Further to yesterday’s monumental announcement that the Scottish Government intends to start work immediately to bring in a licensing scheme for driven grouse shooting in Scotland (see here), there is much more to say.
As you might expect, there’ll be many more blogs written on this topic. To start off though, here is a link to the televised footage of Minister Mairi Gougeon making the announcement in Holyrood yesterday, and this includes a series of pertinent questions, and the Minister’s answers, at the end. It’s well worth a watch, if only to see the Minister doing her best to suppress the obvious exasperation she, and the rest of us have, with a grouse shooting industry that has proven itself incapable of control.
Also, here is the Scottish Government’s formal written response to the Werritty Review, in as much detail as is available at present:
Raptor Persecution UK 
This Minister is determined. Parliament and the law is visibly frustrated. The Driven Grouse Moor lobby should note. Licensing is their last chance saloon; many of us would like to see the million acres of these hunting grounds of the 1% devoted to a rewilded “National Park” with areas of forest intermingled with moor. This mass slaughter past time should receive no subsidy.
I thought both Mark Russkel and Alison Johnston were brilliant, no punches pulled.
Who needs details, Severin Carrell is reporting that the licensing scheme is going to be ‘strict’.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/26/grouse-shooting-to-require-licence-in-scotland
A word just puled out of thin air.
‘pulled’