Tag: PCC

Well, well, well. After months of dodging questions about his former past killing wildlife, it turns out that Wiltshire’s Conservative candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner Jonathon Seed was ineligible to stand anyway. Just two days AFTER the elections took place, and one day before votes were counted, we now discover that Mr Seed was disbarred from standing because he has a criminal conviction for drink driving. Could Mr Seed be any more of a caricature: entitled, arrogant, pro-hunt, and apparently dishonest too…If he stood as a candidate and went through the election process knowing he shouldn’t have, then he has perhaps committed electoral fraud as well. Just how much due diligence was done by the local Conservative party when they backed an unsuitable candidate like Mr Seed to run policing in Wiltshire? Apparently Wiltshire’s PCC election will now have to take place again. Local taxpayers will no doubt foot the bill, polling station staff will have to make themselves available again, and local residents will have to make an extra journey to a polling station to vote again – not before we have had an opportunity to question or investigate any new candidate put forward though. Without that opportunity how could any election be fair if we don’t know who we’re voting for?

Wildlife and Countryside LINK (often referred to as just LINK) is the largest environment and wildlife coalition in England, bringing together fifty-eight organisations that work for the protection of nature (there are also LINK groups in Wales and Scotland). The Wildlife Crime Working Group is one of LINK’s sub-groups and they have written to all of the PCC candidates inviting them to state whether they will commit to help end widlife crime – or at least make tackling wildlife crime a priority. As we’ve been detailing in a number of posts, the electorate has largely been fairly apathetic when it comes to electing PCCs. Turnout in 2016 (the last time elections were held) was under 30%. This really matters because even a small increase in voter numbers could have a very real effect. It’s not just the pro-wildlife side that realise that of course. In January this year leaked documents from April 2020 indicated that the pro-hunting lobbyist group Vote OK was seeking to influence the elections,,,Information on the candidates is now widely available. Please, if you value our wildlife make sure you know what your local candidates stand for and what they are likely to do if they’re put in to power.

Wiltshire Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Candidate Jonathon Seed has tried hard to sidestep his years spent fox hunting with the notorious Avon Vale Hunt, and repeatedly claims that Wiltshire’s residents ‘aren’t interested’ in his past and that only ‘trolls’ want to talk about hunting…While it is true to say that, generally speaking, most Wiltshire voters ‘aren’t interested’ in the PCC elections at all – at the last elections in 2016 the current Wiltshire PCC was elected on a 25% turnout of the electorate (nationwide turnout was just 27.3%) – Mr Seed does appear to have inadvertently inspired a much greater interest in them than usual. He’s even now featuring in some rather unflattering posters, ‘dozens’ of which have recently appeared around Devizes, a Wiltshire market town.

Jonathon Seed, former huntmaster of the Avon Vale Hunt and Wiltshire’s Conservative Police and Crime Comissioner candidate, on being interviewed on ITV News (April 14th) seemed startled that the journalist should ask him about his hunting past – saying (as he repeatedly says) that no-one is interested in the fact he spent years killing wildlife – and as we repeatedly say, ‘Actually, yes they are’. Check out our previous posts and the number of RTs and likes our tweet got after just a few hours online…

Only ‘trolls’ are interested in talking about hunting, Mr Seed? No-one cares that you spent years and years chasing and killing wild animals while you were riding with the Avon Vale Hunt. Mr Seed? No-one doubts that you will be unbiased in your policing of so-called ‘trail hunting’, Mr Seed? No-one is concerned that a pro-hunt lobby group is raising funds to support pro-hunt candidates in the upcoming Police and Crime Commissioner elections, Mr Seed? Actually, it appears that many ordinary people are interested, do care, have doubts, and are concerned Mr Seed. Perhaps you’ve picked that up from local village forums, Mr Seed, which do appear to be somewhat hostile towards you? Or perhaps from the petition which is linked to below, which if nothing else has probably alerted you to the fact that even if you do win there will be MANY people watching your every move very, very carefully, Mr Seed.

Mr Seed has never been charged with any offence under the Hunting Act (and we’re certainly not suggesting otherwise) but he does appear to be getting very ticked off with questions about fox hunting. On the one hand you might say that’s fair enough – after all widespread illegal fox hunting in Wiltshire is just one of many, many crimes that a new PCC would be expected to deal with. On the other hand you might reasonably ask how a former hunt master who has called for repeal of the Hunting Act might (how can we put this) show some ‘unconscious bias’ when it comes to policing fox hunting? We’re not the only ones wondering that, judging by an article last week in ‘Devizine’, an online guide to What’s On in Wiltshire. Under a header which quotes Mr Seed saying that nobody wants to talk about hunting except ‘trolls’, reporter Darren Worrow underlines just how frustrated Mr Seed is getting that anyone should be remotely interested in his long history of killing wildlife while on horseback.