Once more unto the breach...

In 1997 the Labour Party, in a pre election document entitled "New Labour, New Life For Animals", promised the electorate they were committed to the reduction and eventual elimination of animal experiments. The truth is, 150,000 more animals are suffering and dying per year in vivisection labs compared to when Blair first came to power. It was all a sham, a lie to the very people that helped to put them into government.

Now the Labour government are shedding any pretence they may once have had in eliminating the suffering of animals used in the vivisection labs. Recently we have witnessed their obscene behaviour as they attempt to introduce ever more draconian laws intended to restrict not the activities of those involved in illegal actions but designed for one purpose only and that is the introduction of laws that will attempt to outlaw legal protest.

The purpose of the new laws are an attempt by the government to marginalize the animal rights movement within the wider community in order to minimise our support base. The last couple of days has seen government ministers and their friends in the vivisection and pharmaceutical industry lining up on television and radio and giving interviews with the express aim of deceiving the British public and manipulating them into believing that new laws are needed in order to control the threat posed by so called 'animal rights extremist'.

The government and the pharmaceutical industry clearly hope that by using emotive language and highlighting the small number of instances where illegal actions have taken place, they can hoodwink people into believing that the new law will somehow affect illegal actions. It's important to get one thing clear: this law is not designed to be imposed on those taking direct action against companies and individuals involved in the systematic abuse of animals, there are already a plethora of laws that can and do deal with people engaged in those types of activities. We certainly don't need more laws on the statute-book to deal with illegal acts. What the government do need are new laws that deal with legal campaigns that are becoming ever more effective at both changing peoples attitudes and causing real harm to the animal abuse industry.

It doesnt take a genius to understand that these new laws are being introduced in an attempt to placate the pharmaceutical industry, who are clearly pulling the government's strings and have already publicly issued an ultimatum to the government to crack down with - let's not beat around the bush here - the intention of destroying the animal rights movement in the UK. What the pharmaceutical industry are effectively doing are blackmailing a democratically elected government. A government elected by the due process of law has become nothing more than a lap dog to big business, even to the extent where one of the most prominent figures in the biotechnology industry, Lord Sainsbury, is now the Science Minister in the Labour government. Let's not forget he is not an elected member of Parliament, he only acquired his lofty position due to the millions he has donated to the Labour party.

The new law of 'Economic Damage/Sabotage' is nothing more than an attempt to both harass and intimidate legal campaigns, the wording of the new law is at best ambiguous and at worst both open ended and open to interpretation. Which is no coincidence, the government with the collusion of the vivisection industry has formulated a law that can be misused and abused by the police just because it is not specific enough. Once again, it would appear that it is another law drawn up by a government of spin and not of substance, and therein lies its weakness.

These are troubling times for the democratic system of this country, as the UK adopt ever more draconian laws in an attempt to muzzle legitimate process. Any law so obviously biased will never have the desired effect its instigators intended or hoped, and the new amendment to the 'Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill' will be just another worthless appendage.

Whatever laws government introduce to protect the systematic abuse of animals will inevitably fail. At the end of the day this law is about protecting the profit margins of an industry more interested in increasing its profit margins rather than in finding a cure for human illness, and more and more people are coming to that realisation. The animal rights movement is on the cusp of an historic victory against Oxford University. Victory will be ours, have no doubt about that and that victory will ultimately lead to the crumbling of the edifice that is vivisection.

Stay strong and take heart, we are winning, we will not be silenced, for right is might!