Bloodsports are a peculiarly emotive issue snapping at the ankles of David Cameron – a traditional Tory pretending to be a very modern Conservative. The Bullingdon Boy’s desperate these days to keep buttoned his opposition to the Hunting Act he dismissed in the past as “bonkers” and a “farce”.
Delighted to be photographed cuddling a lamb he helped to deliver on a farm in his Oxfordshire constituency, posing as the godfather of a woolly infant animal judged a vote-winner by spin-vets, Cameron is equally keen to avoiding being snapped in his hunting gear.
Shouting “Tally ho” in pursuit of Reynard would be a big vote-loser, with polling for the League Against Cruel Sports showing that about three-quarters of the country find the practice of setting hounds to rip apart foxes and deer thoroughly objectionable.
So, over the next eight months, Cameron’s as likely to be seen in his jodhpurs as he is in the turned-up wing collar and tailcoat of his student Hooray Henry days beneath Oxford’s dreaming spires.
A chap who has ridden half-a-dozen times with the Heythrop Hunt prefers us to consider him as a green cyclist, or occasionally a runner competing in charity events or jogging to keep his weight down, rather than a bloodthirsty huntsman snarling behind his choreographed smiles.
Cameron’s reluctance to champion hunting publicly is politically astute, if fundamentally dishonest, and he must have breathed a sigh of relief earlier this year when a friend escaped fox-hunting charges.
The Crown Prosecution Service dropped charges against Julian Barnfield, a professional huntsman with the Heythrop, following a High Court ruling that “searching” for a mammal wasn’t hunting. For hunting to be proved, it needed to be an “intentional” act.
Cameron’s discipline isn’t matched by Shadow Cabinet colleagues unable to suppress their eagerness to repeal the Hunting Act which is simultaneously dismissed as ineffective, the Cons claiming there’s more hunting than ever. It’s up by 11 per cent since the ban, according to the Countryside Alliance – effectively a Tory front organisation with a few Labour patsies performing the role of Lenin’s useful idiots.
Hunting is a red meat question for the bulk of Tory MPs and candidates – an issue that gets them out of bed and on a high horse. Many Conservative activists hunt or have ties with hunters.
First out of the traps was frontbencher Edward Garnier, chair of the Countryside Alliance’s repeal committee. In April, he promised the re-legalising of hunting with hounds would be a priority for a future Conservative government. With the economy in recession and dole queues lengthening, Cameron jumped on Garnier, who was left in no doubt it’s unwise to let the cat (or perhaps that should be the fox) out of the bag.
The line from Tory headquarters was that Garnier is just a fringe figure in Cameron’s Conservatives, despite his post as Shadow Minister for Justice. The same cannot be said of Tory big gun William Hague, Cameron’s deputy in all but name.
The baldie Tyke, insisted Countryside Alliance chief executive Simon Hart, gave 400 hunters in the Masters of Foxhounds Association “everything they wanted to hear and more” at a recent private session.
“More than that, he gave everyone in the room absolute confidence that the commitment would be speedily delivered”, added Hart, Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire.
Ignore failing banks, forget collapsing companies and shun public services – it’s
fox-hunting that’s getting William Hague excited.
When we get to the general election, I don’t believe fox-hunting will deserve to get off the undercard. Jobs, housing, incomes, employment security, pensions, poverty, health, education, crime, Trident (scrapping of) the environment, clean energy, electoral reform, Europe and Afghanistan are among the issues I consider more important.
Yet I share the instinctive distaste of the majority over hunting with hounds, sickened by the thought some people take enjoyment from a pack of wild dogs sinking their fangs into a terrified animal.
And I’ll admit to a chippy pleasure at the howls of protest from the red-coated brigade shouting it’s their inalienable, historic right to hunt foxes. Doubtless, the bear and badge baiters and the cock and dog fighters of yore trotted out the same tired arguments used by the Conservatives-cum-Countryside Alliance.
But it’s the muffled obsession of Oscar Wilde’s unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable that’s the telling political point, revealing Cameron as a traditional Conservative dressing as a moderniser. The Tory leader wouldn’t lead Britain into the future. He’d turn the clock back.
