An English Shooters Blog

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A good shooting video by Mike Yardley:

Shooting: The Sport, The Facts from James Marchington on Vimeo.

The Prime Minister states that the Home Office will look at current gun laws to ensure they meet today’s requirements. (Shooting times)

Since the horrific events in Cumbria some people have been pushing for a review of the laws around the licensing of firearms and at looks as if this review will go forward, it is nice to see a level of maturity entering the review from the start. There has yet to be ant knee jerk reactions with politicians of all colours saying we should wait for the police review.

This could be a real chance to look at the licensing laws in this country had have the debate that was lacking in the late 90’s. This could be a chance to simplify the law’s and clear up some of the poorly drafted legislation that is so often rushed in. 

Perhaps with a real debate both inside and outside the shooting world we can show non shooters just why the sport is so interesting and why shooting should remain a sport that everyone can participate in.

A debate on the BBC on Sunday just passed.

Not the finest broadcast and it would have been interesting to hear a little more from Michael Yardley.

The Big Questions: Gun debate from James Marchington on Vimeo.

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I guess it is time for the goverment to look down the back of the sofa

As some of you know I quite like the firearms make AMT, sadly de funked now but still fantastic firearms.

While going through some stuff I found a CD-ROM catalogue that was sent to me by a friend, it was designed for Windows 3.1 / Windows 95, so cutting edge stuff at the time.

Any way, youtube has done it’s usual and degraded the video but interesting all the same.

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In some cases not the police, what happens to the video?

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By all reasonable counts the labour party no longer has a case govern the United Kingdom. The Labour party lost more seats in the 2010 election that at any party at other time since the 1931 election, the Lib Dems did not get the breakthrough that they wanted and lost ground with the electorate returning less MP’s to the house that during the last election.

We have the Conservative party with a majority in the house but without the necessary number to take control.

When you look at the UK you see some interesting things:

You see Scotland returning 41 Labour MP’s, 11 Liberal Democrat MP’s, 6 SNP MP’s and 1 Conservative MP.
Labour increased their vote in Scotland by 2.5% the SNP by 2.3% and the Conservative party by .9%. The Liberal Democrat where the only party to see a decline in their vote by 3.7%.

You see Wales returning 26 Labour MP’s, 8 Conservative MP’s, 3 Liberal Democrat MP’s and 3 Plaid Cymru MP’s.
The Conservative increased their vote by 4.7%, the Liberal Democrat by 1.7%. Labour & Plaid Cymru lost their vote by 6.5% and 1.3% respectively.

You see England returning 297 Conservative MP’s, 191 Labour MP’s, 43 Liberal Democrat MP’s and for the first time a single Green MP.
The Conservative increased their vote by 3.9%, the Liberal Democrat by 1.3%. Labour lost 7.4% of their vote.

So the magic numbers as many of us are aware are:
Conservative party: 306 MP’s
Labour party: 258 MP’s
Liberal Democrat: 57 MP’s
SNP: 6 MP’s
Plaid Cymru: 3 MP’s
Others: 19 MP’s

There is still one seat to hold their election due the death of one of it’s candidates. This is the seat of Thirsk & Malton and in the last election it was 51.9% Conservative so the chances are that it will be again.

There are or three things to consider:

Firstly the impact of devolution on the vote?
The Scottish & Welsh have voted to keep the Labour party in power, but is this such a surprise after all they have their own assembly & parliament and funding from the United Kingdom.

They have the ability to control policy & spending on: education, health, social security, police, prisons & courts, transport, land use, financial assistance to industry, agriculture & fisheries, food standards, the arts, sport.
Funding from the Union and control of their spending has enabled:

Scotland to offer no top-up fees for higher education, free personal care for the aged, free nationwide travel for OAPs, free new cancer and Alzheimer’s drugs.

Wales to offer free nationwide travel for OAPs, free prescriptions, free new cancer and Alzheimer’s drugs.

The assembly & parliament being independent exclude English MP’s from voting on Scottish or Wels matters (as it should be) but the Scottish & Wels MP’s can vote on areas of policy & spending that do not impact them and only have an impact on England as such the SNP & Plaid Cymru where very vocal during the election about protecting their own countries from the worst of the changes by offering their votes to the party that would spend the most with them.

Secondly who is in charge today?

Even though the Labour party have lost the election on the numbers they are still in power and do not need to step down, they can try it on their own or join up with others to cobble together a working relationship.
One of the quotes of the election night was “The country has spoken, but we are not too sure what they have said” roughly translated “The country has spoken, but to hell with the country as we (labour) can do what we want because the country is made up of an unbalanced system that we put into place giving an unfair incentive to the Scottish & Welsh to keep us in power as they can isolate themselves from the harsh times that will come, clever aren’t we.”

