Angela Smith MP

If there’s ever more evidence needed to bolster the Grumpy Vegan’s case for making animal protection a mainstream political issue, well, I have it. In the 1970s and 1980s I was with the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection and helped lead its efforts in Parliament, which included the General Election campaigns to make animal protection a mainstream political issue. My colleague at the League Against Cruel Sports was Angela Smith, who later went onto become a Labour county councillor (Americans: Read state representative) and Member of Parliament. In June she was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister. As 10 Downing Street Web site notes

Angela Evans Smith became a Parliamentary Private Secretary to Gordon Brown, with special provision to attend Cabinet meetings, in June 2007. Prior to this, she was Fire Service Minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government. Previously, she was a Northern Ireland minister. She also sponsored the Waste Minimisation Act and played an important role in forcing the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 through Parliament. Ms Smith has been a councillor, a member of the fire authority of the county of Essex, and worked for the League Against Cruel Sports. She was born in London in 1959 and was first elected to Parliament in 1997.

You can’t beat having friends in high places! So, join a political party. Stand for public office. And do something for animals from within the political universe.