A unique online election campaign run by the UK’s largest shooting organisation, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) has gathered the views on shooting of one in four of all declared general election candidates.
The campaign, which allows people to question all their local candidates on shooting issues by using a simple web page, has received responses from more than 700 candidates. Asked if they supported shooting carried out according to existing codes of practice, 63% said yes, with a further 18% declaring themselves to be neutral on the issue. Only 13% said they were firmly against lawful shooting with 6% undecided.
BASC’s director of communications, Christopher Graffius said “Our online election campaign has brought us a more significant response than any information gathering system we have used in previous election campaigns. We have trebled the amount of information we know about candidates’ views heading into polling day.”
“What the information reveals very clearly is that there is all-party backing for shooting, with some candidates from all of the political parties expressing their support. The largest group of those expressing support are Conservatives (239) followed by the Lib Dems (114) and Labour (65) but we have had positive responses from the SNP, Plaid Cymru, UKIP, independent and even Green party candidates.”
“It is important that everyone who shoots visits the BASC election website, which can be found on our homepage www.basc.org.uk, before May 6th and adds their voice to those demanding straight answers from candidates to straight questions on shooting issues.
A breakdown of current information can be seen below:
| Anti |
95 |
| Neutral |
131 |
| Supportive |
454 |
| Unknown |
43 |
| Replied |
723 |
| No reply |
2238 |
| % Replied |
24.42% |
| % No reply |
75.58% |
| Number of responses per party | |
| Conservative |
256 |
| Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) |
3 |
| English Democrats |
17 |
| Green Party |
98 |
| Independent |
3 |
| Labour Party |
122 |
| Liberal Democrats |
189 |
| Plaid Cymru |
9 |
| Scottish National Party (SNP) |
12 |
| Labour/Co-operative |
8 |
| Conservative Unionists |
1 |
| UK Independence Party (UKIP) |
5 |
| Party position responses |
Anti |
Supportive |
Neutral |
Unknown |
| Conservative |
1 |
239 |
10 |
6 |
| Democratic Unionist Party |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
| English Democrats |
0 |
13 |
1 |
3 |
| Green Party |
74 |
3 |
19 |
2 |
| Independent |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
| Labour Party |
8 |
65 |
36 |
13 |
| Liberal Democrats |
10 |
114 |
49 |
16 |
| Plaid Cymru |
1 |
4 |
3 |
1 |
| Scottish National Party |
0 |
4 |
8 |
0 |
| Labour/Co-operative |
1 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
| Conservative Unionists |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| UK Independence Party |
0 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
