Few trends are as little remarked upon in British politics as the strange death of rural Labour. Back in 2001 the party held more than 100 seats in rural England and Wales; today the figure has slumped to just 17. Whereas once both comfortable shires and working class countryside constituencies were red on the map, now such places are seas of blue.
In such circumstances, you would have hoped Labour’s frontbenchers would be well briefed on the issues facing the countryside. So Steerpike was surprised therefore to tune into yesterday’s Westminster Hall debate on grouse shooting – prompted by a petition backed by broadcaster Chris Packham’s outfit Wild Justice – and hear the party’s spokesmen talk about the practice.
First up was Kerry McCarthy, Labour’s shadow minister for green transport and a former shadow environment secretary herself. McCarthy, a vegan and vice-president of the League Against Cruel Sports, managed to name check Packham ten times in her brief speech, telling MPs that ‘just as I do not accept the conservation argument, I do not accept the economic argument either’ and saying of the £2billion industry – ‘I suspect that not an awful lot of that trickles down to the local economy’ – news presumably to the estimated
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