Neil Maidment
Moderator
With the ban on shooting ‘pest’ birds by Natural England after giving in and bowing down to a challenge by environmentalists can we still consider that fishing will never be banned.
Environmentalists / bunny huggers see things in different way when it comes to animals.
What ban on shooting pest birds?
I have little or no time for Chris Packham or his two cohorts. However, via their Wild Justice vehicle, they reaffirmed the need for such pest control but challenged the utter incompetence of Natural England's administration of the current General Licence process. When NE failed to respond to their initial challenge, they upped the ante with a legal challenge.
NE quickly discovered via Counsel Opinion that they had and were continuing to act illegally. Their choice was, without advice or notice to those most involved, to immediately remove the General Licence process and attempt to introduce an alternative. Surprise, surprise that online process crashed under the immediate pressure. Wild Justice had previously recommended NE revise their processes with a target to introduce alternatives in 2020.
Responsibility for Natural England lies with the odious Professional Politician known as Michael Gove. I've not seen any response from him yet to the many formal questions from those most affected.
Having said that, the thing that shouldn't surprise any angler, is that Wild Justice raised the required funds to finance the legal action in a blink of an eye...... all from public donations.
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