The SNP have announced – with remarkably similar statements on Twitter – they will vote against Tory amendments to the Hunting Act.
Until some time on the night of 19/20 May they said:
The SNP has a long-standing position of not voting on matters that only affect England. The Hunting Act is one such matter that purely affects England and Wales, and so SNP MPs would not vote on this issue. However, SNP MPs will always be a voice for the protection of our environment and wildlife.
The Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament in February 2002, making Scotland the first part of the UK to ban traditional fox hunting and hare coursing. There are no plans to repeal the Act in Scotland.
First they were wrong. Then they were right. It then became:
Legislation over fox hunting is devolved to the Scottish Parliament, and Scotland took the opportunity to ban fox hunting in 2002, some two years before the legislation passed south of the border. There are no plans to repeal this legislation.As regards any legislation to repeal the ban in England and Wales, the SNP Group at Westminster has not yet decided its stance. While SNP MPs have tended not to participate in votes on domestic English/Welsh legislation which do not apply to Scotland, the party’s Westminster Group will not decide a position on this matter until such time as any proposed legislation can be studied and assessed.
Not an update. Not even a deletion of the original file followed by a new press release. But an alteration without comment.
A critical soul would call this deliberate deceit, open fraud, and downright lying lies. This is the sort of thing which makes people not trust a word which comes out your mouth as they do with lying liars who lie through their teeth.