BY NIGEL BEAN & PAUL READ

The big question hanging over last week’s exposé in this magazine on the Welsh Assembly’s collaboration with animal rights extremists is why did the Conservative Party of Wales forfeit the public’s expectations of their duty in opposition and not hold Lesley Griffiths to public account for withholding vital information from the Welsh Assembly?

Whether the ban went ahead or not, the withheld information would have better informed the debate, exposed the Welsh review into circuses by Professor Stephen Harris as a fix and evened up the fanatical bias presented by the bigoted ideologue Griffiths who, by no coincidence, collaborates with Claire Lawson, Head of the Welsh RSPCA.

The public expect the Tories in Wales to be in there fighting and punching away against Labour’s rotten administration especially when animal rights extremists’ skulduggery and abuse has been shown to have ruined businesses in Wales and destroyed the lives of good and law-abiding Welsh taxpayers.

It wasn’t just the fact of Griffith’s deliberate withholding of information from the assembly that was passed to the Welsh Conservatives. They were also informed about Marthe Kiley-Worthington, who conducted the first ever in-depth ‘disinterested’ study into the welfare of circus animals for the RSPCA. She wrote the report and sent it in to the RSPCA only to be summoned to an urgent meeting. She was surprised to find a prominent member of the Animal Liberation Front, ALF, in that meeting. As the meeting progressed it became clear that the presence of the extremist was an intimidation tactic and those present were deaf to her objective evidence (the ALF were a known domestic terror group that sent letter bombs to businesses they decided were legitimate targets). The RSPCA even asked her to change her conclusions because they didn’t fit the narrative they were selling to the public. She stood fast by the science of her conclusions. Thereafter oddly no other animal welfare groups used her services and Marthe struggled to find funding to back her ongoing research.

The Welsh Conservatives had plenty of intelligence to draw on regarding circus animals. They were also shown information on the extremists’ smearing of circuses using faked video evidence. The Welsh Tories’ position in this matter makes no sense at all. They must have known this was the thin end of the wedge. They are a party that does well in the Welsh countryside – they must know that the abuse and harassment meted out to the circuses heralds from the same extremist sources as the abuse directed at farmers and rural businesses.

What abuse?

Take one example from many – that of Gareth Wyn Jones, the famous BBC Welsh farmer, who is currently being targeted by animal rights nuts. He found out overnight that livestock had been let out to mix with other incompatible animals – the padlocks on his gates were glued tight.

Things will only get worse for farmers and rural businesses in Wales now the opposition has shown itself as feeble against the antis. The antis see a weak assembly and a chance to manipulate their policies through legislators who fail to scrutinise. If the Welsh Assembly melts before them then they know they have a chance in Westminster of getting through some radical reforms based on propaganda rather than fact. They will now move on to farming and back so-called “progressive” campaigns that damage the countryside. The RSPCA are actively grooming Welsh youths into a life of animal rights activism as the below clearly indicates:

A brave new world indeed.