The following extract was written by Douglas Batchelor, the former CEO of The League Against Cruel Sports charity. The full article is provided by a link below (Please scroll down this website for further events held by Conservatives Against Fox Hunting going back to October 2010
In the discussion at the
(League Against Cruel Sports) AGM two issues in particular came up. The first being the question of how much the Hunting Act is under threat. The short answer to that question is that the government have made it clear that they fully intend, within this Parliament (before the next election), to hold their vote on a vote on whether or not to debate the possible repeal of the Hunting Act.
The general political consensus is that “now is not the time” for Parliament to be debating such an issue as hunting. The public concern about the VAT increase and planned benefit cuts, proposed NHS reforms, planned cuts to local and central government spending are all seen as more pressing matters for parliament to deal with. The possible knock-on effects of what is happening to currencies like the Euro because of Greece and to the United States Dollar because of the failure there to agree the budget, would also make it look a very peculiar decision for the UK Parliament to devote time to debate the possible return of hunting as a bloodsport. It would be seen as the modern equivalent of Nero playing the fiddle while Rome was burning.
However, the politics of timing a vote aside, there is a determination amongst the hunters to have their day in Parliament at the earliest possible opportunity. They feel that they were promised repeal and that following the help that they gave to some politicians during the election, they feel that they are owed, and they want payback.
The smart money says that the coalition won’t go for a vote on a vote any time soon and that they will leave it till the six months before the next election, holding the vote then and then whatever the result, promising further action after the next election, if of course they are elected or re-elected. Such a policy would allow them to say that they had honoured their pledge to hold a vote on a vote, but would also let them off the hook of actually doing anything more than that during this parliament.
However rumour has it that there is a new ‘third way’ of making progress on the hunting issue. The Red Tape consultation provides a door opener to a coalition government decision to review the law on all wildlife welfare and to review the conservation acts and regulations, with a view to making them all simpler and of course at the same time offering a chance and a back door way, of either repealing or amending the Hunting Act into the legal long grass. In essence the hunters inside and outside Government haven’t given up, they have just changed tack a bit, so we will need to be very vigilant for months and years to come.
Any review of the law and the possible drafting of some new consolidated bill and regulations will take time, as much time as is thought to be necessary to do the work and such time as is thought by those in charge of it politically expedient, but the devils will be in the details of it, and we will need to be very vigilant throughout the process.
Allied to the members’ concern about the possible back door attack on the Hunting Act was the concern about possible moves to disenfranchise MPs from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from exercising their free vote on the hunting issue when it eventually comes up in parliament. While there does appear to be a reasonable majority against repeal at the moment, there is always a risk of some gerrymandering and of other pressures being put on MPs as long as hunting has powerful supporters within parliament and government. We must remain vigilant
Please read the full article here.http://www.league.org.uk/blogs_entry.aspx?id=533
