Something we didn't have the time to comment on yesterday was the interview with Kate Hoey which appeared in Sunday's Observer.
Kate's been in the news a lot recently. Back in the summer her and her Lambeth council cohorts deprived London's inhabitants of a riverside beach area because...well, because they couldn't get off their arses and go take a look at it. Since then she's been campaigning on behalf of the Routmaster, becoming chairman of the Countryside Alliance, and giving exclusive interviews to Horse & Hound magazine regarding her views on the hunting ban (we're guessing she's against it, but that's just a hunch).
She also helps to run Vauxhall when she has a spare moment or two.
Her latest crusade is supermarkets and their treatment of farmers.
As the Observer explains, "She used her first interview in the post to attack the cruelty of battery farming, accusing animal welfare lobbyists of 'hypocrisy' for criticising foxhunting while happily eating intensively reared chickens."
Kate continues "The demands [the supermarkets] put on local producers are really terrible, in what they will buy from them and what they won't. I try to avoid supermarkets as much as possible."
Really Kate? Have you mentioned this to Lord Sainsbury of Turville the Science and Innovation Minister and one of the Labour Party's biggest donors?
And where exactly would you advise your constinuents in Vauxhall to buy their food from? Not that huge, nasty Sainsbury's on the Wandsworth Road surely? Although that has more than likely forced a lot of local traders out of business over the years.
Up until a few months ago of course, they could have gone to Hestons' butchers on Kennington Lane, but that moved premises recently along with several other small businesses due to the effect of the congestion charge.
Maybe you could have protested on behalf of them instead of jumping on the populist but ultimately vacuous bandwagon that was the Routemaster campaign?
The Observer goes on to say that Kate, as "the daughter of a pig farmer from Co Antrim, Hoey is one of the few Labour backbenchers who can ride a horse bareback and milk a cow."
Wow, there's a couple of images that will take a while to scrub from our brains.
Our favourite Kate quote (Kwate?) from the Observer article though, is this one:
'Not a single fox life has been saved by a hunting ban,' Hoey says bluntly. 'I have a lot of respect for people who have a view that no animal should be killed or used for anything. If they are wearing their plastic shoes, it's up to them: it's the kind of hypocrisy of people who will make a huge fuss about foxes while going out and buying their broiler chicken.'
Are we understanding you correctly here Kate? Are you saying you're only allowed to protest aginst fox hunting as long as you go out and buy organic chicken afterwards?
And "plastic shoes"? Come on Kate, is that as patronising as you can be? Can't you get in a mention of how vegans get ill all the time and hunt protestors tend to wear knitted jumpers?
