Ben's Column

<table width="100%" height="100%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="left" valign="bottom"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""><tr><td background="../../graphics/180601_pages/pat.jpg"><img src="../../graphics/180601_pages/top.jpg" width="760" height="54" alt="MP for Exeter" usemap="#Map" border="0"></td></tr></table> <map name="Map"> <area shape="rect" coords="38,21,223,37" href="../../biog/" alt="Biography" title="Biography" target="_parent"> </map> </td> </tr> <tr><td align="right" valign="top"> <table summary="" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="150" height="341" background="../../graphics/buttons/bottom.jpg" valign="top"> <table summary="" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <a href="/" target="_parent"><img src="../../graphics/buttons/home.gif" alt="Home" width="150" height="34" border="0"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="../../exeter_labour/index/" target="_parent"><img name="Image6" border="0" src="../../graphics/buttons/party.gif" width="150" height="23" alt="Exeter Labour Party"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="/" target="_parent"><img name="Image7" border="0" src="../../graphics/buttons/speeches.gif" width="150" height="23" alt="Speeches"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="../../column/" target="_parent"><img border="0" src="../../graphics/buttons/column.gif" width="150" height="24" alt="Ben's Column"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="../../faqs/" target="_parent"><img border="0" src="../../graphics/buttons/faqs.gif" width="150" height="23" alt="FAQs"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="/" target="_parent"><img border="0" src="../../graphics/buttons/local.gif" width="150" height="23" alt="Local Information"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="/" target="_parent"><img border="0" src="../../graphics/buttons/newsletter.gif" width="150" height="23" alt="Newsletter"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="/" target="_parent"><img src="../../graphics/buttons/links.gif" width="150" height="23" border="0" alt="Links"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="../../contact/contact/" target="_parent"><img src="../../graphics/buttons/contact.gif" width="150" height="23" alt="Contact" border="0"></a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td align="left" valign="top">  <title>Welcome to Ben Bradshaws Website</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#cc0000" vlink="#cc0000" alink="#cc0000" leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.legendsofgaming.co.uk/" style="padding: 5px 10px;">Betting Sites Not On Gamstop Uk</a></div> <font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><a name="top"></a></b></font> <table width="90%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10" summary=""> <tr> <td align="right"><a href="../../column/column/" target="_self"><img alt="Back" src="../../graphics/new_bio/back.gif" width="90" height="22" border="0"></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="-3"><font size="4" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#CC0000">Whales — 21 July 2004</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="-6"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">�Save the whale� one of the most successful conservation slogans of our time.<br> <br> It led in 1986 to a long overdue ban on commercial whale hunting. Before then, most of the great whale species had been hunted almost to extinction<br> <br> The recovery of whales since has been extremely slow because they are such slow breeders. Despite this, Japan, Norway and Iceland are all pushing aggressively for a resumption of commercial whale hunting.<br> <br> All three countries have continued to kill whales anyway, exploiting loopholes in the 1986 agreement and the weakness of the body that regulates whaling, the International Whaling Commission. <br> <br> The IWC use to have a healthy majority of countries like Britain that opposed hunting whales. But in recent years, the pro hunting countries led by Japan have recruited successfully new members to the IWC. At this year�s conference where I represented the UK, this week, there were four new members � Mauritania and the Ivory Coast in West Africa, Surinam in South America and Tuvalu in the Pacific.<br> <br> None of them has an obvious interest in hunting whales, but all followed the pro hunting line.<br> <br> The addition in recent years of a number of small, poor countries mainly in West Africa and the Caribbean to the IWC has led to accusations of vote buying. This year the anti hunting group led by Britain, Germany and New Zealand managed to defend its majority but only by the slenderest of margins.<br> <br> If those countries and people who care about conserving the majestic creatures fail to act and campaign as vigorously as the pro hunting countries, there is a real danger that the moratorium on commercial hunting could be lifted, with devastating consequences for Earth�s largest mammals. <br> </font></td> </tr><tr> <td height="-7"><a href="#top"><img alt="Back to Top" src="../../graphics/180601_pages/back_top.gif" width="100" height="27" border="0"></a></td> </tr> </table> </body></td></tr></table>