The Campaign for the Protection of Moorland Communities (C4PMC) was founded in October 2019 in response to continued aggression, intimidation and inaccuracies spread about moorland management and individuals working across our moorland communities, particularly gamekeepers and their families.
To give you just a few examples of this, they include:
Gamekeepers having activists setting cameras on their home;
Sheep farmers and their children being accosted and screamed at in their villages by masked activists;
Tens of thousands of pounds worth of equipment being vandalised across moorland estates;
Malicious notes including accusation of being ‘rapists’ and ‘paedophiles’ sent to employers and neighbours;
A never-ending barrage of personal abuse across social media;
Local game-dealers and butcher shops being vandalised and painted over, resulting in much needed income being lost, particularly given the effects of the ongoing pandemic.
We believe strongly that the social, economic and environmental benefits brought to our communities by integrated moorland management bring enormous public benefits and we will seek to protect these. We wish to raise further public awareness of this, but it should be of little surprise that those involved did not want to publicise their involvement given the vicious hostility, both online and in person, that has been shown for many years towards gamekeepers and their families.
C4PMC is supported by a London based PR firm, SABI Strategy Group, in a similar way those campaigning for grouse moor reform are also supported by a PR firm. Ideas for stories for the C4PMC website are contributed from across the upland communities in the UK. There are no other members of staff involved. Any individuals who had been represented at any stage on our website are only reflecting the moorland communities C4PMC represents.
Whilst we have been hard hitting in many of our stories, including in respect of the RSPB’s Senior Parliamentary Officer, Adam Barnett, we have only ever sought to report the truth. For example, we believed it is important for the public to understand that the individual responsible for the RSPB’s political direction is a Labour activist who was a former staffer to Labour Kerry McCarthy MP. McCarthy has been singularly the most vocal critic and campaigner against grouse shooting, demonstrated by providing Chris Packham an unprecedented unique platform in Parliament without any opportunity to be challenged on his claims. We make no apology for bringing this to public light. A public charity should not operate in this way.
C4PMC have also sought on many occasions to be conciliatory, demonstrating the benefit of collective effort with all parties working together, and continue to be so. We believe our editorial stance is firm, but fair and this will not change.
We reiterate, we welcome all contributions to our news blog which reflect the interests of our moorland communities.
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