Some of you may have seen news coverage of PM David Cameron’s secret Conservative Black & White Ball which took place at the Grosvenor House in Mayfair on Tuesday night. This was a fundraising event designed to boost the coffers of the Conservative Party in the run up the general election.
Some details of the event were reported here.
What interested us about this event was one of the auction lots – an opportunity to shoot 500 gamebirds, which sold for an incredible £110,000.
Naturally, we were interested in the location of this shoot and a bit of digging turned up this image from the auction booklet:
What’s interesting about this venue isn’t necessarily who owns it (some Lord or other) but rather, who is involved with the shooting rights. This is where it gets really interesting.
Apparently, the shooting rights on the Maristow and Bickleigh shoots have been let ‘in recent seasons’ by Mr Mark Osborne’s agency:
Mark Osborne, who he? If you don’t know, try googling ‘Mark Osborne grouse’……or, read this.
Interesting bedfellows indeed.
Raptor Persecution UK 
It just makes me so sad that someone is willing to pay £110,000 for the ‘pleasure’ of shooting 500 birds. What does that say about certain human nature?
When you see his other pals – “Lord” Green and Coulson..this should be no surprise.What bothers me with all these is that any half-witted PR manager would be telling Cameron to keep away from such people..but he obviously doesnt give a toss.
They´re in it all together, one big happy gameshooting ´family´. I know a nice guy, who owns a castle with estate on the mainland, who sent me a nice E-mail, that he´s going to plant trees and if I would like to join him. If this xxxxxxx xxxxxxx wants to have ´dirty hands´ why not try digging holes for treeplanting???
Yeah..exactly if they are such wonderful custodians of the countryside why don’t they plant trees, make artificial holts for otters, put up bat boxes, help local schools get their kids close to nature etc, i.e at the things a lot of the people who contribute to this site do, but don’t shoot their gobs off about it unlike the ‘stewards’ of the land. Hope more landowners turn their back on this guff and like your friend do something that’s genuinely beneficial for people and wildlife.