If the Welsh & Scottish did not have the defence of being the master of their own destiny via devolution I wonder if things would have been the same.

Third who decides who is in charge?

Whoever it is it is not the people of the United Kingdom that is for sure, it has been left to politicians to decide who is in charge, the horse trading, bending of principles or positions for power is even more in evidence in the post election this time that at any other time in my memory.

I am sorry to say that it looks like the Liberal Democrats having got to first base with the Conservative party are now starting to flirt with the Labour party. Seeing the pretty young thing and hoping to go all the way with them they have applied changed the way they look, they have told Mr Brown time to go as the pretty young thing does not like the way you look but have a shave and splash on a little aftershave and she may lie with you for the time being.

We are seeing a display shameless power brokering, Labour want to hold on to power at all costs, the Liberal Democrats want something that they can’t get and the Conservative party look to be playing a longer game to me.

But what every way you look at it a game if being played and as usual it is the electorate that has no say in what is going on. I do not thing that the political parties are showering themselves in glory, other things spring to mind but not glory.

So where next?

Well I am sure that something will be cobbled together by someone, it will last for 12 – 18 months and then we will be back at the ballot box with a new face in charge of the Labour party.

The English need the ability to represent themselves, with a parliament of their own or a rule that no non-English MP can vote on English matters.

All funding would be voted on by all members of the house including the funding formulas that would introduce a little more fairness in the system look up the Barnet formula for more information.
But one thing that will increase over the next few days and months is the apathy and disillusionment that is felt by the electorate, after all they have spoken one party is in front with the numbers but the old party is still in power by introducing a lopsided devolution and a false incentive to keep them in power.

See you back at the voting booth in a few months.

I must say I was disillusioned a few days ago but even more so, and as much as I thought Labour would do anything to stay in power even I thought they would listen to the votes. I know Mr Brown has decided to step down as leader of the Labour party but one thing that many people did not like was Mr Browns uncontested taking over of the Labour party & country, could it be that when he go’s we will have a second un elected PM in the country?

I know we do not have a presidential system in the UK and as such the leader & PM are selected by the party voted into power but the Labour party do not even have that as an excuse after all they did not win.

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So the day is almost on us where we place out X in the box, and I must say that I am underwhelmed with the campaign.

All three parties are going to put taxes up and cut spending in the next 18 months, all three want to cut the number of MPs and tinker with the electoral system to a grater or lesser degree.

There is a little difference surrounding the Human Rights Act but nothing too different between them all where it counts and I am not sorry for the main question I am asking: How much will it cost me and what services can I expect from the money that is taken from me in taxes.

So I am looking else where, I know I am going to pay more and get less regardless of who gets in and once you take that out of the equation I end up looking at my hobbies & interests.

I shoot; I travel to Europe to shoot pistols so let’s take a look in that area.

The current Shooting Times has an election special and looking at the underwhelming things that are in it for my family or me the deciding factor may have been found in the two following questions in the Shooting Times.

Not a commitment but at least the blue vertices of the triangle are saying the correct things.

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One of the common themes over the last few years of government has been to put your principles aside to satisfy what is tacitly & political expedient for the moment.

We have seen it in the passing of many questionable acts of parliament that where tacitly & political expedient or gave good headlines.

From 1997 firearms act amendments that was politically expedient, to the terror laws that where both politically and tacitly expedient regardless of the long term powers that are now in existence without the proper oversight & scrutiny. Lets not forget about the Digital Economy (DEC) Bill, the Regulation of investigatory Powers (RIP) bill and the myriad of other bills that have placed expediency above real principles.

Also look at the “modernisation” that propelled New Labour into being, look at the tactical changes in the policy of the party dropping fundamental principles for a shot of power, Clause 4, CND etc.

Not content with abandoning their own political principles for power and changing the face of British Law for what is tacitly & political expedient, now members of Labour want the voters to put aside their principles for the idea of “tactical” or “intelligent” voting.

I do hope that considering the calamitous mess that New Labour has managed to introduce that people on a matter of principle will vote them out, put the tactical & expedient to one side and re introduce principles back into the public consciousness. 

New Labour is devoid of any principles and only interested into clinging on the last vestiges of power at what ever cost. They always did leave a sour taste after abandoning their fundamental principles and now they are encouraging people to do the same. They are showing their colours to be what ever is needed for power and they are simply disgusting.

