8/12/2019 The Crisis in British Rural Democracy.
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The crisis in British rural democracy
On the 20thof February 2014 Devon county council voted to allow
a badgercull on council owned land, desite three etitions being
handed in the monthbefore totalling more than !,000 signatures
oosing it, which was not
mentioned before the vote" The eole of Devon who care about
their wildlifealso eered their councillors with articles and
information, including acomrehensive reort of the disastrous 201#
badger culls, to which many ofus received inade$uate or no relies"
The vote in Devon was #%&th for abadger cull and half of those
voting declared an interest as being members ofthe 'F( or
)ountryside *lliance, but unli+e the farmers who are not allowedto
vote on such issues, these largely )onservative councillors could"
as+ed ifthose 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 mid1.00/s wealthy landowners and the aristocracy could
control the votes of theirtenant farmers, by threatening to evict
them if they didn/t the right way, and sothey gained ower by the
bac+ door, circumventing the democratic rocess"They urosely clung
to feudal ways of wor+ing and undermined our fledglingdemocracy"
They sent hired thugs on horsebac+ into the crowd of 0,000eaceful
men, women and children gathered at eterloo Fields nearanchester,
at the first camaign for universal suffrage and for
electoralreform, such an end to oen voting" The hired militia cut
them down withsabres" )ountless numbers died both on the day and
afterwards from infectedsabre wounds, and it became +nown as the
eterloo massacre" 3e theneelled the lead members of the )hartist
movement that followed, deortingthem to *ustralia as Traitors to
the state for demanding better democracysuch as an end to safe
seats" 'ow, some 1&0 years later, the same feudalattitude
towards democracy is haening again, if it ever truly went away
atall, 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 thehunting community controlling farmers and landowners
in the badger cull5ones" 6treme ressure was ut on farmers to ta+e
art in a badger cullranging from threats of hysical violence, to
having their feed suly
terminated or to having their mil+ $uota reduced" *ny one of
these measurescould ut someone out of businessand all those
affected are too intimidatedto sea+ to the media about it" This
ressure continued during the badger cullwhen the $uota of dead
badgers was not reached, and those who had notagreed to ta+e art
were again ressured to 7oin in, to get the numbers ofslaughtered
badgers u" eanwhile those rural communities were riven in twoon
this issue with neighbour itted against neighbour, farmer against
farmer,farmers against the 'F( and farmers against villagers" t
will ta+e manydecades for these communities to heal from what was
done to them by3estminster"
The eole of the Forest of Dean decided they didn/t want a badger
cull andthe Forest of Dean district council did the democratic
thing, listened to their
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constituents and banned a badger cull on council owned land" ore
than thatthey did not have the ower to do" *mong David )ameron/s
election romiseswere8 an end to 9top down Government:" ;e romised
9devolved power tothe regions:" ;e romised 9more power to local
governments:" But heimosed 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 towhere a badger cull would ta+e lace" t was notbased
on areas with highrates of bovine TB"
This Government have broken their promises. 'ot only are they
not the
