So how will you vote?
We promised you a guiding hand to help you vote to keep cruelty out of the countryside. Well, the chart is now pretty near complete… I don’t think we ever expected perfection, but in most cases you can dial in your constituency name, and see clearly the leanings – or, usually, the commitments of the candidates who are standing. This, alone, we hope, will be a helpful guide. In most seats in the country we have been able to identify at least one ‘safe’ candidate, who is committed to keeping the fox-hunting ban in place, and in many cases these candidates have given assurances that they will prioritise the welfare of animals across the board. The only areas which are really ‘dark’ are in the West Country, where we have had most difficulty in getting answers from anyone.
OF course there are basically two ways of casting your vote; one is for a candidate you feel will represent your interests best in Parliament, and most us connected with this site feel that the issue of animals is an important factor in this.
The other is ‘tactical voting’ – which really only means that you are voting for a PARTY, rather than a local candidate. Or you may be voting to keep a particular party OUT of office.
Many of our friends in the animal-friendly world are advocating the latter policy in voting this time, and there is a good case for saying that this election may present the best case for tactical voting in recent times.
Looking at the ‘colour’ of the parties with regard to animals, certain generalizations CAN be made. The whole of the Green Party are against repeal, and their proposals for reform of animal laws are by far the most comprehensive of any party, in our opinion. Their Leader Caroline Lucas is on board as a personal endorsee for SAVE ME, and her assurance that the Greens would continue to fight for laws to protect all our native animals is absolute. We have probably not given enough time here to the Animals Count Party, who are absolutely safe as regards fox-hunting, badgers, and are on the case as regards snares and abuses in Farming and Laboratories. We applaud them.
UKIP candidates have been quite dismissive of animal rights. At least one of their number has been boasting recently about how much they enjoy Stag-hunting – so in our opinion they are on the whole not worth considering, with the exception of Barry Harding in Somerton and Frome.
As for the other smaller parties, we have a short-list of good guys… candidates against repeal… at the bottom of this page.
The whole of the Labour Party except Ms Hoey of Vauxhall are against repeal. As regards blood-sports, they are a totally SAFE bet. And we now have the endorsement of Gordon Brown for the Campaign, and his assurance that a Labour Government will support the ban and try to improve its effectiveness.
The Conservative Party is, of course largely pro-repeal, and it is absolutely because of their fundamentally Countryside Alliance-led strategy to bring back legalised blood-sports that all of us have felt so compelled to take up the sword to defend our native wildlife. There are 26 Tory candidates who have promised to vote against Repeal. But the rest, the vast majority, seem to be either directly hooked into the Countryside Alliance, and part of the ‘plot’ to take over Britain while denying that that their agenda is prioritizing legalizing Blood-Sports, or they are more peripheral party members who have been herded into complicity in the thrust for Repeal (their replies being evasive, or non-existent, or a standard letter dictated from head office). So it has to be said that the possibility of Conservatives getting a clear majority is a hideous prospect for all our wildlife. The minister of the Environment that Cameron is fielding, Nick Herbert, is a lifelong fox-hunter, and an official of the Countryside Alliance for most of his adult life. He is firmly committed to the return of Blood-Sports, and has vowed to abandon the current vaccination programme for our badgers; he will cull them instead – with no stated limit on how far the elimination of these animals will go. The prospect of this man sitting in the DEFRA office, in charge of our wildlife policy, is almost unthinkable for people who care about animals. Yet it may happen, if the current rabid anti-Brown hysteria continues til Polling day.
