| davestocker |
| (stranger) |
| 22/09/2008 09:13 |
Labour Minister betrays shooters, capitulation to animal rights group
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And there's me thinking that Labour were only hostile to hunting with dogs.......
Bradford Telegraph & Argus 20.9.08
MP hits back in shooting row
6:40pm Saturday 20th September 2008
Bradford MP and Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe has hit out after pro-animal campaigners accused him of promoting cruel sports.
On Tuesday – the second day of National Shooting Week – Animal Aid’s new mascot, Phileas the Pheasant, will be visiting the city highlighting the “cruel sport” of gamebird shooting.
The campaigners said they chose Bradford because the Bradford South MP attended a reception staged by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), a pro-shoot lobby group, at last year’s Labour Party Conference.
Mr Sutcliffe criticised the claims as “ridiculous”.
A BASC spokesman said: “Gerry Sutcliffe MP, the Minister for Sport, pledged that the Labour Party would continue to support shooting and fishing which he said played an important part in the lives of five million people in the UK.”
But Mr Sutcliffe said the comments were being taken out of context.
He said: “This is ridiculous. I did speak at the reception about shooting, but I do not support killing birds.
“What was said was we support shooting and fishing. We recently won medals for shooting.
“Saying I support cruel shooting is simply not correct.
“I was part of Bradford Council when we stopped shooting on Ilkley Moor. It was the Tories who re-introduced it.”
The lobbying group say more than 40 million pheasants and partridges are intensively reared each year, to be used as feathered targets, with hundreds of thousands of breeding birds confined inside metal battery cages.
Animal Aid director Andrew Tyler said: “The Government is applying an irrational double standard to bloodsports – banning hunting with dogs whilst cosying up to the pro-shoot lobby.
“Animal Aid’s National Anti-Shooting Week will expose this hypocrisy to people across the country.
“We have also alerted every Labour backbench MP to the fact that, with Cameron’s Tories on the ascendance, this issue places Labour parliamentary seats at serious risk.’ A film showing the “greed” of the gamebird industry has also been sent to every MP by the group which is calling for a change in Government policy on the subject.
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/local/localbrad/3689886.MP_hits_back_in_shooting_row/
| hob_nob |
| (member) |
| 23/09/2008 09:55 |
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Re: Labour Minister betrays shooters, capitulation to animal rights group
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What a niddering idiot that man is. Don't get angry, get even - now is the time for shoots and shooting people to follow the example of the Hunting lobby and form a group like Vote OK.
Vote OK at the last election mobilised hunt subscribers across the UK to garner support for pro-hunting candidates and oust sitting anti-hunting MPs. It might not be glamourous work - a lot of stuffing envelopes, pounding the streets and ticking off voters on polling day but it does make a difference.
I pledged support to my local hunt and in 3 weeks of work, with over 200 of us out and about over the period we ousted 2 Labour Mps in local constituencies and left the 3rd hanging by the skin of his finger nails. We fully intend to rid ourselves of that one next time round. All this without even mentioning country sports as an issue.
http://www.vote-ok.co.uk/
29 anti-hunting MPs unseated
21 anti-hunting MPs left with minimal majorities
9 pro-hunting MPs with boosted majorities
Easy work for the young and the fit who can pound streets and roles for everyone. Work that can reap huge benefits in defending our country sports.