It does seem a bit perverse to me to note that there is a new political party, with a relatively nascent policy framework and shallow bench, that nonetheless is polling as if it will win the next general election… and conclude that we should focus on building relationships with a different party.
At face value that might seem the case. In practice, Reform is a party dominated by a single individual, who enjoys promoting hunting, deregulation and criticising the idea of vegan diets: he’s not exactly the obvious target for animal welfare arguments, particularly not when it’s equally likely a future coalition will include representatives of a Green Party.
The point in the original article about conservatives and country folk being potentially sympathetic to arguments for restrictions on importing meat from countries with lower animal welfare standards is a valid one, but it’s the actual Conservative Party (who will be present in any coalition Reform needs to win and have a yawning policy void of their own) that fits that bracket, not the upstart “anti-woke”, pro-deregulation party whose core message is a howl of rage about immigration. Farage’s objections to the EU were around the rules, not protectionism, and he’s actually highly vocal on the need to reduce restrictions in the import of meat from the US, which has much lower standards in many areas. Funnily enough, Farage political parties have had positions on regulating stunning animals for slaughter, but the targeting of slaughtering practices associated with certain religions might have been for… other reasons, and Farage rowed back on it[1]
halal meat served in the UK is often pre-stunned, whereas kosher meat isn’t, so the culture war arguments for mandatory stunning hit the wrong target....
Some interesting ideas, thanks for sharing.
It does seem a bit perverse to me to note that there is a new political party, with a relatively nascent policy framework and shallow bench, that nonetheless is polling as if it will win the next general election… and conclude that we should focus on building relationships with a different party.
At face value that might seem the case. In practice, Reform is a party dominated by a single individual, who enjoys promoting hunting, deregulation and criticising the idea of vegan diets: he’s not exactly the obvious target for animal welfare arguments, particularly not when it’s equally likely a future coalition will include representatives of a Green Party.
The point in the original article about conservatives and country folk being potentially sympathetic to arguments for restrictions on importing meat from countries with lower animal welfare standards is a valid one, but it’s the actual Conservative Party (who will be present in any coalition Reform needs to win and have a yawning policy void of their own) that fits that bracket, not the upstart “anti-woke”, pro-deregulation party whose core message is a howl of rage about immigration. Farage’s objections to the EU were around the rules, not protectionism, and he’s actually highly vocal on the need to reduce restrictions in the import of meat from the US, which has much lower standards in many areas. Funnily enough, Farage political parties have had positions on regulating stunning animals for slaughter, but the targeting of slaughtering practices associated with certain religions might have been for… other reasons, and Farage rowed back on it[1]
halal meat served in the UK is often pre-stunned, whereas kosher meat isn’t, so the culture war arguments for mandatory stunning hit the wrong target....