The Libdems are still, after the intense non-stop talking of the last few weeks, not easy to read as regards animal policies. Clegg is on record as saying that he personally would vote against Repeal, but it was a one-off answer in an interview, and does not sound in any way like a passionate belief. He has been able to make no guarantees for the rest of his party, and according to our rough survey (it has to be rough because of so little cooperation in replies) it appears that about 261 of them are against repeal – that’s a bit less than 50 per cent of them on our side. The rest, about 394, are ‘undecided’ or pro-repeal – that’s more than half of them, including, very significantly, LibDem Shadow Minister of the Environment, Tim Farron, who is firmly pro-repeal. I did try to elicit an endorsement for SAVE ME from Mr Clegg, but he went very quiet on me at this point, and one can imagine why. Farron is, sadly, also in favour of killing our badgers, and abandoning vaccination, so the prospect of him in the DEFRA office is very unattractive to us. All in all, as an animal lover, in spite of their sketchy mention of a proposed ‘Animal Protection Commission’, it is hard to feel any kind of safety in voting for the LibDems. I wish I was not saying this. Actually, I wish I was not saying ANY of this, and that protection for animals was a foregone conclusion. One day it shall all change.
But right now… in a nutshell, Labour, Green, Animals Count, roughly half of the LibDems, as far as we can ascertain, and a smattering of Conservatives and small party members are on our side.
ONLY YOU CAN DECIDE, ultimately, who will get your vote. It’s tempting, if you live in a constituency with a huge Tory majority in the last election, to feel powerless, and NOT BOTHER to vote. Please resist this feeling. Although our democratic system is deeply flawed and definitely needs reform, the fact that you turn up DOES make a difference. What makes even MORE of a difference is if you influence those around you to vote, and remind some people on their way into the polling booth that Cameron will bring back fox-hunting. Every little DOES help.
Please see my message on the main site about canvassing at polling points! Wear your SAVE ME T-shirt! Speak out!!
My advice, in the end? We have always promised, in SAVE ME, to support anyone who is prepared to stand up against fox-hunting, and that still stands. Vote for someone you believe in, who you can trust to be honest and try to represent your point of view. That way, no matter what bill comes up for a vote, you will feel you have an ally. But if there is nobody on your list you really know, and feel that way about… then VOTE TO KEEP THE CONSERVATIVES – and CAMERON – OUT.
Here are a few useful links for further reading:
ANIMAL DEFENDERS INTERNATIONAL
This is a very good website that outlines what the main parties will do about animal welfare on a broader scale.
PROTECTING ANIMALS IN DEMOCRACY
Please also check this PAD site for some in-depth information on how candidates have responded to questions on animal issues across the board.
“100 KEY SEATS – tactical voting”
Do you live in one of the top 100 constituencies where your vote can make a difference?
This is a list of candidates from smaller parties who are against repeal, and therefore SAFE, in our opinion.
- Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk Paul Wheelhouse SNP
- Clwyd South Janet Ryder Plaid Cymru
- Cumbernauld, Kilsyth & Kirkintilloch East Julie Hepburn SNP
- Dundee West Jim Barrie SNP
- Dundee West Jim Barrie SNP
- Islwyn Steffan Lewis Plaid Cymru
- Liverpool West Derby Robert Wareing Independent
- Monmouth Jonathan Clark Plaid Cymru
- Somerton and Frome Barry Harding UKIP
I’d like to add some big “thank you’s” here. I have been blessed with such great support from my small team and our friends in this SAVE ME campaign so far. I’m sure I will feel embarrassed at having missed someone crucial out of this list, but I apologise in advance and beg forgiveness… my brain is not as watertight as it used to be! My sincere thanks to… Joe Cassels, Mary Lewis, Al Murray, Alistair Dunsmuir, Peter Kay, Simon Lupton, Jim Beach, Rhys Thomas, LUSH, Nikki Young, Liz Hodges, Charlotte Somers from Dewynters, and of course my Campaign Manager, Clair Bartlett. Add to this my friends who helped with the Bollocks Video – James Ramsay, Osama Chami, Crispin Holland, Kathryn Webster, Tony Iommi, Sharon Osbourne, Sheridan Smith, Mazz Murray, Pete Malandrone, Kris Fredriksson, Phil Webb, Coleen Nolan…
My thanks also to all of you out there who have been giving the project so much energy, spreading the word, contributing brilliant ideas, and pushing ever outwards.
Go to it!!
Love
Bri
