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You couldn’t make this stuff up.

On 25th March 2020, the landowners’ lobby group, Scottish Land & Estates (SLE) urged its members to use voluntary restraint and stop setting fire to grouse moors, to ensure ‘there was no chance for additional strain on public services’ (i.e. the fire and rescue service, if a so-called ‘controlled’ burn became, er, uncontrolled) (see here).

This call to halt muirburning was welcomed by many, not just with respect for the emergency services during a national crisis but for many, many environmental and conservation reasons too, not least the climate emergency. And whoever thinks that it’s a sensible idea, under the guise of so-called ‘conservation’, to set the moors alight at the onset of the bird breeding season (i.e. throughout April), even though the Muirburn Code permits it, is frankly deranged.

[Burning up a grouse moor, photo by Ruth Tingay]

However, the grouse shooting industry isn’t celebrated for its sensible ideas nor its willingness to self-regulate nor its participation in voluntary restraint, so it came as no surprise to see, five days later, evidence of selfish defiance of SLE’s call for restraint as smoke rose from grouse moors from the Borders to Morayshire (see here).

This led to Andy Wightman MSP proposing an amendment to The Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill (Emergency Bill) calling for an immediate (but temporary) ban on all muirburn across Scotland (see here).

On 1st April Andy’s amendment received widespread cross-party support (apart from the Conservatives) and was passed (see here and here).

As of today (7 April), the emergency legislation is enacted and all muirburn is now illegal in Scotland (see here).

So how has Scottish Land & Estates reacted to the news that its call for a voluntary, temporary halt was ignored but has now been shored up by being written in to statute, thanks to Andy Wightman’s quick thinking? If you look at the SLE website you’ll not find any comment or statement about it, just silence. SLE probably took one look at BASC’s embarrassing public reaction (here) and thought better of exposing itself as being equally absurd.

But equally as absurd is exactly what SLE is. The day after Andy’s amendment was approved by the Scottish Parliament, but away from the public eye, SLE’s Chief Executive Sarah-Jane Laing sent a briefing email to SLE members to provide an ‘urgent update on emergency legislation’.

Here’s what she told members about the new muirburn ban:

So despite SLE calling for a halt to muirburn, and despite clear evidence that this call was being ignored by some grouse moor owners, SLE is now howling that the resulting enforced temporary ban, which in effect lasts for just four weeks and is what SLE wanted anyway, is ‘disproportionate and unnecessary’!

Does anyone still think the grouse shooting industry has the public interest at its core?

The Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill, agreed by the Scottish Parliament last Wednesday, has today received royal assent and thus as of tomorrow (Tuesday 7th April 2020) becomes enacted.

This emergency legislation (Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020) incorporated an amendment from Scottish Greens MSP Andy Wightman leading to an immediate halt to all muirburn across Scotland, including on grouse moors, for the remainder of the muirburn season (up to and including 30 April 2020).

If you see any evidence of muirburn please report it to Police Scotland.

[Muirburn, photo via Scottish Natural Heritage]

The Guardian has published an Observer article (see here) claiming that ‘grouse shoots scrapped as heather burning is banned on moors’.

Unfortunately the headline is quite misleading. The article relates to some land in the north of England owned by three landowners (Yorkshire Water, United Utilities and National Trust) but there’s no evidence that grouse shooting has been ‘scrapped’ there.

It’s also a bit confusing, throwing around terms such as ‘banned’ and ‘outlawed’, possibly in relation to what is referred to as ‘routine burning’ but then says that written consent is available to some tenants (for routine burning or occasional burning? And how is this defined?), although perhaps this is in relation to historical leases still in play.

The article also says that, in relation to the coronavirus outbreak, the water companies have said that ‘all burning must now cease until further notice’, which we already knew (see here) but ‘until further notice’ suggests that they may permit burning again in the future, right? Or is this simply referring to occasional burning as opposed to the ‘routine burning’ mentioned above?

Whatever, despite the embellished headline and blurry story line, the fact that three major landowners are imposing some sort of restriction on grouse moor burning across the English uplands is really very good news. As Mark Avery has written (here), it is another step in the right direction of travel towards an end to driven grouse shooting and for that reason is warmly welcomed.

Well done Yorkshire Water, United Utilities and National Trust.

The grouse-shooting industry continues to stamp its feet and wail about Andy Wightman’s success at persuading the majority of legislators to introduce an immediate (but temporary) ban on muirburn across Scotland last night (see here).