Nice to see the flag fly today.

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This is a good news story for the shooting world; there is a genuine growth in the sport for both shotguns & firearms.

It would be nice if the NRA or one of the other shooting organisations was able to harness this increase in number to push the legitimate sport of shooting out of the kneejerk politics that we have in the UK at the moment.

It would be nice to see the shooting world get together and stand united, BASC once talked about “One Voice” that idea looks to have fizzled out but perhaps with an increase of new blood in the sport we can have the one voice we so badly need.

Strong growth in shotgun and firearms ownership

A record number of firearms certificates and a rise in shotgun ownership reflects shooting’s growing popularity

There has been a strong surge in new shotgun and firearm certificates issued by the police in England and Wales, according to analysis of the latest figures published last month.

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I have been playing on the BBC website with the “Election seat calculator”, did you know that the BBC reckon that with each of the three main parties getting 30% of the vote each and others getting 10% of the vote that the outcome will be heavily slanted in favour of one party.

Give it a go: Election seat calculator quite a scary toy.

Click the image for a biger image

Well I have watched one and listened to the other on the radio and as much as they are fun and generate lots of debate away from the TV I can’t help but think that most people vote to get rid of a government.

In 1979 people wanted Labour out and voted for the Conservative party, in 1997 people wanted the Conservative out and voted for the Labour party.

It is now 2010 and people want Labour out.

It is interesting to see or listen to the debates but when people are putting the X on the paper they will not vote for what they want they will vote for what they do not want, they will look at what party will get Labour out and vote accordingly.

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Any preference?

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Tonight while I have been doing my paperwork for Mr Brown like a good tax payer I have had a couple of drams of 10 year Ardbeg and have had Mr Robert Palmer in the background, he is missed, I could do with a good night out at one of his concert, prehaps if Dave can bring back the 80’s that would not be such a bad thing. 

This is a photo of the mirrors near Dungeness, sadly I can not get to them , this photo was taken from a few hundred feet while I was in a light plane today.

Click on the image for a better view

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Is it me?

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Over the last few weeks we have had the car tax inspectors looking at cars to see how the tax is looking, someone pointed this out on eBay and as much as I do not think swearing is the best way to get your point over I can make an exception in this case, now on my car.

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A meeting was held at the NRA on the 24th March 2010. Present were: Glynn Alger, Secretary NRA (Chair), Alan Westlake and Mike Wells (SAGBNI), David Thomas (Chairman, British Pistol Club), Barbara Barber (BPC and British Women’s Pistol Association) and David Penn (BSSC). Geoff Doe (NSRA) sent his apologies.

Glynn Alger indicated that the Conservatives, were they to act on pistol shooting, would wish to do so early in a new government and wanted an agreed position from the sport. Timely agreement on a BSSC policy was therefore essential. He had discussed infrastructure and coaching issues already with Geoff Doe and the NRA and NSRA were already co-operating on a Sport England coaching project. There was also discussion on how best to manage the understandable wish of clubs and shooters to lobby parliamentary candidates on the subject. Following wide-ranging discussion of the political dimension, the following draft statement was agreed for consideration by the Council.

1. The British Shooting Sports Council wishes to see competitive shooting with cartridge pistols re-instated under controlled conditions in Great Britain. It considers that the most straightforward way of initiating this would be by the repeal of the Firearms (Amendment) (No.2) Act 1997. This would adhere to the policy position of the Conservative Government in 1996 and is, we understand, straightforward and quick to achieve in terms of Parliamentary process. It would allow the re-commencement of .22 pistol shooting in ‘Licensed Pistol Clubs’. Subject to agreement on details of implementation and licensing, it would allow the development of a proper performance pyramid at the grass-roots level, essential  if we are to put our athletes on a level playing field and to achieve long-term podium success at Olympic, World Championship and Commonwealth Games levels. 
   
2. The National Associations, mindful that public safety is paramount, will develop the security, training and coaching infrastructure for the Licensed Pistol Clubs. Coaching for national shooting success is already being developed in conjunction with Sport England and it is anticipated that similar programmes will be introduced in Scotland and Wales. 
   
3. The BSSC notes that, according to NaBIS, .22 rimfire firearms and ammunition are only rarely used in crime, despite the very widespread use of .22 rifles for target shooting, small game hunting and vermin control. It further notes that the 1997 Amendment Acts have demonstrably had no effect on the growth in the criminal use of firearms in recent years. The BSSC is seeking to address the re-establishment of a well-controlled competitive sport which is far removed from criminal misuse.