It's....

[carrust]

...amazing what you can get subsidies for....
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/28/britain-plutocrats-landed-gentry-shotgun-owners

[youngmafbog]

Comments like this say it all, coming from a left wing rag

it costs them £196 to conduct the background checks required to ensure shotguns are issued only to the kind of dangerous lunatics who use them for mowing down pheasants, rather than to the common or garden variety.

[carrust]

Errr cost of a shotgun license held & subsidies increased to grouse moor owners????

[Svejk]

200 quid for the police to check your record. flip me, how do they arrive at that figure?

[youngmafbog]

I was referring to the use of the word 'lunatic'

[carrust]

Was it this lunatic?
http://www.talking-naturally.co.uk/killed-harriers-harry/

[youngmafbog]

No, it appears to be just more lefty name calling.

[Svejk]

that bloke who wrote your link sounds a right tw*t, crusty.
its not you, is it? lol.

[carrust]

I like the report but the language used isn't called for.

[Svejk]

bit chippy, aint he?

[carrust]

Nowt wrong with being a bit chippy. Better that than a forelock tugger who show too much deference to the so called ruling classes!!!

[Bazile]

//A few days after it was revealed that an NHS group is considering charging patients for the crutches, walking sticks and neck braces it issues, we discovered that David Cameron has intervened to keep the cost of gun licences frozen at £50: a price that hasn't changed since 2001.//

Well he's got one eye on the coming election - so he has to keep certain sections of community sweet

[shoota]

I'm shocked anyone purporting to have a brain can take this rant for anything other left wing political propaganda.

[carrust]

Do you think its right for the land owners (who aren't poor) to have increased subsidies on the land they own? I never realised that a shotgun license was that cheap. Is it paid yearly.
Was this story printed in the right wing press?

[shoota]

Many types of habitat these days attract subsidies (wetlands, heathlands etc) in order to preserve them for the species which require those habitats to survive. The acreages of heather that exist on moors also used for grouse shoots are one of those endangered habitats therefore are as entitled to subsidies as anywhere else. This author has chosen to make the link with wealthy people to further his own agenda.
Shotgun licences are renewed every 5 years, at one time they were 2/6d. They are only expensive to administer because of the time consuming and (largely) unnecessary repetition of checks for each renewal.
The vast majority of shotgun certificate holders are neither wealthy nor landed but middle or low income people who enjoy clay shooting or who use shotguns for their work or leisure in the country.

[ToraToraTora]

bleedin Grauniad locks up my machine every time I go to their site!

[pixie373]

Shoota, out of interest, what checks do they do? An enhanced police check is £50. What else do they look into? Xx

[pixie373]

...sorry- £44, just looking it up.

[shoota]

They check your cabinets and house security, serial numbers of guns, they can contact your GP if there is any suggestion of a relevant ailment.
Some forces are more stringent than others and some enquiry officers are more 'jobsworth' than others......

[pixie373]

Ok. Thank you.