Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Tim Bonner writes: Why so many urban politicians are obsessed with the entirely rural activity of hunting is a constant source of mystery, but this week a group of Peterborough councillors joined the long list who thought they could use a rural pastime to virtue signal to their urban electorates.
Councillor Ansar Ali, who was elected as a Labour member but has subsequently been suspended by the party whilst it investigates allegations of anti-Semitism, moved a motion, seconded by a Green Party councillor: "To ask the Leader of the Council to write to the Chairman of the East of England Agricultural Society to request that it does not host the Festival of Hunting at the East of England Showground in future".
The Peterborough Royal Foxhound Show, which is the centrepiece of the Festival of Hunting, has been taking place for 133 years and as the East of England Agricultural Society's Chairman Richard Bramley was fairly clear, no vote by Peterborough Council was going to change that. He said that "the Society is proud of its connection to the Festival of Hunting" and pointed out that the Society's Showground generates £20 million for the local economy in Peterborough.
Despite Councillor Ali's suspension he seemed to have the support of the Labour Party in Peterborough and its leader was amongst several of its councillors who spoke in support of the motion. However, their ludicrous allegations were firmly rebuffed by other councillors and the motion was defeated by 30 votes to 25 during a vote of the full council held late on Wednesday night.
It was significant that a number of councillors highlighted how much of the correspondence they had received as the Alliance had made our many supporters in and around Peterborough aware of the attack on the Festival of Hunting. This highlights the importance of our local lobbying work. Thank you to everyone who responded so quickly and helped to make a difference when it mattered.
Sadly, this episode does once again highlight the Labour Party's obsession with attacking hunting and other rural activities. We will be sending a copy of our report on 'Labour's Rural Problem' to Councillor Ali and his colleagues in Peterborough Labour. That report explains how the party's agenda has become so out of touch with rural voters. Peterborough is a Conservative constituency as is every rural seat in the whole of the East of England. Labour councillors would be far better spending their time on understanding why that is, than they would perpetuating the current situation by attacking hunting.