Thus every kind their pleasure find
The savage and the tender
Some social join and leagues combine
Some solitary wander
Avaunt away! the cruel sway
Tyrannic man’s dominion
The sportsman’s joy, the murdering cry
The fluttering gory pinionNow Westlin’ Wins by Robert Burns, 1786
Robert Burns, 200 years ago, a farmer unavoidably pragmatic about his animals you have to assume, seems to have had no time for the unequal mass slaughter of birds by the gentry not doubt trampling his fields to get at their tiny prey.
Sadly, today, they’re still at it and indignant should we try to make them at least pay for their sickly tastes.
Only being reported in farming and hunting sources, yesterday and in the Countryside Alliance website, this:
Holyrood has been criticised by rural groups for unfairly stripping shoots and deer forests of rates relief. Shoots and deer forests with low enough rateable values (£20,000 or less) were eligible for the Small Business Bonus Scheme, providing relief for business rates bills, but the Scottish Government this week (13 January) made an unexpected announcement that this would no longer be the case, and that they are set to lose eligibility for the scheme as of April 1 2026.
The announcement, made as part of the 2026 Scottish Budget, came unexpectedly, and seemingly without either explanation or any form of consultation with rural groups and affected parties.
From April 1, affected businesses will be eligible for a transitional relief that will phase the loss of the benefit over three years, but it comes as little consolation to business owners who will see bills rise. Rate payers will pay 25% of the increase to their net bill in 2026/27, 50% in 2027/28 and 75% in 2028/29.
See that ‘rural’ groups? Have all the villagers had a say? Why is the MSM not reporting this SNP initiative in the run-up to the May Scottish election?
It’s popular. 60% of Scots explicitly oppose grouse shooting and only 13% support it.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23914731.majority-scots-grouse-moor-land-management/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
One of my favourite Burns songs, particularly Dick Gaughan’s rendition.
As for subsidies to landowners, if the general public knew how many millions are handed over every year there would be a revolution. It’s what the House of Lords is for. This largesse hasn’t changed since Norman times.
Largesse = Norman for thievery.
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Aww that brings on the tears…Dick Gaughan sings it on one of his albums..amazing, I didn’t know it was Burns poem.
I see there has been demos outside of Holyrood, and a petition to stop the ‘Guga cull’, one of the biggest to be sent to the Scottish parliament. The thing is, it’s an English guy who is really good in opposing fox hunting etc, however, the Guga cull (culling baby Gannets?)
much as it is VERY cruel and should be stopped, has been high profile as it should, and had an email about it the other day delighting that the BBC has covered the story, it was of course another SNP bad story. Has the BBC covered the Grouse shooting story? I have not heard anything about it via the anti Fox hunting, anti Guga cull activists either.
The rates relief for killing Grouse is a disgrace, and three years transitional funding, I just despair.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g3l1qn3pwo
Court throws out £50m claim over failed bottle return scheme
Maybe Diffa should sue the Torries and Jack
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