Pro blood sport Tory vote in chaos as pro hunters panic at not gaining repeal. Yet the dangers for our wildlife continues. The news that the Tories have lost one in 8 rural votes and in particular support amongst the Countryside Alliance members is welcome. Not because these people are leaving for valid reasons. There is not respectability in basing a vote purely on the desire for blood sport. No it is welcome because it shows a collapse of the hunting vote in an organised way and because the pro hunting Countryside Alliance front Vote OK is also now in tatters. Vote OK which was partly set up and run by David Camerons father in law, Viscount Astor was created to enable pro hunting supporters to campaign for pro hunting MP candidates in General Elections. However despite claiming they were non partisan there support was always waited towards Tory candidates and deliberately targeted mostly anti hunting Labour MPs. Some 15000 fox hunters and supporters across the UK would descend into constituencys delivering Conservative Party leaflets and even canvassing. They could have knocked on your door! But you would not have know it was a fox hunter. They wore Tory Rosettes but they had nothing to identify them from being from Vote OK. This approach is underhand and undemocratic, those MP candidates who gained this support seldom declared it, and because of the numbers helping it gave a false impression to the actual support the candidate had. The way in which these activist operate is also highly dubious because they do not declare who they are and why they are really helping the candidate. Misleading the public in this way is wrong and has no place as a legitimate form of political campaigning. To gain the support of these activists the candidates would have to sign a pledge to say that they will back the pro blood sport cause and would vote for repeal of the hunting ban. A pledge that many Tory MPs in Parliament today have tried to fulfil and are still trying. Now we regard UKIP as a vile party that is raciest in its tone and actions and one that is no friend of the animals. There rise in prominence will likely be short lived and overall they will have little impact in gaining seats at the next election. However they clearly do split the Tory vote and in particular they split the pro hunting vote so this is good news for our wildlife heading towards 2015. However there is a danger to this news, David Cameron and his Tory MPs will be panicking about the lost votes and they will be looking at ways to regain them. We have already seen the underhand ways the Tories are seeking to undermine the hunting ban. The recent nonsense about hill farmers needing more than two dogs to flush a fox was such an attempt to enable full hunt packs to hunt though the back door. You can also bet that the press will play their part with more ludicrous stories about foxes and these will continue regardless that they will all have something in common. They will have no facts to back up there outlandish claims and nor will the press look for them. Yet the biggest threat is still to come and that it the repeal vote the Tories are planning for 2014. They cannot be sure they can win the vote and Labour MPs will lead the charge against them succeeding. Yet with the news that the hunting vote is in tatters Mr Cameron will be even more desperate to get fox hunting legal again. We have no doubt when the repeal vote comes it will be no walk in the park, there are a lot of factors that have to come together and the vote cannot be taken for granted to go the way we all want it to. There is a majority of MP against repeal but it will take every anti MP to be in the chamber for the vote. In the coming weeks/months we will be setting out how all of you can help to ensure our wildlife has a voice. Mr Cameron, his pro hunting Tory MPs and those on the LIb Dem side who support repeal along with the Countryside Alliance can all be beat. With your support that is what can happen. Our wildlife is important the views and wants of those who back mindless animal cruelty are not. goo.gl/plUiAH
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 10:36:43 +0000
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