Labour: when will we see a timetable for change?
Chris Luffingham, acting Chief Executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, says the time for change is now, but asks if not now, then when?
“There’s a definite perception that Labour doesn’t get rural voters,” said Steve Reed in February this year, mere months before becoming the new environment secretary.
“We have incredible countryside. We have incredible green spaces. They need protecting,” he went on.
Heartening words to hear from a man renowned for his punchy, straight-talking style and who has had an open-door policy for those wishing to discuss ways in which the countryside can indeed be protected.
Reed was a minister-in-waiting back then, and knew the words he said would be held up to him after the general election: if, in fact, it was time for change as Labour said, then when exactly is that change going to happen?
There has to be a timetable for change when a new government comes to power, not least after so long in opposition.
Focus, rightly, has to be on domestic and international policy that affects all of us, and change cannot happen overnight.
However, given how easy it would be to achieve Labour’s manifesto commitments on wildlife – in particular strengthening the Hunting Act and adding a ban on snares to the already-popular Kept Animals Bill – it was something of a surprise not to hear mention of those in the King’s Speech.
Reed has a daunting task ahead in terms of ambitious energy plans and finally tackling our sewage-polluted waterways and seas, so the easy wins of tackling wildlife crime could and should have been an attractive early policy proposition.
But what we hear is concerning. Or aren’t hearing, more to the point.
Licences to ‘trail hunt’ on Ministry of Defence land are “under Ministerial review” rather than being scrapped - despite a much-discussed manifesto pledge to end trail hunting because it’s just illegal fox hunting in disguise.
Entreaties from the League to those very ministers to end the licences outright were ignored.
This may well be the civil service keeping the lights on as the new governing party beds in, but the reaction of the politicians themselves to our warnings of these potential policy missteps that have such an impact on animals and the countryside is roundly silent.
So far, no timetable for change.
Organisations like the League Against Cruel Sports has long lobbied parties of all colours to finally end fox hunting by closing the loopholes that exist in the current legislation.
Let’s go back in time for a minute and revisit February and another article, again an interview with Steve Reed, where he says: “People have seen the images of packs of hounds getting into private back gardens, killing cats, ripping flocks apart. There’s not a majority in any part of the country that wants to see that continue.”
And then: “This is something we’ll do in the first term of a Labour government.”
It’s easy to set out a timetable for change when you’re in opposition, it seems Reed is struggling now he’s in government.
But he should know that people are justifiably saying that the time for change could so easily be now. And if not now, when?
Thousands have added their voices to our petition demanding real change. Add yours here https://www.timeforchangecoalition.co.uk/take-action
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