Countryside Alliance Crew

To quote Jeremy Clarkson, I went on the internet and I found this...



I don't suppose the Countryside Alliance are thrilled at the use of their name - and the Crew themselves say plainly "the CAC have bugger all to do with the Countryside Alliance". Still, it gave me a laugh. This one's worth a listen too:

Winterising the ferrets

I've been adding some insulation to the ferrets' hutch, in preparation for the colder weather. I haven't tried this stuff before, but it looks good - it's sold as loft insulation, and it consists of a kind of bubble wrap with plasticised foil on both sides. I've put a double layer around the ferrets' sleeping box, and also wrapped it round the water bottles in an attempt to stop them freezing.

It seems like amazing stuff - should come in handy for all sorts of other things too, like a groundsheet in a tent, and a reflector for photography. There's still plenty left on the £10 roll I bought, so I'll give it a try. The only likely problem I can see is if it doesn't stand up well to the weather. It feels robust enough, but plastic can degrade quickly in sunlight. We'll see.

Watch out, Avery's aiming at pheasants

It pays to keep an eye on the blog of RSPB conservation director Mark Avery. When he innocently muses about some aspect of shooting, it probably means "Oo, I've just thought of another way to attack shooters."

Back in July 2009 he blogged about his rising concern about lead residues in game meat. By October that year, he was stirring up seven shades of you-know-what by writing to Defra, with a particularly weaselly letter - resulting in the formation of the Lead Ammunition Group.

Now he's running a new one up the flagpole: pheasants as a 'non-native' species. "I wonder how much the increase in some predator numbers is fuelled by this meat bonanza?" he asks disingenuously, taking a swipe at "big-shoot days where huge numbers of pheasants are released" while he's at it. (Actually the GWCT already has the answers to most of his questions).

I find the whole native/non-native species argument a ridiculous nonsense anyway. Who's to say which species 'deserve' to be here in the UK, based on whose assessment of which politically-correct moment in history we had the 'perfect' balance of wildlife? And how can this possibly be relevant to a landscape shaped by man since history began? Far too often the definition of 'native' or 'non-native' seems designed to support one organisation's point of view - the latest row over eagle owls is a case in point.

But leaving all that aside, what really bothers me is what devious new attack on shooting Avery is cooking up.

Another Commonwealth gold for our shooters

England's shooters are really doing rather well in Delhi. Following our earlier successes, now Aaron Heading has taken gold in the men's single trap. Report in the Telegraph here.

A scientist told me, so it must be true

'Science' is pulled out with a flourish like a trump card by people telling me things I find hard to believe. Like killing badgers won't help beat TB. Or spiralling raptor numbers are no threat to anything. Or we're all doomed, the planet is going to burst into flames and it's all my fault because I eat meat.

But if the scientists say so, I suppose it must be true.

Except, it seems that the 'consensus' on Global Warming is no such thing. One of America's leading physicists has resigned, calling the whole thing a scam. He goes further. It is, he says: "the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist".

Someone should tell the RSPB. They've done very nicely thank you out of the climate change scam for years. If it's all about to come unravelled, they should start looking for another bandwagon.

Can I have my vote back please?

Oh dear! It seems my local MP Dominic Raab and his chums are the driving force behind the Conservatives Against Fox Hunting group (whose website's main argument against repealing the Act seems to be that it would bring back hare coursing). Local Conservative Association chairman Chris Platt and his wife Lorraine apparently founded the group. Worse still, at the party conference Dominic shared a platform with Douglas Batchelor of the League Against Cruel Sports. To think I voted for Raab because he said he supported shooting!

In fact, I dug out the email conversation from January. I wrote to Raab saying:

"...I wonder if you could take a moment to clarify your position on shooting and other "field sports". As a lifelong shooter, and someone who earns a living editing a shooting magazine, I would hate to vote for an anti!"

And he replied:

 

"Thanks for your email. I support shooting sports conducted according to the relevant codes of practice. The Party has given various disciplines of the sport backing in recent years, including setting out plans to amend the law to ensure that all competitive target pistol shooters can train and compete in this country.

 

I hope that gives you the reassurance you are looking for!

 

Best wishes,

 

Dominic"

 

...which doesn't sound to me like "I'm a huge fan of the League Against Cruel Sports and plan to support their campaign to retain the Hunting Act." But then I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to politics.

Well done Abbey & Anita!

England's Abbey Burton and Anita North have won silver in the women's trap pairs at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi; they were two points behind the Australian pair, and one ahead of the Canadians.

Full marks to the Daily Mail for reporting their success, and resisting any temptation to take a snide dig at shooting - except they illustrated the piece on their website with a photo of a .22LR target rifle, captioned "Happiness is a warm gun"! Someone in their picture department needs to brush up on their shooting knowledge. (They updated the page later with a photo of the winning trapshooters)

Do you think the TV coverage of shooting at the Commonwealth Games has been rubbish? If so, you're not alone - and Nicky from Oxford Gun has set up a Facebook group called Fair coverage for Clay Shooting on TV to campaign for an improvement. She wants shooters to follow her lead and email the BBC and ITV to demand proper coverage for shooting. "Quite frankly I don't care that swimmers have got diarrhoea issues," she writes. "You may have issues with Clay Shooting as a sport but there are thousands of people out there who would like to know their progress."

Hear hear!