Farce as Radio 4 listeners 'manipulate' vote on hunt ban

 Add your view

A prestigious BBC poll to discover the law most people want scrapped has been denounced as a farce after being 'manipulated' by pro-hunting campaigners.

The annual vote by listeners to the Radio 4 Today programme was intended to spark a serious national debate by identifying Britain's 'least useful and most damaging piece of legislation.'

But the overwhelming 52.8 per cent winning vote for the repeal of the 2004 act banning hunting of foxes with hounds was suspiciously high and organisers 'sniffed a rat.'

It was revealed that the panel which selected six Acts to be included in Today's end-of-year poll considered excluding the hunting ban even though it received more nominations than any other law, because of evidence of a concerted campaign to skew the result.

The Countryside Alliance identified the flagship news programme Christmas Repeal Poll as a way of striking a propaganda blow for its cause.

Supporters were urged to vote on the organisation's website and its leaders freely admitted the campaign to influence the 'open' vote worked.

The Hunting Act took more than half of the votes, well ahead of the European Communities Act of 1972 which took Britain into the Common Market, with 29.7 per cent.

But the extent of the alleged vote rigging was made clear by the other results which saw the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act requiring police permission for protests in Parliament Square poll 6.2 per cent, the Human Rights Act 6.1 per cent, The Act of Settlement which bars Catholics from taking the throne 3.6 per cent and the Dangerous Dogs Act 1.6 per cent.

After announcing the result, producers allocated several minutes to debating the legitimacy of the poll rather than discuss the issues as intended.

One listener emailed the show to say 'shame on you' for giving a 'minority interest group' the opportunity 'to develop propaganda' for the next election.

Presenter Ed Stourton said there were 'suspicions that there was an organised campaign at work.'

While Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe, an opponent of hunting and member of the panel which assessed nominations for the poll, told Today:'Undeniably, the Countryside Alliance pulled out every last stop to get this result.

"We did hesitate on the panel to put this one forward because there was already evidence of links from the Countryside Alliance - encouragement etc - and of course we had the Boxing Day meets, when just about everybody who actively supports hunting would have been out and could have been reminded."

She said there "were question marks", but added: "After all they are a lobbying group, that is what they are for."

Alliance supporters were told on its website that winning the vote "will add growing momentum for a future Parliament to scrap it." But Countryside Alliance president Baroness Mallalieu dismissed suggestions the vote was meaningless.

She told the programme: "What we did was to notify people on the website that this vote was taking place and suggest that they vote.

"The truth of the matter is that, of all the Acts on the list, this is the one that no case can possibly be made for retaining, because it has been a total failure all round.

"Whatever your views on hunting one way or the other, this Act is a fiasco and it is not surprising that it received a mass vote."

 

What's on today   What's on tomorrow

Receive our newsletter