Labor has said it will further restrict hunting if it gets to the government. Photo: Chris Strickland
Labour must not alienate rural voters, Lord Mandleson warned in a thinly veiled attack on hunting laws.
As his party proposes to tighten existing legislation, the former minister said that Labor would not be heard if they «pick a fight with people living in the countryside.» areas… about the things that are part of their daily lives, the things they love to do.”
This came after Sir Keir Starmer’s party promised to tighten the Hunting Act if elected, including including banning trail hunting, in which packs follow a predetermined trail rather than a wild animal.
Lord Mandelson was one of Sir Tony Blair's supporters. ministers, who was concerned about the socially divisive nature of the ban and was absent when Parliament voted for it.
The 2004 ban was seen by many as an act of class struggle by then-Labour to improve animal welfare.
< p>Speaking at the Future Countryside conference at Hatfield House on Tuesday, a Labor spokesman said the countryside was «ready to take over» and this was an opportunity to «face [Labour] in the face they must run to.»
“But our message will not be heard if the villagers feel that we do not understand them, or that we are not on the same wavelength, or, even worse, that we in the Labor Party somehow want to start a fight with people who live in villagers about things that are part of their daily lives, things that they love and love to do, but which are somehow foreign to other people's interests or lifestyles,» he said.
Peter Mandelson speaking at the Future Countryside conference at Hatfield House. Photo: Rebecca Speer-Cole/Pennsylvania
The Labor Grandee said they should have gone to the polls with a promise to «live and let live» rather than just «raising the phone to nearby pressure groups» who want politicians to accept measures «because of their preoccupations, their hobbies, and their prejudices.»
“It is not the business of governments and government parties like the Labor Party to act like pressure groups on one issue,” he warned. «We don't exist for this, we are for power, we are not just there to protest in the streets, because we have a certain fad, a special concern that we want to promote at a certain time.»
“If the right wing is wrongly fomenting culture wars against minorities, which I believe is wrong, then the left wing in our country is wrongly fomenting culture wars against rural minorities, no matter how tempting it may be and no matter how pleasant it could be for pressure groups that are doing your business.»
Lord Mandelson, who said he now lives on a farm in rural Wiltshire, said the countryside is «in my DNA» as his grandfather Herbert Morrison, Deputy Prime Minister in the post-war government of Clement Utley, contributed to the creation of a green farm. belt.
“In those days, it would never have crossed their minds to pit city against countryside, city against countryside, it was not a labor path,” he told the delegates. «These were fault lines, dividing lines that never crossed the mind of the Labor Party for decades after the war, and that's something we need to remind ourselves of again.»
Labor alienated rural communities when they were last in government, leading to a number of demonstrations like this one in London in 2002. Photo: EDDIE MULHOLLAND
He said Sir Keir's party must «win the confidence of rural voters» if it is to win the election because their «absence» from the countryside in recent years has undermined Labour's appeal.
A conference sponsored by The Countryside Alliance Foundation also heard Teresa Coffey, Minister for the Environment, who said that “Ensuring a vibrant and prosperous future for our countryside…is a national priority” for the government.
Ms. Coffey said that the country needs to 'future proof' its rural lifestyle by announcing a range of new initiatives on connectivity, health, crime, transport and housing.
This included a new £7 million fund to test ways to improve community access to wireless networks, advice on changing the planning system to increase affordable housing, and seeking to repeal EU laws allowing anyone with a driver's license to drive a minibus.
Свежие комментарии