Election shots
One aspect of the political party's General Election manifestos that has not raised much comment is the commitments, or lack of them, on shooting. In 2005 all three main parties dealt with shooting either in their main manifestos or in rural manifestos. Five years ago the Conservatives promised in their rural manifesto to: "encourage responsible self-regulation of shooting sports" there is no discussion of shooting in this Conservative manifesto. Likewise in 2005 the Liberal Democrats said in their rural manifesto: "we have no plans to introduce any new restrictions on fishing or shooting sports, other than a minimum age limit of 14 for participating in shoots". Again there is no commitment this year. In 2005 Labour said that it would "modernise the outdated game and licensing laws", which it subsequently delivered in England and Wales, and that it would: "work with the relevant bodies to ensure that country sports are protected while ensuring high standards of environmental protection, animal welfare and safety". This commitment has been included, in various forms, in Labour manifestos since 1979 as a counter to the commitment to ban hunting. It is absent from Labour's 2010 manifesto.
Manifestos are an important insight into the thinking of political parties and it is often what they do not include that is as telling as what they do. Once a commitment like the Labour party pledge not to restrict shooting has been made, as it has been for so long, it is legitimate to ask why the party has not made that commitment in 2010. It is also legitimate to ask whether the Conservative commitment to self regulation still stands. As for the Liberal Democrats it is important to confirm that they still have no plans to restrict shooting and whether they have retained the ridiculous prohibition on under 14s 'participating in shoots'.
Ultimately our aim is to remove shooting from the political agenda so a lack of manifesto content should not necessarily be seen as a bad thing. It is, for instance, very gratifying that restrictions on the use of legitimate firearms are no longer seen as a necessary knee-jerk response to concerns about violent crime. The Alliance and other shooting organisations are, however, constantly engaged in the defence of our shooting rights in one area of legislation or other. Even as we speak game rearing, dog ownership, lead shot and the carriage of ammunition are all live political issues. When so many different aspects of shooting can become embroiled in politics the Alliance is here to ensure that no political party can hide an anti-shooting agenda.