Wasabi

I work in Education! Gove really is as stupid as he looks. He ****ed our side of things up and then got shifted out tge way. We're all still trying to work out how to fix things.

Exactly. Then my head says with the amount of shooting I do I should get a 4x4 type vehicle. Been looking at Volvo XC60.

I'm currently having the same dilemma!

Yes I am. I've written to them to express my concerns and will give it a few months before I decide what to do regarding membership.

Brilliant post!

I'm not suggesting BASC morf into the NRA. What I'm suggesting is that they become more proactive. Why were they not pointing out the moorland fires on Ilkley potentially being caused by a lack of management by keepers. Why was it that the NFU was on radio 2 today rather than BASC. Why have I only ever seen Dig Haddoke and *********** on mainstream TV promoting the benefits of shooting. We need to be drowning out the whinge of Packham and co through a concerted media campaign on national levels and on social media. I honestly believe the old boys club at the helm of our organisations does not understand how to go about this.

Stop bashing and start supporting a rather pointless organisation in its current incarnation. Support the old boys all the way to the extinction of our sport as they sit by the sidelines politely expressing their disdain.

To BASC or by BASC?

I didn't say I was capable of it, I said they need to employ people who are. I'm also a little bit busy mid week!

And that is genuinely commendable but times have changed. We are facing a massive risk from a very media savvy man with huge TV exposure. We need to take the fight to the next level. The average joe public probably has a slightly negative view of our sport meaning they will not stand in the way of future regulation or bans. We need to change the opinions of the masses and the organisations need to start thinking along those lines.

Tells a story, 4% on media and politics. Pathetic.

Exactly. My perception of the various organisations is of a group of old boys running a nice little shooting organisation. Run a few clay days for kids and ladies, write a polite letter rebuking the latest anti in a national rag etc etc. In reality we need people capable of planning and running successful national media campaigns and all that entails. We need to be using big data to target the benefits of game meat to people with no connection to shooting. We need to be promoting clay shooting to people totally in connected with it. We need to be lobbying parliament constantly and networking in the halls of Westminster so we don't get blindsided by events such as this.

I work in education covering a large number of schools and have yet to see anything about / from BASC. Young shots = mainly kids of people who already shoot. Doing stuff for the shooting community does naff all to protect our sport. Where do they promote game meat? I'm yet to see anything in a mainstream publication or website. We have a Tory Govt full of keen shooters and this happens. Where are their political lobbyists? Where are their social media campaigns? We are royally screwed if / when Corbyn and co gain power.

With all this publicity around the General Licence I am left wondering what BASC and the like actually do? By my sums BASC has an income around 12 million a year. Apart from printing a magazine, preaching to the converted and offering legal advice, what do they actually do? Where is the media campaign promoting game meat? Where are the initiatives getting non shooters into clay shooting? The biggest social media presence I've seen today has been Guns on Pegs. BASC was saying proudly on FB how they had been doing radio and TV all day. Brilliant, 20 years ago. Get with the times. Make use of big data and social media to promote our sport. Where is the counter campaign against the likes of Packham and Avery? At this rate we will all be shooting clays with steel shot out of air powered shotguns in the not so distant future.

I remember buying a thousand from Patties of Dumfries, now closed, in 2001.