Clarification. Airshot:, SORRY - AIRHOLIC. NO you cannot shoot woodpigeons for the pot, because they have no defined shooting season in the UK.
You CAN shoot woodpigeons for crop protection, at any time of th eyear (i.e. there is no close season - although I, personally, would not advocate shooting them during the nesting season. That is just my old fashioned stance on it. It is legal, I just don't want to...for obvious reasons.)
Now, you must understand the reasons behind this differentiation, with regard to the rest of Europe. France and Italy in particular, their shooters are hopping mad that we can shoot woodpigeons all year round, under the general license agreement. This is because their own Ministers cocked up, in their view and when viewed against our Minister's approach to the subject, in that the woodpigeon in France & Italy (I know of these two, possibly Belgium, Lux, Spain, Germany et al) has a close season, and they are treated as a game bird, not a pest species. The French and Italian shooters want to know why we can shoot pigeons during the (as they see it) close season -and they can't.
Our Minister has actually done a good job in the past to maintain our right to shoot under the general license, because there is a great deal of pressure in Europe (Brussels) to make us fall in to line with them and have a close season on woodpigeons....hence why it is so important that we maintain our stance of only shooting for crop protection. NOT FOR THE POT. The fact you eat them afterwards has absolutely nothing whatever to do with - that was NOT the reason you shot them. It was just that having shot them for croip protection reasons it was a waste not to eat them.
Semantics? Word play? That is what politics is all about. So no more shooting for the pot, OK. Only for crop protection - then eat those pests rather than feed the fox.
EDIT: Actually, reading my own post, there is a glaring hole in the middle of my explanation. That is, as soon as you shoot for the pot, you turn a pest into game.....and they have close seasons, pests don't.