A farming supporter of Land & People recently described the difference between the Labour and Tory parties thus:

Labour is the crazed madman who runs at with a knife with the obvious intention of doing you harm. The Tory is the quietly spoken type who smiles to your face before plunging a dagger into you as soon as you turn your back!

The recent history of the farming industry would appear to bear that observation out. We’ll give you three examples to demonstrate the point.

Example One: When the debate over fox hunting raged and Labour was preparing its anti-hunting legislation, Tories the length of and breadth of Britain were telling the hunting fraternity how much they supported their cause. Yet despite Labour arguing for a ban on supposed animal welfare grounds the Tories refused to play the one card that would have seen Labour dropping their proposed anti-hunt legislation faster than the proverbial hot potato. That “card” was �“ ritual slaughter.

Ritual slaughter, is an imported and barbaric practice, which requires the slitting of the throat of live un-stunned animals �“ thereby consigning these unfortunate creatures to a prolonged and painful death through the slow haemorrhaging of blood. It is to the eternal shame of this country that literary millions of British animals suffer this horrific death annually for no other reason than to satisfy the theological requirements of imported religions �“ such as Islam. There can be not the slightest doubt that ritual slaughter, much of it by the halal method, is the single most prolific form of animal abuse practised in Britain today. And yet, whilst Labour argued for a ban on hunting on animal welfare grounds - quoting a figure of some five thousand foxes being destroyed each year �“ the two-faced treacherous Tories remained silent over the slow-death killing of up to five million cattle, sheep, lambs and chickens per annum!

So why didn’t the Tories play the ritual slaughter “card” to destroy Labour’s case for a ban on hunting?

The reason is quite simple. Not only would they have lost the financial support of a number of their key ethnic minority millionaire backers �“ but they would have also lost the support of hundreds of thousands of their ethnic minority voters in communities that adhere to ritual slaughter religions!

And, as is so often the case, the Tories made all the right noises for the benefit of the hunting lobby whilst avoiding, like the proverbial plague, the one issue that would have killed Labour’s anti-hunting proposals stone dead!

Example 2: When the dairy industry was in crisis due to the miserable price being paid by the creameries, dairies and supermarkets to dairy farmers for liquid milk at the farm gate - what were the Tories doing? Once again they were busy making the “right noises” - reassuring producers that they were “on their side” and doing “everything they could” to get a better deal for dairy farmers.

Considering the quantity of hot air expended by the Tories in pledging their support it is somewhat surprising that they failed to achieve anything of note for struggling producers. But, then again, perhaps it wasn’t so surprising - considering how much money the two-faced treacherous Tory Party was receiving from its commercial backers, particularly those having an interest in keeping the price of milk low!

Example 3: Then, of course, we have the ongoing issue of cheap foreign imports undermining the British producer �“ Eastern European milk and South American beef being just two products that spring singularly and powerfully to mind. Whilst the two-faced treacherous Tories continue to sweet talk producers on how they “sympathise with the plight of farmers” they continue to support both the EU legislation and unbridled free trade that is facilitating the importation of huge quantities of cheap Eastern European milk and sub-standard Brazilian beef into Britain, to undermine the very producers they claim to be supporting! Needless to say, cheap imported milk and beef being two products, amongst many, that whilst helping to eradicate the British producer, turns in handsome profits for the supermarkets so beloved of by the two-faced treacherous Tory Party!

Tories �“ running with the fox whilst hunting with the pack!