Labour and the Fox

Congratulations to Chloe Smith, 27 years old, the Conservatives' latest MP, who took Norwich North from Labour with a huge swing, converting a 5,000 Labour majority into a 7,000 Conservative one. During the campaign Labour apparently made use of a poster showing a picture of a winsome fox cub, with the caption: 'Vote Labour or the Fox Gets It'. Apart from its ambiguity (if you don't vote Labour they will do away with the fox?), it is a classic example of the way Labour plays on the prejudices of the urban masses to gain its own ends in what it regards as the class war. Well, it was a pathetic try and it didn't work.

Edward Heathcoat-Amory in The Daily Mail on 17th July wrote: "A poorly drafted law, introduced by Tony Blair in 2004 to try to buy off militant Leftwing backbenchers, the ban on fox-hunting has made a mockery of the law throughout rural England..Police have been utterly unable to police the legislation, with the Association of Chief Police Officers recently branding it as ' cumbersome' and 'unenforceable'. "