Meanwhile, a pop star, a television actor and a team of sportsmen are among upwards of 600 victims of an £80-million, Bernard Madoff-style sting in Britain. Ferrari-driving fraudsters smooth-talked investors into parting with their cash by promising fat profits of up to 13 per cent a month.
The victims, who unfortunately include some families who were merely well-off rather than wealthy, should have remembered the old advice: if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
I was uneasy about the Chancellor of the Exchequer guaranteeing the deposits of investors who stuck their cash in Iceland’s banks to reap big foreign dividends instead of popping down to the local building society. If this “Ponzi fraud” lot come knocking, Alistair Darling must tell them they went for the huge gain, so they’ve got to take the pain.
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Excellent article which shows how Cameron’s so called compassionate conservatism is a huge sham.All who value decency and compassion must fight to stop him and his thug allies in the hunting fraternity from gaining power.
David Cameron and his cronies are obsessed with hunting.Gordon Brown is being blamed for everything that’s wrong in this country even though it was a mess when he stepped in and yet all Cameron can promise is that if he is elected he’ll overturn the hunting ban, this is his absolute priority never mind the NHS falling apart,the crime level,the lack of education in school leavers. All he wants to do is please himself and the Countryside Alliance and get back to killing animals for fun. This is despite the fact that the majority of people, including country dwellers, are in favour of the hunting ban, as has been proved by several opinion polls. So, Cameron intends to act againt the will of most of the people he will be leading, that says to me he’s either completely out of touch with what we the public want or more likely, that he knows full well but quite frankly he couldn’t give a damn.
An excellent report and so true!
It beggars belief how any human being can support being cruel to animals for fun. Cameron will be exposed as the vile hounder of defenceless life, before the general election.
The man has never known poverty – he’s shown no regard for the struggling families in this country and he supports and has partaken of a horrible cruel sport. Like most Tory twits who’ve never had to struggle, he wants to keep the man in the street living on the crumbs that he and his ilk throw out to us, to keep us quiet. What else does anyone need to know about this devil in disguise?
Couldn’t agree more with Kevin. The Tories want to turn the clock back to live animal baiting – they’re clearly the same old nasty party which is stuck in the past.
Totally agree with Kevin. Its time Labour stood up against the cruel plans of the Tories/Countryside Alliance by promising to strengthen the Hunting Act to give our wild animals the protection they so rightly deserve.
Kevin has made a living out of hating the hunting community, so here’s yet another bile-fuelled rant. I can’t help but think his views are more about hating people than loving animals. And let’s face it, the Hunting Act was all about hating people and nothing whatsoever about loving animals.
Barbara and others I couldn’t agree more that there are far more important issues out there than hunting, but we’re in the position where hunting has been made into a symbolic issue – it has become much bigger than the issue itself. Quite apart from all the ill-informed nonsense about “bloodsports” and “bear baiting”, the hunting issue has always been about people and their right to go about their business without prejudice. Sad to see that there is still so much prejudice out there.
I’ll be voting Tory as a pro-rural vote. Nothing cruel about that.
If our ‘Guardians of the Countryside’ spent more time cherishing our native wildlife rather than killing it our biodiversity loss would not be so appalling. And then I would have some respect for the MPs in that bunch, unlike I do at present.
There’s nothing like a balanced article to show journalistic integrity eh! The style and content of this report hark back to a long gone era – it’s a re-hash of a million tired and emotive reasons why foxhunting is supposedly terrible. It’s also a little hypocritical to list all the issues that are more important than hunting (quite right, too), when the Labour government spend hundreds of hours of parliamentary time batting it around in the first place…..
What Mr. Maguire fails to understand is that the whole hunting issue was about much more than how pest control should operate. At stake were fundamental issues of freedom and liberty and how the Parliament Act 1949 was used regardless of the outcome of the independent inquiry.
Isnt it disgusting how people like Claire and her ilk equate freedom and liberty with the chasing down and killing of a wild animal in the name of sport.Animal abuse for the entertainment of sick minded people is animal abuse for the entertainment of sick minded people, no matter how the thugs of the CA dress it up.
