National Council Elections

Congratulations to the successful candidates, who were (in alphabetical order):

• Mrs Margaret Baker
• Mr David Canavan
• Dr Daniel Lyons
• Ms Jane Tredgett
• Mrs Peta Watson-Smith

If you've been following the newspapers you'll notice that three of the successful people are "the other candidates" (ones who were only mentioned by name in the Mirror article which was noticeably more balanced than the rest).

I'm not sure what this means (maybe just that not many RSPCA members read the Times, Telegraph or Daily Mail). It's definitely a vote of confidence in the competence of the three serving council members who were re-elected and in favour of continuity in the task of improving and strengthening the RSPCA's ability to provide practical welfare services for animals.

As I've often said before, I believe that strong practical services don't just benefit the individual animals who are helped but are also key if we want to be listened to when we try to change the way animals are treated because they give us our credibility.

The Times doesn't seem to like the result at all, which is pretty peculiar of it considering that there was an overall majority of "other candidates" (i.e. people whose main expertise is in the nuts and bolts of keeping the unique set of animal welfare services that is the RSPCA on the road and who are ostensibly the sort of person of which the Times approves).