Letters From A Tory Daily views on British politics and the Conservative Party from a centre-right thinker who writes letters on his blog to politicians, journalists and many others.

“A belief need not include faith or worship of a god or gods, but must affect how a person lives their life or perceives the world.”
- guidance on Harriet Harman’s new Equality Bill, explaining why vegans and teetotallers amongst others are to be given the same protection against discrimination as religious groups.  The Bill makes [...]

From the BBC:
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has defended its use of more than 100 pigs in explosive tests in Wiltshire.
Some 119 pigs were used in the research at the Government’s military research laboratory Porton Down, near Salisbury, between 2006 and 2009. The tests “saved many lives” in Iraq and Afghanistan due to improvements in [...]

Dear readers,
I’ve seen a couple of interesting news clippings that have uncovered almost identical poll results from completely different questions, so to start off this week I thought I would find out what you make of them…
In the foxhunting corner:
In a landmark legal ruling, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the Hunting Act does [...]

First we had the Hunting Lobby.  Cameron committed himself to repealing the Hunting Act, only to cool his language in recent months.  What did the Hunting Lobby do?  Immediately threaten to withdraw considerable sums of funding and support in rural seats.  Cameron had no choice but to start warming his language up again to placate [...]

Dear David Cameron,
When I recently wrote a letter to William Hague on the subject of foxhunting, it provoked one of the fiercest debates ever seen on this blog.  Although both sides of the debate were equally adamant, the one thing that brought them together was the belief that the Hunting Act introduced by Tony Blair [...]

“All field sports people are doing is turning an inevitable necessity into a pleasure. If the animal is going to be killed anyway, why not take pleasure in it?”
- TV cook Clarissa Dickson Wright, who evidently does not use the same definition of ‘morality’ as I do

Dear William Hague,
As a hugely respected member of the Shadow Cabinet, I always have high expectations of your policies and competence.  Unfortunately, if what I read is true then my respect for you will be violently shaken.  Rumours are gathering that secret plans to reintroduce hunting foxes, stags and other animals have been drawn up [...]

Dear Stockwell Day,
As Canada’s international trade minister, you are set to lead the fight about the EU’s newly imposed ban on the import of seal products.  Canada is already threatening to go to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to challenge the ban so I doubt that this is the last we will hear of the [...]

“I’d like to be a fly on the wall when the Queen and Princess Anne are asked to sign a form saying they’re not going to eat their horses.”
- Nigel Farage MEP, reacting to the news that horse owners will have to sign a pledge not to eat their animals under new EU legislation. The [...]

“Charles Darwin argued that sexual preferences can shape the progress of evolution, creating displays, such as the peacock’s tail, that are inexplicable by natural selection alone. It’s safe to say, however, that he did not anticipate the lesbian albatrosses of Hawaii. Nor bisexual bonobos. Let alone sadomasochistic bat bugs or the gay penguins of New [...]

“The deer was able to move and had left the area by the time the police arrived.”
- Wendy Wang, Google Street View operations manager, after a google car not only ran over a deer but also captured the incident on a set of photographs later published on Street View.  Photographs taken for Google’s Street View [...]

Dear Tony Wright,
No doubt you are feeling rather smug this morning.  Having become the first huntsman to be convicted of breaching the Hunting Act, which was introduced five years ago, you have successfully appealed against the ruling.  It is now thought that future prosecutions under the legislation will become a lot harder, given the Judge’s [...]

“We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody.”
- Nigerian state policeman Tunde Mohammed, after the police detained a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.  Members of the public took the black and white goat to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform [...]

“I expect you will be seen by some as martyrs for a noble cause but that would be misplaced.  You are not going to prison for expressing your beliefs, you are going to prison because you have committed a serious criminal offence.”
- Mr Justice Butterfield, sentencing seven animal rights activists for between 4 and 11 [...]

“To see a little dog dressed up in boots, I think, is a little over the top.”
- Lynn Williams, founder of dog charity Happy Dogs, who supports the RSPCA in their threat of legal action against people who dress up their dogs, as forcing pets to wear clothing could be harmful and in some cases there may [...]

Dear Jack Straw,
Now that Mandy and Campbell are back in charge, I assume that you have a lot more free time on your hands as you don’t have to worry so much about holding the Labour Party together.  May I suggest that one excellent use of your energy would be to send out a very [...]

They have been plotting, scheming, discussing, planning, waiting for their moment for as long as anyone can remember – and now finally, the balance of power has begun to change…..

I’ve heard of a bull in a china shop, but THIS STORY was a pretty close second.

You’ll be delighted to hear that the scum and vermin in the Houses of Parliament and government departments are finally being eradicated – sadly, this doesn’t include MPs.

The entries for the ‘Headline of the year’ award just keep on coming.  The previous nominations (by me) were:
1. UK NAVY TO END GOAT EXPERIMENTS
2. NEW ZEALAND MAN USED HEDGEHOG AS A WEAPON
And now there are two more to add to the list:
3. LYNCHINGS IN CONGO AS PENIS THEFT PANIC HITS CAPITAL
4. GREAT TITS COPE WELL WITH WARMING
The mental [...]

I have to admit that even though I found the headline UK NAVY TO END GOAT EXPERIMENTS at the beginning of 2008, I thought it would be tough to beat as the best headline this year – but is NEW ZEALAND MAN USED HEDGEHOG AS A WEAPON even better?

In the dull and dreary British media that is stuffed full of pointless celebrity gossip, sensationalist journalism and political scandal, it is always refreshing to stumble across contenders for headline of the year.  My vote for 2008 so far goes to this beauty from yesterday:
UK NAVY TO END GOAT EXPERIMENTS (BBC)

As teachers move ever closer to strike action thanks to another shoddy pay deal from the Government, it brings back horrible memories of all the money wasted by Labour on stupid education initiatives that drive teachers mad and cost the taxpayer millions of pounds.  Every year there seems to be another spectacular attempt to blow [...]