What hope for progress?
MY heart sank when I heard the Norwich election-result. That swing nationally would give the Tories a majority of hundreds – another government which could ram through any law it wanted, ignoring back-bench rebellions.
Animal welfare would suffer direly – even worse than it has under Labour. Cameron likes bloodsports and has bloodsporting enthusiasts in his inner circle. Admittedly the Hunting Act is already being flouted and sidestepped with impunity nationwide, but with its promised repeal I can forsee a return of otter-hunting, stag-hunting and hare-coursing, maybe with Lottery funds to support it, maybe with lessons on the school curriculum ( shooting and angling, approved by Labour, have been getting into schools ). And under a government that thinks killing animals for fun is okay, what hope for progress against factory farming, live export, and all the other cruelties, legal or illegal, that go on?
It is not only animal welfare that suffers from a big parliamentary majority, as we have seen from the succession of anti-freedom laws passed by Labour. We need to stop lurching back and forth from the red to the blue. There's little enough we can do under our non-representative voting system, but I suggest that if the incumbent'ls majority is small those who care should vote against the polls in the hope of a hung or nearly-hung parliament. If that fails we'll get another elective dictatorship.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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