As the general election campaign officially begins the UK’s largest shooting organisation, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), is calling for people to use its unique online campaign to target candidates for their views on shooting issues.
The BASC campaign is entirely web-based and can be found at www.0ld.basc.org.uk. It allows people to contact their local candidates and to question their support for shooting. The results are sent back to the voter. When the replies are forwarded to BASC it allows a comprehensive picture to be established.
The online campaign began in January. Before the election was formally announced, around 20% of all candidates had responded. Of those views known so far, candidates from the three main parties who have said they are either supportive or neutral on shooting carried out according to existing codes of practice, are as follows:
Conservative: (195 responses) 98% supportive or neutral.
Lib Dem: (126 responses) 84% supportive or neutral.
Labour: (83 responses) 81% supportive or neutral.
BASC spokesman Simon Clarke said: “Thanks to BASC’s tailor-made election campaign site, we have already had more responses and clearer information on where candidates stand on shooting than during any other election campaign. This looks like being one of the closest elections for decades and we will have more new MPs in Parliament than we have seen since 1945. Now is the time for any shooter with access to the internet to get online and follow our easy-to-use website to send a list of prepared questions off to their candidates and forward any replies to BASC. The more information we have, the better prepared we will be for our work in the next parliament.”
To view the online campaign click here.
ENDS.