[Muirburn on a Highland grouse moor in April 2017, photo by one of our blog readers]

Today the British Association for Shooting & apparently Conservation (BASC) issued a press release claiming that the Scottish Greens had launched an “unnecessary attack on shooting” and how it was “an exceedingly poor use of parliamentary time“.

Even funnier, BASC argued that Andy Wightman’s amendment was lodged “despite the shooting community instigating a voluntary cessation of burning last week“.

Er, BASC appear to have ‘forgotten’ to mention the widespread evidence that not all landowners were adhering to the call for a voluntary cessation, as published here and here, which is precisely why Andy lodged his amendment and presumably why it gained so much cross-party support (except from the Tories).

Have you ever seen anything so absurd? BASC, who openly admit to endorsing last week’s call for voluntary restraint, objecting to the very legislation that will now force the gamekeepers to stop lighting fires!

It’s even funnier to see BASC trot out its latest soundbite of choice: ‘[The Greens] have proved they are out of touch with the national mood……‘ Yeah, BASC said this about Wild Justice recently, too. Funny, BASC seems to have erased from memory its recent u-turn on using lead ammunition, leading to a meltdown amongst its members (and a reported loss of many many subscriptions), all caused by BASC’s inability to ‘judge the mood’.

What we appear to be seeing now is BASC desperately playing to the gallery to try and make itself look relevant in an attempt to claw back some of those deserters.

Fortunately, the majority of the politicians in the Chamber last night had a far better grasp of the nation’s mood (and its safety) than does BASC.

 

Andy Wightman’s success at getting ‘Amendment 53’ approved in the Scottish Parliament last night, leading to the immediate (but temporary) ban on muirburn across Scotland (see here), has caused some within the grouse shooting world to, how shall we call it, lose their shit.

The vitriol and personal abuse being aimed at Andy on social media is really quite telling and if ever you wanted to see examples of how the mask can slip on people who have previously purported to be ‘voices of reason’ then you need look no further. Then there are the ones who are so out of control they’ve never even tried to appear reasonable and whose tirades of hatred continue without pause for rational thought (or to consider the potential for having their firearms and shotgun certificates removed).

[Muriburn, photo by Ruth Tingay]

For the more sensible, here is a copy of the transcript relating to Andy’s proposed amendment, the ‘debate’ it generated (a bit of ignorance and abuse from Murdo Fraser MSP & a bit of informed support from Michael Russell MSP) and the subsequent vote: amendment 53_debate and vote

Amendment 53 was passed 59 votes to 17.

It’s interesting and almost entirely predictable (with one small surprise – [Ed: please now see update at foot of blog]) to see who voted for and against:

UPDATE 3rd April 2020: Please read the comments section on this blog. A blog reader contacted Shirley-Anne Somerville’s office about this vote and received the following in return:

Response from Shirley-Anne Somerville’s Office Manager:
Hi Greg

Thank you getting in touch with Shirley-Anne, she has asked me to reply on her behalf.

Shirley-Anne fully supports Amendment 53, in line with the rest of her Scottish Government and SNP colleagues. There appears to be some confusion about the voting, the official record on the Scottish Parliament website indicated to me that Shirley-Anne did in fact vote for the amendment. I have attached a screenshot of the voting record search I performed a short time ago.

Should, when the official reports be published and there has been any kind of error of sorts, Shirley-Anne would only have voted against this amendment purely by mistake and accidentally pushed the wrong voting button.

I hope this helps to clarify things, should you have any other matter you wish to raise, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Kind regards

Cameron

Cameron Crawford

Office Manager

Shirley-Anne Somerville

MSP for Dunfermline

ENDS

 

Further to this afternoon’s post (here) outlining Andy Wightman’s proposal to seek a temporary legislative ban on muirburn in Scotland for the duration of the Coronavirus lockdown – he was successful!

After welcoming Scottish Land and Estate’s call for a voluntary halt to setting the moors alight, Andy pointed out that some landowners had ignored the call and were continuing to light fires on grouse moors. He also pointed to the latest wildfire danger assessment published this morning by the Scottish Wildfire Forum which rates the danger of wildfire in the coming week in parts of southern and eastern Scotland as ‘VERY HIGH’ and ‘EXTREME’ (see here).