Any human that partakes in animal barbarity is not worth a candle and Cameron fits the bill. Over hundreds of years the marjority of the British people have been enslaved by the ancestors of these hooray henry sadistic landowners and aristocrats .The proof is the majority of the public are against animal cruelty yet the minority are allowed through their wealth and power to do their most evil .A plague on them all.
This continues to miss the point – not everyone favours hunting but most object to erosion of liberties, added to which the Hunting Act is an instrument that has manifestly failed. The issue is increasingly seen as such in the country. The hunting issue is to Blair and Brown what the poll tax was to Thatcher and Major.
“erosion of liberties”
What total nonsense. As if people should be free to chase and tear animals apart for fun. As Kevin and others have pointed out the badger baiters, bear baiters and others used the same nonsensical and offensive excuses.
It is no secret that the Conservatives, if successful at the next general election, will allow a free vote on the repeal of the Hunting Act in government time. And for the vast majority of people, hunting is not an issue: they just don’t care what form of pest control is used in the countryside. The Labour campaign literature in Norwich North – ‘Vote Labour … or the fox gets it!’ – showed that for a fact; 16% swing to the Conservatives, wasn’t it?
Hunting with hounds is the most humane and ecologically sensitive culling method available for foxes. But why would an incoming Conservative government prioritise it when there are so many bigger issues? Because we gave our word. That’s why.
Yes the Labour party spent a long time debating the issue and rightly so. They then banned hunting with dogs. It is banned – accept it and move on.
My point about there being more important things that Cameron should focus on is that instead of busting a gut to be elected so that he can let his mates get back to the killing fields he should be telling us what else he (thinks) he can do for the county.
Which in my opinion is naff all.
VOTE LABOUR!
David Cameron is obsessed with hunting, it seems the only reason he is desperate to be PM is so he can spend time overturning the ban !
It doesn’t matter to him what a state our country is in because New Labour have had no chance to sort out the mess the Conservatives left behind. He wants to create an even worse mess this time round and put us back in the dark ages when killing for pleasure was legal. Some people have short memories, the present government might not be perfect but in comparison to the alternative I’ll vote for them for sure.At least they don’t waste time whining that they can’t go out on horses and pursue wild animals for their enjoyment.
Eat your heart out Mr Cameron,I know many people whose votes you won’t be receiving !
Roger Helmer you are deluded if you think killing foxes with hounds is humane. And please don’t think that “giving your word” means anything at all, it means diddly squat mate because the conservatives couldn’t lie straight in bed. Still, it gave me a laugh to read your comment.
What short memories so many people have, they think back to times when they had more money in their pockets and waiting lists were shorter, and the appaling hunting of animals was banned, and yet today when the whole WORLD not just the UK is in the grip of one of the worst recessions ever they are baying for blood – and not just from Gordon Brown (who inherited the mess in the country from Tony Blair) but also of the poor old fox who has had a short stay of execution from the marauding idiots on horseback. Well I for one have not forgotten the mess that the Tory party left this country in, nor how long it took New Labour to sort it out, and who was at the helm of the Exchequor – yep got it in one a certain Gordon Brown. The man may not have the assistance of a spin doctor or three, nor a publicist, but he gets his nose to the grindstone and keeps going and going and going. True Grit, I think they used to call it. It would be easy for him to walk away now the going has got tough and write his memoirs, but he is made of better stuff than that. The people of this country must look within themselves and ask do we really want to be governed by a party whose leader is an out and out blood sport supporter? If you do then may the lord have mercy on your soul, if you don’t then get off your backsides come the election and show them what being British is really all about. We don’t want a Tory Government, we don’t want Cameron or Hague in whatever role he may have brokered for himself, but more importantly we do not want the Hunting Bill repealed.
@ Barbara
There actually isn’t an outright ban on hunting: the recent High Court action established that. So we now have an unworkable, unenforceable Act that will be put out of its misery shortly after Gordon Brown is put out of ours.
Andrew, The recent high court is an ass! Totally biased, old boys society, backhanders from the countryside alliance that has infiltrated the conservatives (small c deliberate), your minds are closed to the destruction you mete out to animals and you will not listen to the majority who want the hunt ban to stay. That just about sums up cameron’s lot.
