United we stand...?

O

oakash

Well-Known Member
Joined
27 July 2007
Messages
216
Visit site
Reading through the 'deer' thread on here, it occurred to me - as it has to many others over the past 10 or 15 years, that if we could all stand together on the subject of field sports, no government would ever be able to touch us. Imagine ALL anglers, All hunting people, ALL shooting people,ALL falconers, ALL coursers saying to a government hell-bent on restricting liberty: 'Hands off all our sports'. Touch one and you touch ALL ; we will not allow it to happen.' Wouldn't that be wonderful? It didn't work before, but aren't we all wiser now? Come on Claire - you seem to me to be just the one to run this one..?!
 
Crazy isn't it? We are all in this together but people are too blinkered to see it and love moaning too much about everyone else's past times to pull together. The shooting brigade as individuals have been pretty supportive of hunting over the years despite the sports' differing interests, but the main shooting body had 'issues' for years. Anglers seem to have been generally 'anti' because they were too scared of their sport being seen as a 'blood sport' too. I wrote to Angling Times I think it was, many years ago, pointing out the threat from the 'Campaign for the Abolition of Angling' (Pisces) and the fact that the hunt sabs were starting to sab angling too - but I don't think many took note. I did have an angling friend who helped out though. Also, too many foxhunters have condemned staghunting/coursing without actually learning about these sports. Mind you, everyone did pull together for the Countryside Marches and we still got sh*fted!!
 
Last edited:
Totally agree with Oakash, we all have to work together. Hunting has been at the brunt of the battle to save country sports for decades, which makes it easier for those who solely shoot, take part in falconry or fish to say we're all right, they'll never touch us. Quite frankly the promise from Martin Salter on shooting isn't worth the paper it is written on.

Recent Early Day Motions show gathering support for further restrictions on shooting whether that is cage rearing for gamebirds or a levy on poults. Now more than ever is the time for every country sports participant to forget what has happened in the past with the BFSS or the early days of the CA and come together to fight for what we believe in.

We all need to be singing from the same song sheet. Comments from the Hawk Board have been less than helpful to those doing their best to keep hunting going forward. I like to think that if the boot had been on the other foot and falconry had been banned with the exception of using hounds to flush quarry we wouldn't have been seeking to stick the knife in.

We need to learn from the mistakes of the hunting campaign, work towards repeal and most importantly of all use our resources wisely to make a difference. I can see little point in BASC duplicating the work of Vote OK in the next election when it would be far more efficient for them to encourage their members to work together on the existing campaign.

To quote Muse, Together We're Invincible.
 
Well they both show rather odd tastes in viewing...who would want to put themselves through the torture of that scene with the Dingle proposing! I had of course turned on eraly for the Tonight programme, honest!
 
Just returning to the thread, does anyone have statistics of how many people take part/closely support the various sports? I seem to remember the figure of 3 million mentioned for anglers and with the people at home for 'the March', I guess we must have a million on the hunting side. Anyone have figures to hand for the others?
 
The 1997 Report by Cobham Resource Consultants entitled 'Countryside Sports: Their Economic, Social and Conservation Significance 1997’ showed that in Great Britain in 1996:
3.3 million people went fishing,
704,500 people shot game and wildfowl,
14,500 stalked deer,
215,500 people hunted or followed hounds
12,500 people participated in falconry of whom 4,000 flew birds at live quarry.

With approximately 130 million activity days per year the numbers participating in countryside sports was 5th relative to all other sports, broadly equal in number with soccer.

That adds up to over 4 million people regularly participating in country sports. If you add to those people like my father who went on the march, but has no intention of being cold, wet and muddy on the hunting or shooting field but supports liberty and free choice. You have a powerful lobby when compared to the 300,000 members that LACS boast -

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-the-league-against-cruel-sports-1859741.html
 
LACS has 300,000 members? Ha, ha, ha ..............

In their last available accounts, for the year ended 31 December 2008, membership subscriptions totalled £44,573. So each member contributed a little less than 15p ....

Or with annual subscriptions at £24 (£12 youth/unwaged) the true membership cannot exceed 3,714 (assuming that they're all kids or on the dole) and is probably much less. Pathetic really.
 
Thanks for those figures Claire. So about upwards of 6.6 percent of us participate - a percentage of the population which no political party could afford to ignore. Add the non-active supporters and it seems plain that if we could only get together in a single low membership organisation, by which I mean a fiver a year or something, then we could ensure a compliant government. BUT we would all have to be prepared not to criticize other field sports, and to say 'all for one' etc. Can it be done? Could the Alliance do it? Would anglers have enough vision to see the future if they don't join us?
 
I whole heartened agree that we should stand together, however, as a falconer (one of the few who does actually fly their birds to catch quarry!) and and a hunt follower/supporter, I can see both sides of the arguement. Unfortunately those hunts buying/obtaining birds of prey to get round the loophole in the hunting act did themselves no favours with falconers. Flying birds of prey (especially eagles) is very specialist and how some of these birds have been kept and treated leaves little to be desired.

However I do hunt and will continue to do so
 
Currrently in Ireland this attitude is taking place over the Green partys program for goverenment which includes the puppy farming bill and a ban on the Ward Union Staghounds.

Really we are seeing country sports come together,because this will be 1st then Foxhunting and so on,we all know Mr.Gormlys intersests in country sports:mad::mad:..................from his cosy house in south Dublin.
 
It would be such a nice thought, however when vast shooting estates round the country ban the hunt off altogether because of the inconvenience, it is disappointing.

On the up side however, there are plenty of shooting landowners who are more than keen for the hunt to come over.
 
I have thought of a slogan for you.

"Let every person enjoy rural sports". Given the speed other sports will run from your calls to join forces ( as you are now a poisoned challice ), you can call yourselves LEPERS for short.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top