Thanks - I've occasionally browsed through to see what are the latest hot topics, but I thought it was time I joined in!
This is a difficult one and no mistake. Not least because, not having any real experience of pheasant breeding/rearing, I find the descriptions of the various systems rather confusing (and of course everyone talks up the worst aspects of the system they're arguing against). Actually, I used to help my dad with a few hundred birds he reared up from day-olds at home, but that was 30 years ago and more!
I'm in two minds about washing our dirty linen in public. These things need to be debated, but it bothers me to hear respected names in the sport/industry/call it what you will, using language that I just know will appear in the next masterpiece from numpties like Kit Davidson of Animal Aid.
Personally (and I do mean personally, this is nothing to do with the magazine) I gaze into the crystal ball and find it hard to see driven shooting as we know it now still being around in 10 or 20 years time. Like it or not, I think we'll have gone all Ray Mears, hunting wild birds with our eco-friendly non-lead, low emission cartridges, and rushing off to the Department of Natural Resources to fill in our bag report, or enter the draw for another deer tag. Or have I just been hitting the sloe gin a bit too hard?
There's no doubt it's the urban majority that calls the shots these days, and trust me they will not turn their backs and say, sure you look like you know what you're doing, just carry on - the antis will make sure of that. Town-dwellers are not all anti-shooting by any means, and they do like their burgers, but they do expect to see it done responsibly and transparently. And I believe that, sooner or later, cages will have to go.
Which I guess means I have more in common with BASC's stance on this one. I'll admit I sometimes find their tone of voice a touch authoritarian (sorry David, Simon), but on this occasion I'm finding the game farming interests are coming across downright boorish.
I'm trying to separate out, in my mind, my views on the argument itself versus the way the different parties have argued their case. Underneath all the bluster there's a real issue of 'right' and 'wrong' here. But each time someone uses an argument that rankles, I find it harder to see the wood for the trees.
I seem to have used a lot of words to say not a lot, but this is a very complicated issue. If nothing else, I take heart from the fact that we're all getting so passionate about it, because that means we care - about the birds, and about our sport.