The announcement by the Scottish Government that they will be introducing a licensing scheme for driven grouse shooting next year has met with some predictable reactions. The Scottish Gamekeepers Association has thrown its few remaining toys out of the pram and will be marching on Holyrood pandemic permitting. The interestingly connected and not as anonymous as they think Campaign for the Protection of Moorland Communities (C4PMC) has launched a very unpleasant Twitter campaign with an ‘Advent Calendar’ targeting individuals in the conservation world. A few individuals on social media who have shooting connections have made dark comments about Chris Packham’s gate. This seems to be a reference to the various dead animals that have been fixed to it in the past presumably in an attempt to intimidate him and his family.

While all this has been going on the slightly more serious organisations that promote shooting have continued to peddle their versions of the science (killing mountain hares increases their numbers, burning moorland makes it better for everyone etc). Little of this now has relevance as the science has been explored, Werritty has reported and the Minister has spoken.

The line that is now increasingly being taken is to emphasise the financial benefits of driven grouse shooting to those rural communities in which it is based. There is much debate about how much of the funding is subsidised by the tax payer, to what extent the local community benefits and where the majority of the profits actually go but we here wonder if the generation of money and the provision of some jobs are grounds enough for ignoring criminality.

The distribution and sale of illegal drugs is endemic in the UK. It generates large sums of money for those who control it and inevitably there is ‘trickle down’. There are jobs involving criminality for dealers, transporters, producers, local level controllers and the thugs who protect them. There are also jobs much further removed from obvious criminal activity for lawyers, accountants, bankers, estate agents and other professionals. Business deals with pubs, clubs, hotels and other legitimate businesses help to launder drug money. There is a ‘carrot & stick’ approach to those not actually employed in the trade but aware of it and in a position to do it good or ill. Gifts or threats are made to politicians and members of law enforcement all in an endeavour to keep the business running smoothly.

Suggesting that something illegal should be allowed to continue because it generates money for a few, some of which eventually trickles down to their henchmen is not a viable argument in anything other than a tin pot dictatorship.

Not all Driven Grouse Moors are associated with criminality but some clearly are. Numerous attempts to encourage this criminal behaviour to stop have failed and no viable government can ignore blatant law breaking indefinitely. The decent law abiding majority in shooting have nothing to fear from licensing but the criminals certainly have. It is the failure of peer group pressure that has brought about the current situation and is a serious ‘own goal’ by the shooting establishment and their representatives. The blame for licensing lies fairly and squarely with them.