Campaign Action Report
Henry | 05.11.2004 14:16
http://www.cuntryside-alliance.org/our_news/views_and_comment/Kill!_Kill!_Kill!.html
50 "Fight Prejudice - Fight the Ban" Mega Banners are being erected beside motorways across the UK.
32 Hunt Kennel Open Days for key MPs and Media are planned in the next week with the aim of influencing key MPs and their local media.
250 was the majority by which the House of Lords voted for all hunting to be allowed to apply for registration after our most effective Lords Letter writing campaign yet.
142 key Ministers and MPs are being lobbied to reinforce the case for legislation based upon principle and evidence.
Intense regional and national media interest continues, with hundreds of pages of coverage generated not just by news and comment pieces, but by the many letters hunt supporters have sent to the media.
Important national articles have included:
The Guardian - Tony Wright, a senior Labour MP, called the hunting Bill “the worst form of hypocrisy”
The Times - Peter Riddell, Political Editor, called the Bill “moral cowardice”
The Times - Anthony Howard wrote: “It may even not be too much to claim that the decision he (Blair) makes on this domestic issue will eventually determine whether history comes to regard him as a weak or a strong Prime Minister”
The Sunday Telegraph – Melissa Kite reported, under the headline ‘Blair Allies seek hunting compromise’, that the Prime Minister’s official spokesman confirmed that: "He is in favour of the compromise and he will make his position clear"
And this is not just a British story - the influential Chicago Sun Times newspaper spent the day with the Old Surrey & Burstow with West Kent Hunt. The Japanese national broadcasting corporation, NHK, has been filming a substantial piece on the Government’s decision to re-activate the Bill. A leading Croatian magazine has published an article after a day with the Fitzwilliam.
All over the world the Government’s treatment of the hunting community is coming under increased scrutiny.
Henry