The Countryside Alliance seems to think that it owns the Conservative Party – I’ve sometimes wondered the same.
The Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation has issued a manifesto for the future which calls for ‘an inquiry into commercial driven shoots’ and calls for ‘a review of the industry of shooting live birds for sport shooting’. I wonder whether those phrases would have been used if it weren’t for the petition to ban driven grouse shooting which received 123,077 signatures last year (other, failed, petitions have been available see here, here, here). Things don’t move backwards very easily – we moved things forward on the issue of unsustainable intensive grouse shooting.
I think I might draw the attention of my Conservative MP to this group and see whether he might want to look into getting involved in it – you might want to do the same. And if your MP happened to be Roger Gale (Thanet North; 194 signatures to ban driven grouse shooting, just 10 signatures to protect it), Henry Smith (Crawley: 147 signatures to ban driven grouse shooting, just 6 to protect it) or David Amess (Southend West: 152 signatures to ban driven grouse shooting, just 9 to protect it) then you might want to thank them for already being involved.
Liam Stokes (Jokesy Stokesy to his friends) called for a purge of caring Tories from the Conservative Party, or words to that effect!
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It is impossible to purge caring Tories from the Tory Party, because there is literally no such thing. At best there might be Tories who are good at putting up a good public pretence of caring, but that is all it is. A caring Tory is someone who had a Road to Damascus Revelation moment and is in the few minutes between that revelation and being able to write out their resignation and apology. A caring Tory is an contradiction in terms.
Henry Smith MP (Crawley, see above) is an exception. He and Jeremy Corbyn champion the Chargossians’ right of return to their ancestral homelands in the tropical paradise islands of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The islanders were tricked and forced out by a Labour government in the 1960’s so that the US could set up a strategic airbase there. In return the US gave us Polaris.
http://archive.chagossupport.org.uk/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zhGvId4fcc
Re H. Smith MP, I should have put this link:
https://www.henrysmith.info/campaigns/chagos-islands
And then there’s Two-Brains-Willets …..
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2010/feb/11/david-willetts-new-book-society
Some, like my MP, are very good at ‘caring’, but vote in an entirely different way! I’m afraid I judge by actions rather than words.
It’s crucial to avoid getting too party political if progress is to be made, slagging off conservatives will hardly get them to support the call for a ban. There is a group of conservatives who are opposed to fox hunting and are not shy in their opposition, they should be welcomed and encouraged. Over 70% of Tories oppose hunting and they could doubtless be convinced by the compelling arguments to end DGS.
I am a socialist and Trades Unionist but I really do think it is better to put aside party politics and work toward a common goal because Mark is right when he says things are moving forward and trading insults risks slowing that progress.
Agree. Well said.
But the trading of insults doesn’t just risk ‘slowing progress’, it risks shutting down debate altogether.
I’m a member of the Labour party and I’ve never voted Tory, but I have had the pleasure of meeting and hearing speak some of the people involved in Blue Fox and the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation. I’m in no doubt that they are absolutely sincere in their views on animal welfare and their attitude towards blood sports. In my view, the likes of Roger Gale, Lorraine Platt and David Amess go beyond sincerity and are actually very brave in taking a position totally at odds with most of their party colleagues.
I don’t know their views on the NHS, welfare cuts or Brexit (and I would probably strongly disagree with them), but I’m right with them regarding their stance on animal abuse and blood sports. It takes guts for a Tory politician to publicly challenge the hunting and shooting lobbies, and I admire them for it.
In general, I’m very skeptical about wildlife organisations cosying up with the likes of gamekeepers, shooters and the NFU, but I really think we should support these principled politicians. In fact, working with them might be one of the few ways of getting some real change in the dismal shooting landscape.
I’m appalled that Liam Stokes wants them shunned by the rest of the Tory party – a fully paid-up member of the ‘nasty brigade’.
Agree. Well said.
Never voted Tory either.
I agree, Roy Leader and Alan Two.
I’m a member of the Green Party and have also never voted Tory – but the Blue Fox (and Blue Badger, Blue Hare) groups deserve credit.
My Tory MP thinks he can support fracking in the county and driven grouse shooting whilst claiming to be environmentally aware and green. Bollocks really as usual from them supports that old adage from the Thatcher years ” the only good tory is a LAVA–tory.
Liam Stokes is a fully paid up member of the Labour Party is he not?
If anyone thinks the Hen Harrier persecution is a Tory issue then they are living in cloud cuckoo land.It is a decades old issue and Labour never sorted it and would not stand any better chance than this lot in future.
Only possible chance of it getting solved is decades of pressure and getting general members of the public informed and on the H Hs side.
Be best to leave politics out of it as politicians in power all act in a similar way.
It would seem that this group has nothing to do with conservative party and is not licensed to use the logos or state any affiliation. I would expect them to face legal action in the near future.
The Conservative politicians involved in this group are potential allies and are worth following up, to get progress on this we are going to need the support of a wide group of people. If supporters can be identified in each of the political parties then that it is going to help. The trick will be trying to get some of these proposals like banning snares, funding the National Wildlife Crime Unit and the inquiry into driven shoots in front of the Environment/Defra Committee or into draft legislation!