Andrew, if its so ‘unworkable’ and ‘unenforceable’ why are you, the animal abusers, so keen to get rid of it?
Truth is you know that if Labour stay in power your lot are done for as not even your powerful thug leaders at the CA can keep it together for ever…
People could say the law against burglary should be repealed as it clearly doesn’t work!
Quote: “If our ‘Guardians of the Countryside’ spent more time cherishing our native wildlife rather than killing it our biodiversity loss would not be so appalling”
Well, there is a perfect example of how the anti-hunting brigade is completely out of touch with the reality of what is actually going on in the countryside.
It is well established that areas managed for hunting, shooting and fishing purposes have far greater bio-diversity than those that are not.
And look at the Hunting Act 2004: if it were really about animal welfare, it would have ten times as much in it about the future management of previously hunted populations than it does about stopping hunting.
How the deer population should be managed on Exmoor? How our native wetland species should be protected from the mink so tragically and stupidly released into the wild by well-meaning but ecologically naive animal rights activists? Who is to ensure that these much-vaunted “expert marksmen” are really experts?
But the only provisions for future management of hunted populations in the Hunting act 2004 are the ones that actually allow hunting with dogs to carry on under certain circumstances.
The Hunting Act 2004 is concrete proof that the anti-hunting lobby is either not in least bit interested in the future welfare of wildlife or completely ignorant of the issues involved and how they should be tackled, or most probably both.
The anti-hunting lobby has proven itself completely unable to take responsibility for the welfare of our wildlife and countryside, so they should now have the decency to slink off in shame whilst the potential damage threatened by the Hunting Act 2004 is reversed by those with the political courage to repeal it.
The hunting act needs strengthening not repealing and all wildlife should be respected as parallel populations to our own and treated as we would wish to be treated ourselves.
Which is impossible.
Every conservation decision is a question of what lives and what dies. Kill the fox, the rabbit lives; save the fox, the rabbit dies.
And before anyone bothers, it’s just plain silly to bleat on about “mother nature” governing it all. we don’t have ay wilderness in this country. It’s all man-managed, so all conservation decisions have to be made by man – and all of them have consequences on which animals and plants live and which ones die.
People who aren’t able to face that reality – who aren’t able to come to terms with the fact that they have to play god in that way – have no business in trying to decide how the countryside is run.
EVERY decision is a life and death decision – including a decision to do nothing – and to rely upon the intervention of some mystical fairy woman in a diaphanous green dress is pretty much certain to be a very poor decision for all concerned.
GB, you say “Every conservation decision is a question of what lives and what dies. Kill the fox, the rabbit lives; save the fox, the rabbit dies.”
Well from where I’m standing it seems to me that you and your pals kill the fox AND the rabbit!
Interesting set of arguments, what we have is a rehash of the class warfare and animal rights drivel spouted by hunt protestors. If theses people were really concerned about animal welfare they might be more concerned about factory farming practices perpetrated in the name of cheap food; but of course the people surveyed who are appalled by hunting of foxes are perfectly happy to tuck into battery farmed chicken and pork. The rural landscape is actually preserved by the very people that are vilified by anti-hunt protestors. The farming and hunting community have far more real concern for the preservation of wildlife and the countryside than these poor misguided souls. The farmers I meet and talk to are genuinely concerned for the welfare of their livestock and for the stewardship of the coutryside. I particularly like the view that poor Gordon inherited the ecomomic mess from Tony Blair. Of course as the second most senior member of the government and chancellor of the exchequer for 10 years he had no influence on the management of the economy.
Barbara, yes, indeed we do. In some areas we control the rabbits where there are too many of them; in other areas we control the foxes where there are too many of them; in other areas we might encourage numbers of either or both to increase. It all depends upon the needs of the ecosystem.
It never ceases to amaze me how anti-hunt people seem to think that managing something as complex as the British Countryside is going to be “easy”, that there is going to be some sort of simple magic solution, by which everything and everyone can be happy. It is so utterly unrealistic, I find it hard to believe that, deep down, you don’t really know that it can’t actually be true.
