In 2004, the Hunting Act was passed to make hunting with dogs (particularly fox hunting) illegal. In 2004-2006, there were 14 prosecutions under the act. But does the number of prosecutions reflect the number of offences that have been committed? Is the law being enforced?

Tory MP Anne Widdecombe argues that it isn’t, that the law is routinely broken and that more needs to be done to police it. She recognises that police resources are stretched, and so her proposed solution is to license and protect hunt monitors, members of the public who film hunts to collect video evidence of offences.

Without considering the specifics of any particular alleged breach of the law, we can see why the general context of hunts makes it difficult to discover whether an offence has been committed.

First, there are difficulties in collecting evidence. Hunts are fast-paced, and take place over a wide area on an improvised route, making them very difficult to observe. The fact that hunts go into wild areas, away from people, also reduces the number of incidental witnesses to them.

Second, many witnesses are likely to have reasons to distort the truth about what happened on a hunt. Those on the hunt (and the landowners) will want to avoid prosecution for any offences committed, so may lie about their actions. Hunt monitors tend to be opposed to hunting, looking for ways to incriminate the hunt, which means that their evidence must be treated with extreme caution. Add in the financial interests that locals have in the hunts continuing, and reports of hunters intimidating witnesses, and there will be concerns about the credibility of most of the witnesses to a hunt. 

Third, interpreting the evidence can be difficult. The law is complex and technical. Whether an offence has been committed can turn on such details as the number of dogs, what the dogs are being used for, why the animal is being hunted, or whether it is harmed. In some cases, understanding whether the law has been broken will take legal expertise that many observers lack.

All of these things make it difficult to be sure of just how many hunting offences are being committed. They also go some way to explaining why offences that are committed may go unprosecuted. If we want to see the Hunting Act enforced, then the challenge is to find a way of collecting evidence that addresses these problems.

Robert Mugabe became President of Zimbabwe in 1980. He was then a popular hero, having fought to liberate the country from white minority rule under the Rhodesian Front.

Mugabe’s time as President has seen the ruin of the country. His government has been criticised as riddled with corruption, and with high unemployment and runaway inflation Zimbabwe is now suffering financial disaster. There have also been reports of frequent attacks on his political opponents as he seeks to cling to power, including the use of wide-spread intimidation and of torture, and he is accused of having stolen the last election.

Five weeks ago, there was a Presidential election, and a real hope that Mugabe might be ousted. Things in Zimbabwe have become so bad that it seemed possible that Mugabe would no longer be able to control the opposition to him.

Following the election, Mugabe’s rival Morgan Tsvangirai quickly claimed outright victory. He didn’t have direct access to the ballots, but as a measure to promote fairness polling stations had been required to post local results, and Tsvangirai’s MDC party said that according to these results he had won 50.3% of the vote, more than the 50% required to make him the new President.

Meanwhile, Mugabe’s Zanu PF party refused to publish the results, amidst claims that they were looking for ways to rig them.

Today, finally, the official results were announced, giving Tsvangirai a win but not a large enough share of the vote to avoid a second round of voting with just him and Mugabe on the ballot paper. Whether or not Tsvangirai really won the vote outright is a mystery.

Both parties have some access to the results (ability to see), Tsvangirai’s to those posted outside the polling stations and Mugabe’s to the actual ballots cast, which makes them more credible.

Both have a clear vested interest to lie about the results in order to snatch power, however, damaging their credibility.

Although Mugabe’s reputation for rigging elections gives him the least credibility, without a neutral observer able to operate unhindered by Zanu PF it pretty much impossible for us to know what the outcome of the election really was.

Today will see the first national teachers’ strike for 21 years. Around 8000 schools will be disrupted, either partially or fully closed.

Teachers are skilled professionals. They do a tough job, working long hours and often enduring difficult working conditions. They also play a key role in society, so it’s important to attract good staff to the profession.

On the other hand, teachers are already well paid. According to Jim Knight, the Schools Minister (admittedly not a neutral source), the average salary for a teacher is £34000.

So there’s an interesting argument to be had about teachers’ pay.

However, for the most part that isn’t the argument that’s being had. Instead, the argument from the NUT (the teachers’ union that’s called the strike) that we’re hearing most is all about past levels of pay. Christine Blower, the NUT’s acting head, put it like this:

What we’re saying to the government is, if you really do value teachers, then make sure that they’re paid at least at the level of inflation - which we take to be the RPI [Retail Price Index], which is 4.1%.

The NUT’s argument is that the 2.45% pay rise that teachers have been offered is below the rate of inflation. If teachers’ pay rises more slowly than the rate of inflation, then their salaries will buy less than they used to; in real terms, teachers will have had a pay cut. And the NUT won’t stand for a pay cut.

There’s nothing in that argument about why a pay cut for teachers would be such a terrible thing, though. It doesn’t argue that teachers deserve more than they’ve been offered, or that a fall in teachers’ pay would hit recruitment, or anything like that. Instead, it’s a straightforward appeal to history, arguing that next year’s pay should be the same (in real terms) as last year’s pay.

Appeals to history are, of course, fallacies. That things were a certain way before doesn’t prove either that it was right that they were that way or that they should continue to be that way. The NUT needs to shift their focus to a better argument.

It probably wouldn’t be a great idea to try to explain that to your teacher, though. Except, perhaps, your Critical Thinking teacher.