BY NIGEL BEAN & PAUL READ

On Tuesday 4th June the bill to ban wild animals in circuses passed to the House of Lords. As most people are no doubt aware, the same people that maligned hunting to achieve a ban also smeared circuses with false allegations, corrupt science and fake videos. Given the success of this highly toxic campaign – that saw the world famous circus family, the Laceys, leave for Germany due to animal rights terrorist activity – let there be no doubt what can be achieved via MPs through blatant skulduggery.

In the past Tory MPs would line up to fiercely defend ordinary folk with a traditional way of life. After all, according to Roger Scruton, conservatism embodies tradition – seemingly not any more. Many of the Tories have morphed into ideology-driven Labour and for some obscure reason are competing for that tiny percentage of animal rights votes.

Twenty two years ago it was sleazy Labour that took a one million pound bung from IFAW/PAL to ban hunting that caused outrage amongst Conservative MPs who voiced their concern:

“The taxpayer is subsidising the RSPCA, LACS, IFAW and PAL the very organisations that gave the Labour party a disgraceful sleazy bung of 1 million”

Now it’s the turn of the corrupt Conservatives to sell their morals and ethics for the filthy animal rights lucre. Both the NFU and Countryside Alliance raised their concerns when Tory donor and environmental activist Ben Goldsmith was appointed as a non-executive director to the board at DEFRA. The Goldsmith family have donated one million pounds to the Conservatives in the past and Ben Goldsmith donated £258,000 to a Conservative policy commission on the environment through a business he part-owns. He met Michael Gove 15 years ago through his brother Zac Goldsmith (Con MP for Richmond) and has donated to Gove’s Surrey Heath constituency and helped fund Gove’s Tory leadership bid.

So what’s Gove doing for the money?

He has thrown in a token action by banning plastic drinking straws, but the big favour was to ban the use of wild animals in circuses, regardless of the incontrovertible evidence showing that circuses were subject to chicanery from animal rights groups.

Ben Goldsmith is a strong advocate of banning wild animals in circuses along with his brother Zac and his signature was on a letter to David Cameron, then Prime Minister.

Michael Gove, who fell over himself recently to meet the Swedish environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg, has three times turned down a request by Andrew Rosindell MP to meet a circus representative from his constituency. Make no mistake, Gove knows he is in the wrong and hasn’t the balls to face his accusers. He can admit he has taken cocaine but can’t work with the truth, it seems, against animal rights fraudsters.

The lies of the animal rights people are being read as truth by Tories. What lies?

Take the story of David Hinde who recently was imprisoned for claimed cruelty to horses. Guess what? It all started with a charity worker from a Yorkshire wildlife group. Hinde’s is another story of skulduggery perpetrated by those taking your money through a charity for their imagined greater good:

When David leased his farm from an estate, the charity worker began a campaign of harassment against him, trying to force him to leave. The farm had not been tenanted for many years, and he had always walked across the land with his dogs. Now that the farm was occupied and fences had been erected, he was no longer able to do so. The charity worker was not liked on the estate. He was described as a ‘snoop’ and a number of people had warned David to be very careful of him. He regularly trespassed onto the farm, going into stables and outbuildings. David caught him several times and told him to stop trespassing, but he ignored him. David would find that doors had been left open and often David and an employee would ‘set traps’ to find out if he had been in their absence, leaving doors slightly open and returning to find them wide open. The ‘snoop’ used to keep watch on the farm, and go in when David went out. They once went out and then returned a few minutes later, catching him there. The ‘snoop’ was allowed to check two owl boxes, but they were on the perimeter of the farm, and he used this as an excuse to keep walking across it. David reported the ‘snoop’ to the land agent, who sent him a written warning, but he still persisted. The ‘snoop’ made a series of spurious complaints about various things to various people, David’s landlord, the British Horse Society, and RSPCA. People would investigate and conclude that they were groundless. On one occasion, a foal was stillborn. David moved the body to another stable and arranged for it to be collected. Whilst he was waiting for this, the ‘snoop’ trespassed again. He went into the stable, looked under the tarpaulin, found the stillborn foal, and made a complaint to the estate office. He claimed David was abusing the animals, and had killed the foal. In January 2010, following a complaint from the ‘snoop’, an RSCPA inspector came to the farm. She said she thought the horses were in good condition and in a good environment, and complimented the farm on how well it was run. David suspected around this time the RSPCA ‘recruited’ the ‘snoop’ to ‘spy on’ him, and that he was now working with them. In February 2010, after receiving a complaint from the ‘snoop’, a woman from the British Horse Society visited. She said she thought everything was fine and she could see no problems. On the morning of 7th March 2010, when David would have been at his farm but was away dealing with a life and death human emergency, the ‘snoop’ trespassed again. Unfortunately, one of the foals a yearling colt had been unwell but appeared to have been making a recovery after being closely monitored the previous evening, then relapsed during the night. It was found by the ‘snoop’’ in the morning. He had David’s number for an emergency but choose instead to phone the RSPCA seeing another opportunity to make trouble for him. He had even brought his children onto the farm, who tried to feed the foal polo mints, this in itself could have been very dangerous to a foal laying down on its side. David returned from the life and death emergency he was attending to find his ponies gone, he went straight to the ‘snoops’ house. He wanted to ask him why he had done this, but the ‘snoop’ was too cowardly to answer the door, instead sending his wife and children to stand there without speaking.

David’s nine years of unadulterated misery started from that point. Animal and wildlife charities these days only have misery to sell to garner donations. This misery can only be obtained by making other folks’ lives miserable. The misery – once the domain of the Labour Party – is now that of the Tory party. So, all you good conservatives and traditionalists out there in the countryside, the old days are likely over. Be careful which Tory you choose to trust.