A revealing omission for animal advocates and others in Blair’s list of Labour successes under his leadership and in his final conference speech as leader is any reference to the passage of the unprecedented law to abolish bloodsports, the Hunting Act 2004.
The Grumpy Vegan can only wonder why. Most likely, initial political opportunism for a popular measure weakened throughout the 10-plus year parliamentary debate and public discussion manifested itself in Blair’s mind as an irrational concern that it had become a vote-losing proposition. The pro-hunt lobby and their Countryside Alliance successfully subverted and distracted the issue reframing it as an anti-libertarian measure and yet another example of Labour “trendy urbanites” not understanding how things work in the countryside.
But clearly not successfully enough. It’s now illegal to kill, for example, a fox with a pack of dogs. You can also be prosecuted for it. Nonetheless, the Grumpy Vegan is encouraged by Blair’s inclusion of successes with other animal issues in his “long goodbye” speech.