The reality is that managing an ecosystem is a never-ending series of life-or-death conservation decisions. First we might encourage fox numbers to increase because they are not exerting enough control upon one prey species, then we might have to control them because they are exerting too much pressure upon a different prey species and then we might have to encourage numbers back up again.
You seem to think that you righteous moral crusaders can come charging in, make one ultimate decision and then wander off home, content in the knowledge that everything will be perfect for ever after.
And this is the real reason why the animal rights brigade can never be allowed to win. Because you are simply not prepared to take over from us and do what is necessary. You aren’t prepared to decide when there are too many foxes, or too may rabbits, or too many deer and do something to reduce their numbers. But if you don’t – if no one does – over-population can destroy ecosystems and damage thus done can sometimes never be rectified.
The Hunting Act has been a disaster for the welfare of the quarry species. Anyone who is actually interested in the arguments for and against hunting should look at our website, http://www.vet-wildlifemanagement.org.uk . I am disappointed to find Kevin Maguire churning out all these tired and wrong-headed clichés again. They may be comforting to readers who enjoy the warmth of their old prejudices, but they contribute nothing to the debate.
Codswallop! David Cameron doesn’t go fox-hunting, so he is never going to ‘put on his hunting gear’ or to be ’seen in his johdpurs’. If Kevin Macguire can put about casual lies like these, I don’t see much morality in him so why is he bringing up an old chestnut like fox-hunting, just to spread about his own misguided class hatred? I suspect he is doing his utmost to spoil a few votes for what is surely the next Government. After the results of the Norwich bye-election we now know that it will be ‘Bye-Bye’ to Kevin Macguire and his band of incompetants in the near future.
GB, fox numbers self regulate based on the availability of resources, perdominantly available territory. Studies (by independent scientists, not self interested blood junkies) during the pause in hunting caused by the foot and mouth outbreak showed conclusively that fox numbers didn’t change when they weren’t being hunted.
Of course, you don’t want to hear this, so repeat the same old nonsense on the basis that if you repeat a lie enough it will become believed.
If Labour want to start regaining ground before the next election they could do a lot worse than admit that the hunt ban has holes that they will plug – the vast majority of both rural and urban voters would support such a move.
Kevin’s rant is a blatant attempt to bring back the atmosphere of envy and class warfare which brought about this ill-conceived legislation in the first place. I well remember the measured arguments put forward by the Countryside Alliance and the rural community at the time, and the blind determination of the urban Members of Parliament to ignore the arguments and bulldoze through the act.
The fact is that hunting is a selective cull, foxes will always be culled (numbers have not increased since the ban) and it is right and proper that this bad law is repealed.
There is also no doubt that there are a great many issues of magnitude that the incoming conservative government will have to address. Amongst these issues will be consideration of oppressive and vindictive legislation such as this which need to be addressed by a government with a mandate to govern fairly for all sectors of society.
No matter what the topic for discussion, as soon as the commentator uses spite and personal insults he loses all respect.
If David Cameron allows a free vote on this issue, it is democracy at work. Would Mr Maguire refuse us the right to a referendum on the european matters? Would he refuse any attempt for a referendum on the current war in Afghanistan? Would he refuse us the right to vote for our politicians?
There are so many holes in this facile article but to pick a couple where he might have shown some prescience. Extraordinary that that McGuire has the gall to attack William Hague on the basis he (Hague) is more interested in hunting than the many other vastly more important issues of the day. Perhaps McGuire would do well to recall that it was the Labour Party (supported by ‘his’ LACS) who spent 700 hours of Parliamentary time on the Hunting Act whilst only 70 hours debating the war in Iraq! He is typical of the 20:20 hindsight labour party supporter lobbing brick bats. To say nothing of his ignorance of the reality of Hunting either deer or fox, sadly and shortsightedly banned in the UK
Back to the Mirror where the readership clearly lack the intelligence to question his political bigotry.