[Muirburn, photo by Ruth Tingay]

Andy’s amendment was challenged by Murdo Fraser MSP (Conservatives) who claimed, falsely, that there was no evidence of continued muirburn in Scotland (he must have missed this and this) and that even if there was (which there was/is), it still didn’t necessitate legislation because, he argued, that the muirburn season would practically be over by the time the legislation is enacted anyway. He ‘forgot’ to factor in the additional two weeks between 15-30 April during which muirburn may continue at the landowner’s discretion.

Andy came back at him and argued that all he was seeking to do was give some legislative power to Scottish Land and Estate’s call for voluntary restraint.

Minister Mike Russell provided support for Andy’s amendment and said that if burning was continuing it needed to stop now.

The amendment was put to the vote and it passed 59 to 17.

This means that when the Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill (Emergency Bill) gains royal assent (and thus becomes an Act), all muirburn must stop. If anyone continues to light fires on grouse moors (or indeed on any land covered by the muirburn section (23) of the Hill Farming Act 1946) they will be breaking the law and could face prosecution.

Judging by the hysteria being generated by some within the grouse shooting industry this evening (including predictably abusive attacks on Andy’s character and integrity), you’d think that muirburn had been banned forever. If only! However, the reality is it has only been banned for the remainder of this season (up until 30 April). This is emergency legislation and thus it doesn’t ban muirburn for all time. Currently, the legislation bans muirburn for the duration of the Coronavirus crisis (the Bill provides this is currently 30 Sept but with power to extend by six months). However, it’ll provide useful food for thought for the Scottish Government as we continue to wait for its response to the Werritty Review on grouse moor management.

Instead of attacking Andy, who was simply making full use of the democratic process, those critics should be looking at those estates who ignored last week’s call to stop burning…..it’s thanks to them that the legislation passed with such ease!

Well done, Andy and the Scottish Greens – this is a fantastic result!

The transcript and voting record of this amendment can be read here: amendment 53_debate and vote

Further to the news that grouse moor burning has continued across Scotland (see here and here) despite calls for restraint and in total defiance of the current public health crisis, Scottish Green’s MSP Andy Wightman is seeking a legislative ban on all muirburn as part of the emergency laws going through the Scottish Parliament today.

[Muirburn, photograph by Ruth Tingay]

The Scottish Greens have published the following press release this afternoon:

WIGHTMAN PROPOSES MOOR BURNING BAN DURING LOCKDOWN

The practice of burning moorland to prepare for recreational grouse shooting is continuing in Scotland, despite the coronavirus lockdown.

Witnesses have tweeted pictures of the practice continuing throughout Scotland, even after landowners were told to stop by Scottish Land and Estates on March 25.

In England, one fire got out of control and spread into a one-mile long fire-front, leading to concerns over the pressure this practice can place on the emergency services.

Scottish Green MSP Andy Wightman today sought to include a legislative ban in emergency laws going through the Scottish Parliament.

Commenting, Andy Wightman said: “It is absurd that while the country is told to stay at home, with sporting and cultural events cancelled and businesses compelled to close, some landowners have proceeded to inflict environmental damage on their land in the expectation that a privileged few will still be able to go and shoot birds for a hobby.

“There cannot be business as usual for the lairds and lockdown for the rest of us. There is too little scrutiny of grouse moors at the best of times, but damaging the hills during a lockdown and risking putting further pressure on our emergency services is reckless. The practice should end with immediate effect.”

ENDS

The Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill (Emergency Bill) is being debated in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon and is expected to be passed later this evening.

Here is Andy’s proposed amendment, which if passed would result in a ban on all hill fires, including setting the grouse moors alight, with immediate effect:

It’s been just five days since the landowners’ lobby group Scottish Land & Estates called on land managers to voluntarily halt muirburn activities on grouse moors to ‘reduce the strain’ on the fire and rescue services during the coronavirus pandemic (see here).

Today, at 15.39hrs, this photograph was taken showing smoke rising from a grouse moor in Stirlingshire. So much for the grouse shooting industry’s ability and willingness to self-regulate, eh?

This is an area of grouse moor a few miles west of Stirling:

It’s an interesting area, close to where a three-year general licence restriction was imposed on a grouse moor in 2015 (see here and here) following a number of confirmed raptor persecution incidents, including the poisoning of a red kite, the poisoning of a peregrine and the illegal trapping of a red kite.

This fire is yet another example, of hundreds if not thousands, of why this industry can’t be trusted to do the right thing and why the Scottish Government needs to get on with introducing statutory regulations without further delay.