The year past, THE YEAR TO COME

Shooting Gazette asked a host of leading figures in the game shooting community for their reflections on the highs and lows of 2019, what they are looking forward to about 2020 and also the one issue they are concerned about in the year ahead.

Eoghan Cameron Chairman, BASC

High on the list of successes for 2019 would be the resurgent solidarity between shooting and countryside organisations in the face of hostile agendas that are not only anti-fieldsports, but frankly anti-countryside. The General Licences saga, for instance, continues to be countered by effective, pan-organisational collaboration. Uniting under an allied banner at such pivotal junctures for the British countryside is critical. With significant challenges ahead, this model is to be celebrated and developed further.

In 2019, BASC also helped to launch 2020 Year of the Gamekeeper. Again, this is a joint initiative to help support and grow the incredibly valuable work done by the Gamekeepers’ Welfare Trust (GWT). Celebratory events and fundraisers will be taking place throughout the year. The initiative is another powerful demonstration of solidarity that we can and should all get behind.

In terms of challenges, animal rights activists have now firmly opened their account against all shooting. Never having been too troubled by facts or evidence, they cynically and deliberately resort to misrepresentation and sensationalist tales. Sadly, sensationalism sells and this is quickly capitalised on by an increasingly urban-centric press.

Even some public land-owning bodies have felt unable to stand fast in the face of anti-shooting pressure from a vocal, but narrow minority. Small victories to the activists and cheaply won, but very costly to the countryside. While we are clear that sustainable shooting and the conservation of our great British countryside go hand in hand, these individuals are concerned only with the demise of all shooting.