COMMENT
managers can thank the nationalists for Holyrood’s refusal to ban the use of snares for vermin control. Many new law-makers reckon they know it
Licence to cull
Proposals to nationalise the red deer population show just how little MSPs understand rural issues
WORDS ALAN COCHRANE ILLUSTRATION STEPHEN DAY O
ne of rural Scotland’s big problems is its relationship with the parliament at Holyrood. The devolved assembly has
power over just about every aspect of life in the countryside but few of its 129 members have any knowledge of what goes on outside the cities. As a result, those who live and work ‘out
there’ must spend an inordinate amount of time presenting their case to a largely ignorant – in the nicest sense of the word – mass of legislators and to counteract the skilful, articulate and well- funded charities and NGOs that represent the animal rights and ‘right-to-roam’ groups that are seeking to change the way the countryside is used and to transform its ancient traditions. It is worth wondering whether the various
bits of legislation that have affected the countryside over the years of the parliament’s existence would still be passed today. I’m sure that foxhunting would still be
banned. Equally, I feel the land reform and community right-to-buy legislation, introduced by the Labour/Lib Dem coalition, would be approved by the present lot of MSPs. Indeed there are signs that many are itching to go further in this respect. That said, I don’t
think the hated (by rural workers, at least) laws banning tail docking would be passed by the present par- liament, and I think land
FIELD
all, and I had to laugh the other day when one relatively new MSP told me he thought that the excellent Alex Hogg, of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, would do better to engage more with the parliament. I’d argue the opposite: Mr Hogg has spent years trying to teach our tribunes the facts of rural life and, frankly, the parliament would do better if it engaged more with him. The immediate issue for Scottish land
managers is a recurring one – deer management. Only 18 months after a Code of Practice was drawn up on how to control deer numbers, the problem is being revisited by the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee, headed by the SNP’s Rob Gibson. Traditional land managers, I think, have cause to worry about where this committee is going. There is, for instance, a head of steam building
among some MSPs to ‘punish’ landowners who do not meet their cull targets for red deer – the widespread assumption among some politicians being that there are far too many of the beasts and that they’re damaging ‘biodiversity’. One way of cracking down on recalcitrant
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Alan Cochrane is the Daily Telegraph’s Scottish Editor
lairds, it would appear, is to license estates for shooting; if they fail to meet officially laid- down cull numbers their licences could be taken away and all stalking banned by law. That’s what Angus MacDonald, the SNP member for Falkirk East, suggested at a recent committee session. Dr John Milne, former chairman of the Deer Commission, responded: ‘A licence to do what? The estates do not own the deer.’ ‘Would it not be possible to remove that right
if the status of deer were changed from being nobody’s property to communal property?’ asked Mr Gibson, the committee chairman. To which Dr Milne replied: ‘Absolutely, and
that is one option that should be considered.’ So there we have it – another attempt to re-
write a Code of Practice for deer management. To some, this amounts to the nationalisation of Scotland’s red deer population. On a lighter note, country dwellers can
perhaps take comfort from the fact that some lawmakers haven’t a clue what they’re talking about. Take Richard Lyle, the SNP regional MSP for Central Scotland. He said he thought only the ‘establishment’ paying £5,000 a day could afford to shoot stags, and candidly admitted he’d never tasted venison in his life. ‘It’s not for sale in my local supermarket,’ he explained. So much for the expertise of our tribunes.
But don’t laugh too soon because I understand that an attempt by Labour to tighten the ban on foxhunting has been only narrowly opposed.
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