Aim to Sustain our way of life
Having spent the entire weekend trudging around Ragley Hall, I left the showground in a surprisingly good mood. My cheerful mien wasn’t due to any guilty, frivolous purchase nor even the thought of savouring a dram when I got home from the bottle of Dalwhinnie that I won off Liam Bell in a rugby-related wager. My happy demeanour was a hangover from the Game Fair’s opening day.
On that Friday, I witnessed a public — possibly seismic — shift in tactics and direction by those entrusted to protect shooting. In the show’s Carter Jonas Theatre, the nine leaders of Britain’s foremost rural organisations came together to officially announce the launch of a partnership called Aim to Sustain (, 28 July). This partnership, if it fulfils its potential, will provide, in the words of BASC chief executive Ian Bell, a “clear signal of intent that we are not running scared of our detractors and that the British countryside speaks with one voice”.