It is extraordinary how little is understood about the countryside in general and hunting in particular. Foxes need culling because there are too many of them and they are very damaging. The hunt does it for nothing, and that is achieved by members of the hunt paying to be allowed to follow along behind for a thoroughly good ride in the country. People who hunt are not blood thirsty and all the other tosh Maguire and his like rant on about, they just enjoy riding, and they are from all walks of life, which might surprise Maguire. It isn’t very nice seeing an animal being killed but England isn’t a wild place, it’s over crowded and what countryside there is has to be managed.
It never ceases to amaze me that whenever journalists have nothing juicy to write about, or politicians want to distract us from their latest cock ups, they start banging on about hunting. This second rate article (by a journalist who is so well balanced he has a chip on both shoulders), trots out all the same boring arguements that we’ve heard time and time again. Incidently I would hardly call Kate Hoey, a prominent London Labour MP a “patsy perfoming the role of Lenin’s left wing idiots. Let us not forget it was the Labour Party who spent hundreds of hours in Parliament putting this ineffective bill through.
Nice to see that old labour class prejudice is still allive and kicking and alligned with the anti hunting brigade who ignored all the evidence and banned hunting. Mc Guire clearly revels in old labour prejudice and will soon be able to wallow in their pity in oposotion.
It is pitiful to hear Old Labour thrashing in its death throes. Time to wake up, Kevin, and start opening the bill for 12 years of wasted opportunity, ineffective overspending, petty corruption and, as with the Hunting Act, really poor government.
Your sort of journalism highlights the problem. The totally unoriginal thinking behind this sort of facile, repetitious, inaccurate megaphone spindoctory cuts little ice these days.
You need to get out more.
Good grief Kevin McGuire, just reading that fetid tide of vitriol is tiring; its a wonder you haven’t given yourself an ulcer! Actually the whole badly written rant isn’t really about hunting at all. He is just a rabid socialist knowing that his whole sorry political ilk are on their way out having brought the country to its knees, and like a cornered rat he is lashing out. James’ comment (July 30th 9.30am)just about sums it up and saves me having to reiterate.
May I just refer Kevin to the beautifully written article about the Peterborugh Royal Foxhound Show by Charles Moore in the Telegraph on July 28th (p.17). Charles finishes by saying “Everything about hounds is very artistic….And as always with true art, it is more beautiful the more you look at it”. Sadly a grubby and extremely chippy little person like Kevin could not appreciate the true art of hunting and the countryside if his life depended on it.
Eric Wrote: fox numbers self regulate based on the availability of resources, predominantly available territory. Studies (by independent scientists, not self interested blood junkies) during the pause in hunting caused by the foot and mouth outbreak showed conclusively that fox numbers didn’t change when they weren’t being hunted.
Once again, an anti hunter demonstrates their total lack of understanding of how the countryside works. It sounds very “David Attenborough” but is nothing more than pseudo-scientific babble.
Yes, self-regulation can impose a limit on fox numbers without human intervention – but at what level?
You incredibly naively assume that this level will somehow magically co-incidentally be the same level that is acceptable to farmers and conservation managers, whereas, in fact, the chances of this happening are so remote as to be non-existent.
The population level at which self-regulation would set in would almost inevitably have to be higher than would be acceptable to farmers and land managers, because “the natural availability of food” would include things that the farmers did not want the fox to eat.
You may think a vixen would say “Ooo, the RSPB don’t want me to eat that tasty-looking avocet over there, so I’d better reabsorb my unborn foetuses”, but personally I can’t see it happening.
As to your claim about research on fox numbers during foot and mouth. So what? It doesn’t seem quite so relevant when you point out that (a) foot and mouth suspended hunting for less than one full season, so there was not enough time for it to have a major effect on fox numbers and (b) other methods of fox control were increased to take into account the suspension of hunting.
What might have been interesting would have been research into the change in the health, age-range and distribution of the fox populations under the change in culling regime, but for some reason your pet scientists failed to pursue that avenue. I wonder why?
The FACT that ‘The Hunting Act’ was supposed to improve the improve the welfare of the quary species,Yet it has done the opposite!, wounded and sick wild animals deprived of the vital search and dispatch function of hunting, now suffer a protracted death, through disease and starvation.
