A dark, brooding cloud looms overhead, blackening the sky, blotting out the sun, shrouding our days in gloom, a cold, dank fog that clings to the skin and sends a shiver down the spine.
The very air is fouled and soiled with the haunted cry of the weak and defenceless cowering in fear, for vengeance and loathing stalk our streets, seeking out ever more victims, to be mocked, scorned, browbeaten, hated and discarded like so much rubbish.
Welcome to the new politics of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat administration, a coalition of the cruel and vindictive, a coalition of public-school educated millionaires telling the poor and the sick to "have a bit of perspective", a coalition willing and wanting to hit hardest those who are weakest and least able to defend themselves.
A coalition of bullies and cowards.
The storm unleashed upon our heads has only just begun and is going to rage for months, years to come, raining down blows of hardship, joblessness, impoverishment and misery upon millions and which will linger and last through countless days of torment; small children barely at school-age today condemned for years for the crime of being born poor, punishment exacted from across the generations, communities devastated, lives wrecked, hope shredded.
The warning cannot be more stark - do not dare to be old, do not dare to be poor, do not dare to be sick, do not dare to be disabled, do not dare be without a job, do not dare to be a refugee fleeing violence, rape and murder.
Do not dare - ever - to be in need.
Society is not there to help you; if you ask, our "masters" will only condemn you.
Therefore, we have to work harder than ever before.
A political élite that despises so much of the human community will care even less for the lives and deaths of those non-humans in our world.
A business class cosy, snug and smug and luxuriating in unimagined wealth and personal security and comfort, rapaciously extracting resources from the earth at unsustainable rates, has been given no reason at all to care for the natural world and its millions of inhabitants.
A society under grave pressure from the severe austerity measures imposed from above, causing deep concern for jobs, education, debt and child welfare is going to give little or no thought to those animals presently caged on our farms and in laboratories.
We are challenged indeed to maintain our position, retain our focus and sustain our determination to defend the most undefended, protect the most vulnerable and achieve justice for the most abused.
The task of animal protection, always difficult in a society that puts human interest first, second, third, fourth and so on into infinity, and in an economic system that craves incessant consumption and instant gratification, and in a political system that regards only winners as worthy and gives no mind to those who lose, now presents to us a most difficult world in which to raise the question of compassion for our non-human friends.
But...
compassion knows of no boundary, no barrier, no barricade that cannot be broken, compassion sees no impassable road, no uncrossable river, no unclimbable mountain; compassion senses no despair, no fear, no failure.
Compassion is unshakable, unstoppable and irresistible.
We know that and that is why we are here today, why many of us were here for our previous conferences, why we have been so determined in the past and dared to stand for election in 2008, and in 2009 and in 2010.
We have not won yet.
But we have not lost either.
Our challenge to the entrenched orthodox politics of self-interest has been a worthy and just challenge, and can never be taken from us; our determination to promote a message of hope in the face of ridicule and criticism has been a fine and honourable act of selfless consideration for others.
History will judge us well.
We were not and are not now bystanders, idle spectators lolling at the roadside as the innocent, stricken by fear, are dragged to a terrible fate.
And we were not and are not now perpetrators, whatever violence is wrought by the powerful against the weak, whatever damage is done to our world, whatever cruelties and miseries are inflicted by the merciless upon those uncounted billions, it is not done by us, it is not done for us, it is nothing to do with us.
We are better than that, and we can be proud of everything that we have done to counter all of that.
Our task is formidable but not impossible.
We have natural justice on our side, we have the evidence of science in our minds, and an unyielding compassion in our hearts.
We are guided by truth, energised by justice and driven by care, consideration and concern for all...
we pay no mind to race, colour, creed, gender or of course species when we determine who is worthy of protection, and we remain determined to see an end to the exploitative practices of the past and present that cause so much damage to others, to our world, and to ourselves.
And so, even though the storm clouds gather and rumble their thunder over our heads, and the freezing rain begins to fall, we know what we do next, what happens now - we fight harder than we have ever fought before, we raise our voice louder than we ever have before, and we make sure that we will be seen, we will be heard, and we will have our day.
