Tim Bonner: Animal rights and political reality

It is difficult to know what is normal in politics these days, but things returned to some semblance of it at the Labour and Conservative conferences over the last two weeks. The Alliance, as ever, attended both and held fringe meetings for MPs and party members. Labour delegates were in an upbeat mood in Liverpool and at the Alliance fringe, shadow Defra Minister, Daniel Zeichner, reiterated the party's commitment to the countryside and was careful not to give any suggestion that Labour was wedded to an animal rights agenda. As the Alliance has been pointing out for many years, Labour has in the past alienated itself from many rural voters by putting such issues at the top of its rural agenda. This message has certainly been received by many at the top of the party, but whether they can hold the line against more extreme groups within the Labour membership is a question that is yet to be answered. The development of Labour's manifesto for the next General Election will be a crucial battleground.

From Liverpool the Alliance team moved on to Birmingham to hear from the new Prime Minister and new Ministerial teams. Secretary of State, Ranil Jayawardena, spoke at our reception on Tuesday night and Defra Minister of State, Mark Spencer, appeared on our fringe panel on Monday. There was a consistent message from Ministers and the many MPs who spoke at our events that the party cannot take the rural vote for granted. This was welcome, especially in the wake of some of the legislative priorities of the last couple of years such as the Animal Sentience Act. The way the new Defra Ministerial team deals with amendments to the Kept Animals Bill and other outstanding commitments within the 'Animal Welfare Plan' will be an early guide to their direction of travel.

An idea that the Conservatives could definitely adopt came from Brecon and Radnorshire MP Fay Jones at our fringe meeting on 'Re-engaging the rural vote'. She suggested that the party should produce a rural manifesto for the next election with specific commitments to the countryside. This is a proposal that the Alliance would fully support for the Conservatives and the Labour Party as well. Too often party manifestos have focused on doing things to the countryside, rather than doing things for it.