Priorities (Redux)...

The government is considering a crackdown on pheasant shooting in England as part of a consultation on strict new animal welfare laws that would affect shoot organisers.

Animal welfare. I could think of 100 better things to choose before I got to pheasant shooting if animal welfare really was the aim, and I bet you could too, Reader. 

Every year, thousands of people descend on the countryside to shoot pheasants and partridges. Millions of the game birds are released in advance of the shoots. Many are brought over from France as chicks and eggs, and reared by gamekeepers until they are ready to be released for shooting in the autumn. Grouse are wild rather than reared or farmed animals.

I love game, but I’ve never been partial to grouse, no matter where I’ve had it. 

While chickens and other farmed birds have to be looked after to minimum animal welfare standards, these do not apply to game birds. Poultry birds, for example, have minimum space standards for their cages and have to be provided with enrichment, such as perches and items to scratch and peck. Chicken and other poultry farms are subject to regular animal welfare inspections, which are not in place for sites rearing pheasants and partridges.

This is not being driven by concern for the welfare of the birds, but by loathing of the people involved in the sport of course. Because they are, to a man and a woman, The Enemy of English Country Persuits.. 

Claire Bass, the director of campaigns at Humane World for Animals UK, said: “The shooting industry breeds millions of birds on an industrial scale, and these animals have fallen through the cracks of animal welfare law. Confined in barren wire cages for most of their lives, birds suffer stress-related injuries and feather loss and are exposed to blazing summer heat and other weather extremes.”

Dr Ruth Tingay, a co-director of Wild Justice, said: “Putting an end to the rearing and annual release in to the countryside of an estimated 60 million non-native game birds for shooting should be the government’s focus. If they stop that, then the associated welfare issues would also be sorted. Defra needs to stop tinkering around the edges and deal with this head on.”

When any of these people start to address halal and kosher slaughter with the same zeal, I might - might- just start to listen to them on the subject of game ird shooting. But I never will…

Or We Could Stop Employing Obvious Wrong 'Uns To Work In Them

For seven years, my youngest constituents were abused at Bright Horizons nursery in West Hampstead, London. Earlier this year, Vincent Chan was jailed for 18 years for his horrific crimes. It is every parent’s worst nightmare to discover that their child has been subject to abuse. For this to have happened in a nursery, where parents trusted their children would be safe, is truly abhorrent.

A group of 200 locally affected parents have come together to call for mandatory CCTV in nurseries, as well as requiring Ofsted to review such footage in all inspections.

*sigh* 

I can see why they would think that, but it's a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Better hiring practices unaffected by identity politics and the need to tick boxes to ensure 'representation'  and greater staff-to- child ratio would be  better options, except of course the latter would impact the profits for nursery owners. 

Together we have met the previous education secretary and the previous early years minister, and gave evidence to an expert panel to assess the feasibility of mandatory CCTV in nurseries. With none of these ministers still in post, we must not lose momentum.

Of course, if those ministers had been effective in their job. they might still be doing it. 

With 20,000 reports of serious childcare incidents in English nurseries in the past five years, we need mandatory CCTV to tackle this.

Babies and toddlers are the most vulnerable people in our society, and we must do all we can to protect them from harm.

Who is leading this charge? Why, none other than:  

Tulip Siddiq MP Labour, Hampstead and Highgate

A convicted criminal who should be extradited to Pakistan to serve her sentence. Bit cheeky of her to call attention to other MPs no longer in post. Parents, if you want CCTV in nurseries, choose a better champions, eh? 

 

Blood In The Water...

 ...and the predators will be circling. It's early as I type this and the majority of results aren't it, and some won't be until the weekend but enough are in that the verdict on Starmer's Premiership has been heard loud and clear. 

Who will make the first move? And will he see it coming?