There was a program that made this very point by a right-wing historian about 5-6 years ago

Can’t remember who but it was some hanger, flogger type

And I agree with Tory that Labour’s fall was more decisive to the forming of the current government that the Tories rise – there were seats in the South West where labour got pipped to 3rd place by UKIP and in the Eastern region they failed to hold a single seat – missing out on working class strongholds like Thurrock, Ipswich and Yarmouth

On fox hunting – I think an important part of the story is Labour’s transformation from a party of heavy industrial working class trade unionists into a party of urban middle class professionals.

In Labour’s industrial heartlands – in particular the coalfields, which were often quite rural – there was often a very strong tradition of field sports and various types of hunting. Not fox hunting – which was regarded as a gentleman’s sport – but other hunting with dogs including rabbitting, ratting, hare coarsing and fell hunting as well as angling.

Also it is important to mention the very close linkages between hunting and racing, which the traditional flat-capped Labour-supporting betting shop patron will understand very well. Of course racing of greyhounds, pigeons and whippets was very popular in these kinds of working class areas as was and is betting on the horses.

My great uncle, who was an NUM shop steward for decades and have mentioned on here before, was such a Labour man he had the Red Flag played on a trumpet at his funeral. He also was a keen ratter and rabbiter in his young days and kept Jack Russells for this purpose most of his life. He and many other old Labour people of his generation was opposed to abolishing hunting as he understood its linkages to the old working class sports I discuss above.

Now Labour is a party dominated by urban middle class professionals this whole approach has disappeared.

Actually one of the very last to espouse it was Robin Cook, who was fiercely pro-hunting and understood its place in terms of supporting his beloved horse racing.

Quite rightly I think the government is giving this issue a low priority now. It is hardly of any importance compared with the economic circumstances we are in. Also it is an open secret that the current anti-hunting laws are widely ignored.

Thanks for the info Barnaby.

I thought the 2010 intake of Tory MPs were more or less united in their desire to see fox hunting back on the books

The fact that he opposed hunting was quite prominent in Mike Wetherly’s pre-election literature, although I don’t recall neighbouring (well more or less) MP Simon Kirby mentioning it

Interesting that none of the five Tories who oppose hunting come from rural constituencies, with the Lib Dem being similar with those MPs from urban seats being far more opposed to it than those from rural ones

In answer to Tory, I would also say that in terms of eletoral history, the amount of seats the Tories did win in 2010 is actually pretty impressive. They fell short of a majoritry but did just about well enough to prevent any rainbow coalition with Labour, Lib Dems, Nationalists etc

That hardly gets mention

Nonetheless, I agree that the Conservatives should have performed better in 2001 and 2005. Their failure to do so made Cameron’s job extremely difficult in 2010. He had to start from a low base camp- both nationally and in former Tory-held seats. In some of them, Labour’s percentage majorities were barely down on their 1997 level- Chorley and Blackpool South were good examples.

1997 certainly was, and after the scale of that defeat 2001 was always going to be an uphill task, but I don’t accept that either election was unswinnable as such

The dismal turn out of the 2001 election demonstrated the lack of enthusiasm for Tony Blair and whilst Labour have proved itself more competent in its stewardship of running the country than administrations of the past, surely the Tories woluld have done better had they not repeated the mistakes of Michael Foot’s Labour Party by only speaking to their core vote

By 2005 Labour’s top brass looked very weak and tired – especially after the draining effect of the Iraq War. Had the Tories been a more effective opoosition gthey could have had thedm on the ropes over a whole range of issues in the run up to 2005 yet they continued to beat the right wing populist drum that you now advocate they repeat, and subsequently suffered another fairly resounding defeat

To say the Tories missed out on the seats they needed to win a majority in 2010 because they weren’t right wing enough just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny

I accept that government’s lose elections and opposition’s seldom win them, but I seriously think if Cameron hadn’t adopted his now much scorned liberal stance in 2006-07 the Tories would have fallen even shorter in 2010

And unlike abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia, fox hunting is essentially a right/left if not party political issue. There are the odd Tories who oppose it – from hardline right-wingers like David Ames and Roger Gale to more moderate voices like Anne Widdecombe and Mike Wetherly – but aparty from them I can’t think olf a single Tory MP in the current Parliament who doesn’t wsant to bring it back. Likewise with the exception kof Kate Hoey I can’t think of a Labour MP that supports it, whilst the Lib Dems, as the centre party, are split on the issue