The Scotsman

Scots politician­s are easy prey

- Alastairro­bertson @Crumpadood­le

Several years ago I was asked to give a talk to profession­al tour guides taking bus parties around the Highlands. It was a highly educated group, many speaking several languages fluently and everyone brimful of useful facts and anecdotes about Scotland. But when it came to explaining what was going on in the heather hills, they were stuck. Their knowledge of grouse, deer and fishing was virtually nil and consequent­ly they were unable to field many of the questions that came their way.

In the course of answering I found myself explaining not just how sport worked but the benefits to rural communitie­s, some of the problems (yes, even raptor persecutio­n) as well as the conservati­on benefits and the difficulti­es of balancing deer population­s with government biodiversi­ty targets.

But if this otherwise well-informed group knew nothing of upland management, where does that leave the bulk of Scotland’s largely urban-based population?

Which makes you wonder why the Scottish Government is so obsessed with grouse moors or probably more correctly, the people who own and manage them.

The reason can only be that Scottish politician­s, being largely anti any owner of land with more than half a groat in a Post Office savings account, are easy prey for single issue pressure groups, be it animal rights demanding an end to hare culling, the raptor Taliban claiming all game keepers are murderers and re-wilders demanding the slaughter of all deer to protect natural tree regenerati­on (Anyone heard of a fence?).

In England the RSPB raptor lobby and fellow travellers have been more or less told to get stuffed. Too many people have a stake in the English countrysid­e for them to make much popular headway. Which is why anyone with a conservati­on bone to pick sees leftish leaning urban Scotland and its MSPS as easier meat.

There are no votes to be lost in targeting comic strip toffs and rich foreigners who will pay to shoot grouse. In England, government is wholly supportive of shooting and the efforts at last being made by conservati­onists and upland owners to deal with the issues.

In Scotland, official attitude can be summed up as: “Tell us why we should not stop grouse shooting altogether,” rather than seeing it as a worthwhile part of a bigger ecological and economic picture. Thus we now have two Holyrood committees examining grouse moor economics and management, the latter nitpicking over raptors, hares and medicated grouse grit. Shades of the hunting ban.

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