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Natural England, who issue the General Licences under which we shoot pests species, are conducting an extensive consultation on proposed changes to these licences. All responses have to be with them by 19th May. Some of the proposed changes will seriously limit the shooting that you currently enjoy if they are allowed to go through. We cannot rely on others to protect our sport and I urge you to submit a response before the deadline date. The consultation document (48 pages) and response form (35 pages) are available on the Natural England web site. The Countryside Alliance have the most comprehensive response which is available on their web site but BASC are not very helpful as they seem to be simply saying “no” to everything without explaining why. While some of the questions are irrelevant I have responded to about 30 of them! They range from taking the jackdaw off the general licence, tagging all larcen traps, reporting all birds killed under the general licence, Natural England being able to prohibit you from using the general licence if you fail to comply with any conditions (appointing themselves judge and jury), and, worst of all, requiring you to prove that frightening the birds away does not work before shooting them. So how could that work when roost shooting or decoying? Defra tried to introduce this latter condition in 2005 and had to back-track after the outcry that followed. I believe that the more responses they get the more they are likely to see common sense, especially if those responses are from reasonable people with experience of putting the general licences in practice in the real world. Please do your best to influence it so that we get a sensible outcome.