There’s nothing like the issue of fox hunting to get people riled and hot under the collar because it polarises opinion and tends to get overly emotional and personal … it also serves as a very useful distraction for political leaders.
But if you seriously believe the blood sport is really at the top of Prime Minister Theresa May’s agenda then maybe you’ve fallen for one of the slickest tricks in politics.
Think about it: May’s leadership is under attack and despite her unsavoury one billion pound deal for the support of the right wing DUP, every week in Westminster could be her last such is the fragility of her position.
Caught between pro and anti Brexit MPs on her own benches and now tip-toeing around a Cabinet reshuffle does anyone really believe the PM is really concerned about fox hunting? Seriously?
Despite this the headlines over the weekend were dominated by the issue of fox-hunting. May raised the prospect of giving her Tory MPs a free vote on whether to bring back fox hunting just a few days ago. Call me cynical but what this debate has achieved is that it has dominated the political news in Britain.
She finally killed the story during a BBC interview with Andrew Marr by announcing that there will be NO new vote on fox hunting and immediately naive journalists began running with a story which, let’s face it, dwarfs the massive problems she is facing in terms of Brexit, a crisis-hit NHS and the falling of real incomes.
Tony Blair’s Labour government introduced the Hunting Act, which bans the use of dogs to hunt foxes and wild mammals in England and Wales, back in 2004 when he was under heavy fire over the war in Iraq. The pro-fox hunting Countryside Alliance marches appeared to produce demonstrations larger than the impressive ones the Stop the War Coalition organised at the time and indeed the animal rights issue appeared to grip the nation back then. Sadly for Blair, however, the issue of fox hunting only served as a distraction from Iraq for a short while.
That such an old trick could be dragged out and dusted down and used again shows how gullible is today’s media. Quite simply put, of all the issues facing the country look at the mainstream media headlines … that grand old institution the BBC even led on the issue of fox hunting on Sunday.
You’ll be glad to know WTX News did not join the Westminster bubble – we have our own agenda … to deliver stories that really matter to you like the state of the National Health Service, overseas humanitarian disasters, war, conflict and Cabinet reshuffles. We will not be led down the garden path in search of false trails!
While Theresa May has outfoxed some political giants and cynically manipulated others, WTX likes to think it’s not as naive!
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