Hustings # 5 and 6

Tweet Monday night saw us all gathered together again at Penuel Chapel in Carmarthen, and last night at Westgate Chapel in Pembroke. Tonight it's back to Carmarthen for number 7, "Ask the Climate Change question", organised by the RSPB.

We've had an interesting range of questions at the six events so far, covering a wide range of topics. Somewhat surprisingly, last night was the first time that the hunting question came up - and following the rota, it just so happened that Simon Hart was the last one to answer.

My response was the one I have given many times on the doorstep - that I fully support actions taken to control foxes where they are causing problems, but cannot and will not support chasing and killing wildlife for pleasure or 'sport'. Which is why I would not vote for the repeal of the current legislation. The Labour and Lib Dem candidates both made it clear that neither of them would support repeal either - so Simon had his chance to express an alternative view and explain why he supported hunting and repeal of the act.

And he fudged it. He made no attempt to justify or support hunting, and didn't even make out any rational case for repeal. All he could say was that in his opinion the act was nothing more than spite in the first place, and that legislation must be evidence-based in future. Given that everyone knows what his real views are, it simply added to the perception of a lack of openness and honesty about the nature of his campaign - an attempt to get all the way to election day without saying anything substantive about one particular issue.