Tim Bonner: Extinction Rebellion behind anti-rural sentiment in Welsh Government

Most of us would think that the route to political influence is either getting elected, bringing specific expertise to policy development or representing the views of an interest group in a logical and legitimate way. In Wales, however, it seems that blocking roads and illegally interrupting citizens’ lives gets you a regular audience with senior government Ministers. The revelation that Extinction Rebellion, thousands of whose supporters have been arrested and hundreds convicted, meets with the Welsh Climate Change Minister, Julie James, on a quarterly basis will be a shock to the man on the street in Cardiff, but no surprise to watchers of the Welsh Government.

In fact, the Minister’s acquiescence to an organisation that actively seeks to subvert the democratic process is no surprise at all given the readiness of the Welsh government to launch culture wars against rural minorities. Extinction Rebellion’s lobbying has undoubtedly contributed to the Welsh Government’s obsession with tree planting to the extent that it has been purchasing productive agricultural land to plant trees on and threatening the future of farming communities.

Then there is game shooting. Pheasant and partridge shooting is a growth sector in rural Wales, bringing visitors from all over the world to some of the finest shoots in Britain. There are hundreds of real businesses reliant on game shooting supporting thousands of jobs in some of the most marginal communities in rural Wales. Yet the Welsh Government refused to pay grants to shooting businesses during Covid when every other business was getting state support. The Minister, Julie James, has stated that she has a moral objection to game shooting and First Minister Mark Drakeford has tied himself in knots by claiming that he supports the game meat industry, but not the shooting of gamebirds. 

Now the Welsh government is consulting on licensing any release of pheasants or partridges in Wales which, given its very open dislike of game shooting, has raised obvious concerns that it wants to regulate shooting out of existence. The consultation closed on Tuesday night (20 June) and over 12,900 of you with an interest in shooting in Wales responded through our lobby alone. We have been working closely with our colleagues in Aim to Sustain, holding regional meetings and generating media coverage which will have generated tens of thousands more responses. The Welsh Government will now have to decide whether it prefers the considered views of tens of thousands of real, law-abiding people from the rural community or the shrill and partial voices of extremists. Labour in Westminster is keen to present itself as a party of government. Labour’s actions in rural Wales will go a long way towards telling us whether that is a veneer or a reality.