Chris Packham interviewed on BBC1’s breakfast show this morning: 1.6 million viewers
I had a call from London early this morning to tell me that Chris Packham was right at that moment being interviewed at his home in the New Forest by BBC1 on its breakfast show.
He spoke about how Malta is the only European Union member state that is allowed to bend the rules on spring-hunting, and the enormous damage this is doing to birds of passage which transit through the islands en route to other EU member states, including Britain.
BBC1’s breakfast show is the most widely watched in Britain, with 1.6 million viewers every day. It is the show people keep running while they are going about getting dressed before going out to work or doing the school run.
The coverage is massive. And for Malta, it has been massively negative.
The news story of a popular, well-known BBC presenter’s interrogation and detention by the Maltese police on the subject of, of all things, much-loved birds was always going to have – as it’s known in the business – legs.
This means that it runs and runs from one media channel to another and grows exponentially.
This could have been predicted.
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And now the government will change the law to render useless the effort of collecting signatures for the referendum on the subject.
I honestly hope that the referendum is held and government is not scared of losing face or votes if the rightful will of the people are in favour of abolishing spring hunting. AD have nothing to lose but its thanks to them if we got as far.
Hunters are probably the equivalents of some Lidl shoppers when it comes to being unable to behave civilly:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hHDlYL6MmKo&sns=fb
As much as I agree with Chris Packham and with the cause to abolish not just spring hunting but all types of hunting, I need to comment. The snippet that infers that EU member states should be concerned because of the damage hunting is causing is true and I agree, but shouldn’t they be concerned about human beings as well who are dying in an effort to transit to the same EU member states. Shouldn’t we and Chris Packham speak about such issues too at the breakfast show? Or are birds more important than human life?
[Daphne – One does not exclude the other, Manwel. It is not either/or: either talk about hunting or talk about asylum-seekers. And you can hardly accuse the British of not bending over backwards to accomodate asylum-seekers. Their extreme accomodation is in fact directly responsible for much of the growth in support of the UKIP.]
Actually Chris Packham has courted controversy on many occasions by suggesting the reduction of the human population to alleviate the pressure on wildlife.
Most of the members of this government can’t see beyond their noses – as long as it doesn’t impinge on their lifestyle. So what the hack.
As for the Opposition, in this case it’s playing very quiet.
It is a golden opportunity for it to explain, that no other EU member state got a derogation where spring hunting is involved.
It should drive home that all the hard work it put in that effort is being reduced to zilch by some of the hunters themselves and by the high handed action of the police.
Actually what happened strengthens the no hunting outlook. Thank you, hunters and police.
The other side of the coin is the bad press it gave to Malta and the probable resultant drop in tourism, especially from the UK.
Why should there be a drop in tourisim from England?
The British still flock to Spain even though they have bull fights there.
[Daphne – The Spanish kill their own bulls, Mr Loporto, not migratory ones on their way to and from Britain.]
Unfortunately this whole incident has highlighted that even when you are in the right the Maltese Police/Government are not to be trusted.
If a highly respected BBC presenter cannot even get justice when all he was doing was filming in a public place what chance does the average Maltese citizen have?
Malta has gone back 30 years in less than 14 months.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiHWq4lkSLA
Xi darba ma kienx hemm ahmar u blu. Prosit Guz jekk qed taqdi lilna.
Jien ma niftakar l-ebda prim ministru jitkellem hekk.
He says that for every 1 extra person on the unemployment register, he has created 9 jobs.
Well, we have it from the horse’s mouth. What he says means that under his government, he is creating and sustaining an unemployment rate of 10%.
That’s before considering the unemployed from pre-March 2013, which at the time was measured at 6%.
I think that the Opposition should announce that the complete elimination of bird hunting on Malta is next on their programme.
See how many people would want that.
They have nothing to lose now.
Nice ! This is one of Britain’s most followed shows.
Most recent Chris Packham interview
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-27192793
I fear that Malta’s democratic credentials are going to be tested first if talk on adjusting current legislation restricting the holding of the referendum on Spring hunting, gathers momentum.
‘This could have been predicted’. But not by the idiots such as the ones managing this administration.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140429/local/oddie-hits-back-over-outrageous-bullying.516928
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140429/local/Police-nothing-intimidating-about-questioning.516867
Perhaps the moderator could share her experience confirming the lovely time to be had when questioned for five hours at a stretch.
Questioning by the police is fun. Ask for it and you’ll get some.
‘….BBC wildlife presenter Chris Packham, who was collaborating with Birdlife in tracking down illegalities, had voluntarily released a long statement indicating a number of occurrences which “Mr Barbara seems to have forgotten to mention to the police”, the police said.’
So Packham had information, and how does that put Nicholas Barbara in the wrong light? This police force is becoming bolder by the minute.
Meanwhile, an opinion poll on MaltaStar asking the MaltaSheep if the government is great, or just good.
http://i.imgur.com/Xo95idR.jpg
Shouldn’t there be another option: “Disagree, the government is lying yet again. The deficit does not agree with the increase in the national debt”?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140429/local/muscat-vague-over-change-of-law-to-block-referendum.516939
“Times of Malta is informed the government has informally told FKNK members that it will go along with their proposal to block the referendum if they manage to gather a good number of thousands of signatures in their ongoing petition.
Dr Muscat insisted that spring hunting must continue, irrespective of whether a referendum is held.”
So much for a “Gvern li jisma'”.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140429/local/muscat-vague-over-change-of-law-to-block-referendum.516939
I find this very worrying.
Muscat seems to think there is nothing wrong with tampering with the referendum law. Ironically he is quite right about the Opposition’s fence-sitting on this one. Equally shameful in my view.
The Opposition’s stand should be on the lines of – look we got you hunters the derogation but if a majority of people think we were wrong in obtaining it then we will bow to the democratic will. Very simple…or am I missing something?
Again the Opposition seems to be walking blindfold into the PM’s trap, which I find very unnerving to say the least.
Here’s the interview uploaded on BBC Breakfast’s facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=855681784445961&set=vb.127439507270196&type=2&theater
What’s Stormin’ Norman in Malta House, Piccadilly, doing about this?
I hope you heard my comments to his blatant lies about Malta and also about the hunting of Birds in the UK during spring. Of course you would never publish that would you.
That too could have been predicted.
[Daphne – I didn’t hear them, Mark, because they were not covered in the headlines in the UK press, which is the subject here. However, if you wish to write a piece, send it in and I will upload it as a guest post.]
this is the video clip of the interview:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=855681784445961
Also I sent this as an open letter to the press:
Perfect Slander
Can Chris Packham the BBC Sprngwatch presenter brought over by Birdlife Malta explain how with a voluntary crew of BBC freelancers, other than 5 illegally shot birds he was not able to substantiate his ” five days watching birds illegally shot down” by at least capturing one bird being shot down on film.
On the April 29 BBC Breakfast Show in reply to my statement he referred to “many birds in ditches, swifts and swallows used for target practice”, and yet not one was documented.
He was reported by the London Times as coming to Malta to film “thousands of Maltese hunters shooting millions of migratory birds”. yet after correcting this blaming it upon a translation error and after all the hype not one was filmed being shot.
Packham is fooling the Maltese and British public and his allegations are totally slanderous and false.
Packham came in support of Birdlife Malta who for years have been lobbying to end spring hunting. He rendered an impeccable service in support of this cause apart from generating 50,000 euro for Birdlife Malta thanks to his sweet talk
What he still needs to prove is the truth.