of Commons have bothered to sign this motion is reassuring and a tribute to the work we've done informing and educating MPs about shooting. So why is this old motion being pushed at the shooting community now? The answer, I suspect, lies in party interest and the proximity of the general election. It has always been BASC's belief that the interests of the shooting community are not served by playing party politics but securing all party support - as we have - for our sport."
Christopher Graffius
You can find out if your MP has signed up to Mr Taylor's EDM by visiting:
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=38871&SESSION=899
You can then make your views known both directly to the MP and at the General Election.
Simon Hart
Chief Executive, Countryside Alliance