We will have our day.
We will have our day.
The very air is fouled and soiled with the haunted cry of the weak and defenceless cowering in fear, for vengeance and loathing stalk our streets, seeking out ever more victims, to be mocked, scorned, browbeaten, hated and discarded like so much rubbish.
Welcome to the new politics of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat administration, a coalition of the cruel and vindictive, a coalition of public-school educated millionaires telling the poor and the sick to "have a bit of perspective", a coalition willing and wanting to hit hardest those who are weakest and least able to defend themselves.
A coalition of bullies and cowards.
The storm unleashed upon our heads has only just begun and is going to rage for months, years to come, raining down blows of hardship, joblessness, impoverishment and misery upon millions and which will linger and last through countless days of torment; small children barely at school-age today condemned for years for the crime of being born poor, punishment exacted from across the generations, communities devastated, lives wrecked, hope shredded.
The warning cannot be more stark - do not dare to be old, do not dare to be poor, do not dare to be sick, do not dare to be disabled, do not dare be without a job, do not dare to be a refugee fleeing violence, rape and murder.
Do not dare - ever - to be in need.
Society is not there to help you; if you ask, our "masters" will only condemn you.
Therefore, we have to work harder than ever before.
A political élite that despises so much of the human community will care even less for the lives and deaths of those non-humans in our world.
A business class cosy, snug and smug and luxuriating in unimagined wealth and personal security and comfort, rapaciously extracting resources from the earth at unsustainable rates, has been given no reason at all to care for the natural world and its millions of inhabitants.
A society under grave pressure from the severe austerity measures imposed from above, causing deep concern for jobs, education, debt and child welfare is going to give little or no thought to those animals presently caged on our farms and in laboratories.
We are challenged indeed to maintain our position, retain our focus and sustain our determination to defend the most undefended, protect the most vulnerable and achieve justice for the most abused.
The task of animal protection, always difficult in a society that puts human interest first, second, third, fourth and so on into infinity, and in an economic system that craves incessant consumption and instant gratification, and in a political system that regards only winners as worthy and gives no mind to those who lose, now presents to us a most difficult world in which to raise the question of compassion for our non-human friends.
But...
compassion knows of no boundary, no barrier, no barricade that cannot be broken, compassion sees no impassable road, no uncrossable river, no unclimbable mountain; compassion senses no despair, no fear, no failure.
Compassion is unshakable, unstoppable and irresistible.
We know that and that is why we are here today, why many of us were here for our previous conferences, why we have been so determined in the past and dared to stand for election in 2008, and in 2009 and in 2010.
We have not won yet.
But we have not lost either.
Our challenge to the entrenched orthodox politics of self-interest has been a worthy and just challenge, and can never be taken from us; our determination to promote a message of hope in the face of ridicule and criticism has been a fine and honourable act of selfless consideration for others.
History will judge us well.
We were not and are not now bystanders, idle spectators lolling at the roadside as the innocent, stricken by fear, are dragged to a terrible fate.
And we were not and are not now perpetrators, whatever violence is wrought by the powerful against the weak, whatever damage is done to our world, whatever cruelties and miseries are inflicted by the merciless upon those uncounted billions, it is not done by us, it is not done for us, it is nothing to do with us.
We are better than that, and we can be proud of everything that we have done to counter all of that.
Our task is formidable but not impossible.
We have natural justice on our side, we have the evidence of science in our minds, and an unyielding compassion in our hearts.
We are guided by truth, energised by justice and driven by care, consideration and concern for all...
we pay no mind to race, colour, creed, gender or of course species when we determine who is worthy of protection, and we remain determined to see an end to the exploitative practices of the past and present that cause so much damage to others, to our world, and to ourselves.
And so, even though the storm clouds gather and rumble their thunder over our heads, and the freezing rain begins to fall, we know what we do next, what happens now - we fight harder than we have ever fought before, we raise our voice louder than we ever have before, and we make sure that we will be seen, we will be heard, and we will have our day.
We will have our day.
We will have our day.
Source...