Anti-countryside and anti-toff: the week shooting became 'class warfare stuff'

This week shooting became a political target, as it was revealed that (along with hunting) it had been excluded from Boris Johnson’s new Covid 'Rule Of Six'.

People began tweeting pictures of Johnson squeezed into a waistcoat brandishing a brace of pheasants, and Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Bolton Castle’s grouse moors. Some noted that Dominic Cummings' father-in-law Sir Humphry Wakefield hosts shoots at his Chillingham Castle estate, and that a fortnight ago the Duke of Cambridge was spotted grouse-shooting near Balmoral.

“It is clear there’s one rule for the cabinet and their mates and another for the rest of us,” Shadow Environment Secretary Luke Pollard said.

Other sports exempted from the Rule of Six include football, paintball and octopush (underwater hockey). But only shooting attracted such opprobrium. As Kenneth Stephen, who works in communications for The Scottish Game-Keepers Association, says: “It’s class warfare stuff - from groups who are anti-shooting, anti-countryside and probably anti-toff”.

Shooting contributes £2bn to the UK economy and provides 74,000 full-time jobs. “Shooting is a business which supports an awful lot of jobs, often in fragile rural areas,” says Anson MacAuslan, Estate Manager at The Welbeck Estate. “There might be five to eight 'guns' on a shoot with anything up to 35 staff: beaters, keepers, pickers up, cooks and so on.”

Not to mention other local industries supported by shooting: restaurants, hotels, shops and gas stations in remote locations, from Exmoor to the Yorkshire Moors and the Scottish Highlands.

As Patrick Galbraith editor of Shooting Times notes, “it’s like saying let’s scrap restaurants because rich people eat there”.

Significantly, shooting is only exempt from the Rule Of Six while the sport is actually taking place (ironic, given shooting is the most isolated part of the day). Hospitality (catering and accommodation) must adhere to the Rule of Six and other safety guidance.

Gone are the days of 30 people being waited on in lodges, squashing into gun wagons, or sharing buffet lunches and bottles of whisky by drawing-room fires. Instead, I hear stories of socially distanced dinners, butlers in visors, safari-style glamping, absurdly over-sized tables and having to change your own bed.

Chris Horne, MD of GunsOnPegs, who connects buyers and sellers of shooting days, has seen impressive innovations. “The most interesting thing I’ve seen is a lovely, canvas safari tent lodge with a fully bespoke set-up: Chesterton sofas, a full dining table and heaters.” Built on the Frampton Estate, this allows large groups to stay ‘together’ while remaining distanced.

Parties turning up to a shoot have their temperatures checked and fill out track and trace health forms. Instead of piling into Land Rovers and gun buses, passengers are limited to six, wearing face-masks (like on the tube) or they travel separately via private transport. “A lot of shoots are demanding more and more cars,” says Horne. “I’ve seen literally 19 4x4s parked up on a drive where usually there would be six.”

Guns are sterilised. People keep their own kit and are cautious. “People are aware if you’re handing a pheasant from one person to another it’s a potential Covid transmission moment," says Patrick, “so you need to get the hand gel out.”

At elevenses and lunch it would now be illegal to have seven people squashed around the tale of a bothy, so dining is al fresco. Individual picnic boxes are served with game pies and cream scones, or game BBQs with disposable cutlery.

Marquees have appeared in the grounds of grand houses, some with vast dining tables so comically big they meet regulatory requirements for ten people to socially distance. “We’ve seen some fun stuff where people have said 'we’re going to have the biggest table you’ve ever seen to try and keep it as normal as possible but within the rules',” Chris says.

Some lodges take the opposite approach, dramatically distancing tables - like at a wedding where everyone hates one other. At Ripley Castle Shoot, the castle opened up extra space to spread tables out. Still, I’m told despite social separation “banter is just as good”.

“It’s not like you can shoot and therefore you can all get pissed and sit on the sofa together,” says Patrick. “There are lots of restrictions. People who shoot are looking at people crammed in Soho thinking ‘that’s worrying!’.”

Read more: The ethical brigade want a fur-free Britain - but the reality is complicated

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