The crisis in British rural democracy On the 20th of February 2014 Devon county council voted to allow a badger

cull on council owned land, des ite three etitions being handed in the month before totalling more than !,000 signatures o osing it, which was not mentioned before the vote" The eo le of Devon who care about their wildlife also e ered their councillors with articles and information, including a com rehensive re ort of the disastrous 201# badger culls, to which many of us received inade$uate or no re lies" The vote in Devon was #%&th for a badger cull and half of those voting declared an interest as being members of the 'F( or )ountryside *lliance, but unli+e the farmers who are not allowed to vote on such issues, these largely )onservative councillors could" , as+ed if those councillors who are members of hunts could also declare an interest, but , received no answer on this either" This government has failed rural communities - has undermined democracy both locally and nationally, and it has a long history in doing so" ,n the mid 1.00/s wealthy landowners and the aristocracy could control the votes of their tenant farmers, by threatening to evict them if they didn/t the right way, and so they gained ower by the bac+ door, circumventing the democratic rocess" They ur osely clung to feudal ways of wor+ing and undermined our fledgling democracy" They sent hired thugs on horsebac+ into the crowd of 00,000 eaceful men, women and children gathered at 1eterloo Fields near 2anchester, at the first cam aign for universal suffrage and for electoral reform, such an end to o en voting" The hired militia cut them down with sabres" )ountless numbers died both on the day and afterwards from infected sabre wounds, and it became +nown as the 1eterloo massacre" 3e then e4 elled the lead members of the )hartist movement that followed, de orting them to *ustralia as Traitors to the state for demanding better democracy such as an end to safe seats" 'ow, some 1&0 years later, the same feudal attitude towards democracy is ha ening again, if it ever truly went away at all, and it is most clear in the countryside and in rural olitics" ,n 201# we saw the 'F(, the )ountryside *lliance and other members of the hunting community controlling farmers and landowners in the badger cull 5ones" 64treme ressure was ut on farmers to ta+e art in a badger cull ranging from threats of hysical violence, to having their feed su ly terminated or to having their mil+ $uota reduced" *ny one of these measures could ut someone out of business and all those affected are too intimidated to s ea+ to the media about it" This ressure continued during the badger cull when the $uota of dead badgers was not reached, and those who had not agreed to ta+e art were again ressured to 7oin in, to get the numbers of slaughtered badgers u " 2eanwhile those rural communities were riven in two on this issue with neighbour itted against neighbour, farmer against farmer, farmers against the 'F( and farmers against villagers" ,t will ta+e many decades for these communities to heal from what was done to them by 3estminster" The eo le of the Forest of Dean decided they didn/t want a badger cull and the Forest of Dean district council did the democratic thing, listened to their

constituents and banned a badger cull on council owned land" 2ore than that they did not have the ower to do" *mong David )ameron/s election romises were8 an end to 9top down Government:" ;e romised 9devolved power to the regions:" ;e romised 9more power to local governments:" But he im osed badger cull on the Forest of Dean anyway" ;e bro+e his election romises" There are large shooting estates at the centre of both the 201# badger cull 5ones, and it is those large landowners who set the terms as to where a badger cull would ta+e lace" ,t was not based on areas with high rates of bovine TB" This Government have broken their promises. 'ot only are they not the <=reenest =overnment 6ver/, but they have laced an environmental sycho ath in role of environment minister" ;is thin+ing is ure re> enlightenment su erstition, s reading lies about badger ecology with no basis in science, or in animal behaviour, whatsoever" ,n the (? we have no system to hold oliticians to their electoral romises, or to remove oliticians who undermine the very de artments they head" David )ameron is also not even holding to the coalition agreement to allow the electorate to remove incom etent or croo+ed 21s" =iven his choice of cabinet colleagues it/s easy to see why" These are the real traitors to the state. The 'F( and the )ountryside *lliance are not olitical arties and the British electorate didn/t vote for them" They/ve given ower through the bac+ door to their hunting chums, to big estate landowners, to financial services dressed u as a <'ational Farmers (nion/, to large agribusiness and to industrial farming" They/ve overridden the wishes of the electorate, and im osed a badger cull on communities who made it lain they didn/t want it" They/ve not allowed a free vote in arliament that is legally binding on this issue, only @a ro riately given their hunting obsessionA a whi ed vote" They/ve im osed a civil war on rural communities who have done nothing wrong, e4ce t that they ha en to live near a large shooting estateB they don/t even live in a TB hots ot" They have murdered a rotected s ecies against all scientific advice, sim ly to get underhand votes from the ran+s of the )ountryside *lliance" The only measures to control bTB in cattle which wor+ have been insisted on by 6uro e, not from 3estminster" ,n short they have behaved e4actly li+e a feudal landlord, in defiance of the democratic rocess" Welcome back to feudal Britain. For those with local elections this year, my challenge to you is this8 find out which of your local councillors are in favour of a badger cull, or who are members of a hunt, @the two tend to go togetherA and name and shame them! 1lease do li+ewise for the 201& 'ational elections, and also e4 ose their vested interests as members of the 'F( or countryside *lliance, and as such will re resent the interests of their own ressure grou s instead of their electorate" )ontinue to ress for better wildlife rotection and environmental laws, for instance local council and national government animal welfare and environmental rotection charters, such as the one im lemented by 1lymouth )ity )ouncil" And if ene!uela and Tunisia can outlaw "cocide# wh$ on this lovel$ earth cant we% *nd finally on the grounds of the corru tion of

our democratic system, demand the divorce of the 'F( from the corridors of 3estminster, so that the ne4t government, of whatever olitical colour cannot continue this abuse of ower, and the bastardising of our democracy"