Former minister calls hauliers thugs
Page 6
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Colourfu1 former Conservative minister Alan Clark has branded livestock hauliers as "thugs" after watching the resumption of live animal shipments through Dover.
Clark lives near to the port but only went to the scene after his wife returned home in tears having seen the lorries waiting to board ferries. He made the attack during an interview with BBC Radio's PM programme last Friday (21 April).
Clark said later that he was referring to callousness in the way the trade was being carried out, citing the RSPCA's refusal to allow three truck loads to continue their journeys. Livestock haulier Peter Gilder, whose High Court action enabled the resumption of the trade, was too busy at work to comment on Clark's remarks.
But livestock hauliers have been defended by a senior animal health inspector at Dyfed County Council: John James, dismissed Clark's
comments as "very emotive language". There are undesirables in all kinds of jobs but to say that all hauliers are thugs is wrong, he says.