The alternative vote

By Kizzy Bass

Britain has an important decision to makeby May 7th, not who will run the country but which bird should represent our nation.

With America having the bald eagle and India the peacock, Britain, which is renowned as an animal loving nation, has no official national bird. This is set to change.

David Lindo, aka The Urban Birder, has organised a campaign to find if the robin is still the favourite UK bird, as originally voted in the 1960’s poll by The Times, or will one of the other nine shortlisted birds knock it off its perch.

So what do people think should be our nation’s bird?

Alan Redpath, farm manager at Lowesby Farms, said: “I would choose the robin. We have three or four on our feeder each morning. They symbolise Britain.”

Kirsti-Mai Scrivens, first year Journalism and Creative Writing student at De Montfort University, said: “The barn owl as they are cute.”

Patricia Bass, a retired data entry worker from Lowesby, said: “The robin, as they are always nice to see in the garden and have a great character. They are very photogenic and have a lovely bird song.”

The shortlist for the ten birds includes the red kite, recently reintroduced to parts of England, including Northamptonshire and Scotland, and the puffin. The original list had 60 bird species nominated by more than 70,000 people.

With the vote closing on the same day as the general election, we may know who the winner is before we know who will be running the country.

Once this decision has been made, Mr Lindo will present the Queen and the new Prime Minister with the result and lobby for the winner to become the UK’s national bird.

To cast your vote visit: www.votenationalbird.com