Why does Labour always suck up to the hunting lobby?

The decision by Environment Minister Leo Brincat to succumb to the hunters' lobby is confirmation that this government has only one interest.

That is to genuflect before the hunting lobby.

With a nine-seat and 35,000-vote majority, I would have expected much, much more.

I am starting to wonder whether the PL is a political party with a social and environmental conscience or simply a photocopy of the Nationalist Party.

Minister Brincat will answer rather spontaneously that the Labour government has a mandate to do what it has to do.

To tell you the truth, they should thank the Lord that the PN are in such a structural mess.

To tell you the truth, nowhere in the PL electoral manifesto was there a specific suggestion that the government would remove the September curfew and allow Maltese hunters to shoot birds of prey.

This legal notice is a green light for more illegal hunting.

Louis F Cassar, who is the politically appointed chairman of Ornis, is probably unaware what a bloody awful decision he has taken. Or if he is aware, then he should really go back to what he is best at, which is definitely not chairing the Ornis Committee.

Mr Cassar has never had a soft spot for BirdLife, and this decision to allow hunting on September afternoons is perhaps proof of his reason for taking up this post.

Governments love chairman who say yes.

But more importantly, it is crucial to understand why September afternoon shooting from a motley crowd of local troglodytes is not on.

Birds of prey such as vultures, eagles and falcons leave the Sicilian coast and cross the Sicilian straits, and reach the Maltese Islands after 3pm. It is then that hunters start with their orgy of destruction and killing.

For years now, Maltese and Gozitan hunters have simply enjoyed gunning down birds of prey, just for the fun of it.

The truth is that Maltese hunters are an impossible crowd. The only way to control hunting is to impose a moratorium, and that is what happened when September afternoon was declared a time when no hunter was allowed to hunt.

Leo Brincat has announced that enforcement will be increased in the month of September.

What Mr Brincat does not know is that they will need a policeman with every hunter, since every hunter is a potential law-breaker.

Well, it is clear that in spite of our accession to the European Union, there is very little indication that things will really change when it comes to birds.

And let us face it, the EU does not give a hoot if our humid and hot September afternoons are taken up by big macho hunters shooting down birds which are protected and in serious danger of extinction.

Neither should we expect any effective campaigning to the contrary from the PN or the Greens.

This fortifies my belief that the only way to convince politicians to act is to hit them where it really hurts. And to me it is very clear: boycott the European Parliamentary elections and boycott all the candidates. Let them know that if they want to suck up the hunters, it comes with a price!