SOURCE: Research Pathologist Dr Lewis
Secretary of The Veterinary Association for Wildlife Management.
Animal Welfare or Class Warfare?
The majority of people who support hunts do so on foot, cost around £5 a day!
BANWYN MINERS HUNT! and there are many amateur packs ie The Currie.
Hunt Staff receive an agricultral wage!
The RSPCA spend Ten times more on publcity than Countryside Alliance, yet, have about half the members!!!
IFAW isn’t a Charity the founder has made huge amount of cash in setting up the organisation!!!
LACS let deer starve on their Barronsdown Estate on Exmoor, see Panarama vid on You Tube.
HUNT THE TRUTH…..
The Hunt Ban Pure PREDJUDICE.
Over 400,000 people peacefully Marched supporting hunting were ignored.(there were a handful of anti hunt protesters infact Hunt supporters cleared up their fast food wrappers in Parliament Sq)
The Government spent £750,000 on the Burns Indepedent Inquiry into Hunting, and ignored the facts.
Blair used the Parliament Act to bulldoze through the bill, apeasing revolting backbenchers over Iraq(and ruin).
Over 700 hours were spent debating Hunting, less than fifty on war in Iraq!
I’m a vegeterian townie who Hopes
the ban will oveturned by BRIAN FRIEND in The Court of Human Rights.
I don’t think life is a disney movie and all animals are fluffy cuddley.
Man has a responsibity to Manage the Countryside – BAN THE BAN – Forrand the REPEAL.
“Yet I share the instinctive distaste of the majority over hunting with hounds, sickened by the thought some people take enjoyment from a pack of wild dogs sinking their fangs into a terrified animal.”
Instinctive is the key word here…the writer hasn’t got a clue and obviously can’t even be bothered to find out what hunting is about, never mind the fact that the manner in which he writes makes it clear that he is, as much as the Ban itself was contrived, driven by class prejudice. It is sad indeed.
The contrived and ponderous attempts at humour are so striking in this article that I wonder if Kevin Macguire isn’t really a covert hunt supporter trying to irritate genuine opponents.
Dear Sir, I too am concerned like you with jobs, housing, income, employment security, health and education, as these are not merely the preserve of the socialist society. The problem with your position is that you do not understand how the countryside works and what it can achieve as it appears you have a particular ‘ chip on your shoulder ‘ , ‘ the politics of envy ‘ ! So all you want to do is destroy what some have, so that you can feel better in some perverse way !
With their expectation that the Tories will win the election, the hunting fraternity are back in full cry and are now regurgitating their old self-serving arguments with their usual level of venom.
The Hunting Act is a long overdue piece of legislation to curb barbarism. The hunters, as shown by their messages, have no recognisable standards of acceptable behaviour when it comes to how they treat wild animals. Being unfit to curb their own violent tendencies, legislation had to be brought to curb them. That is one of the main functions of legislation – to protect victims from the selfish actions of others. The hunters have demonstrated in every conceivable way that they consider themselves to be above the law, and have violently broken the law time and time again.
Labour deserve the highest praise for introducing a ban on hunting. if they are re-elected, they will close the loopholes which now exist in the law, and that is what really frightens the hunters.
The next election will offer a clear choice – vote Tory and reward violent lawbreakers for their determined acts of cruelty, or vote Labour and see a good law made better, and the hunters finally forced to accept they are not, no matter how ruthless and vicious they are prepared to be, above the law of the land.
As far as I am concerned it is nonsense legislation.
I use my dogs to flush out and chase deer from my woodland.
I’m allowed to do this but only if I use only two dogs and if I shoot the deer.
I have never heard of legislation more stupid than this.
GB: makes a good point. When the method of culling changes the health of the fox population will too. Fox hunting tends to target weaker diseased animals and does not produce wounded animals.
Regarding self regulation of numbers. Research in Sweden has shown that apex predators do actually control fox numbers. When they are removed you get meso predator release which means fox numbers increase to the detriment of biodiversity.
What a horrible world we live when people like ELIZABETH and ANDREW support such obscene cruelty as fox hunting. Do they really know about the level of cruelty that is metered out to foxes so that a few sad wicked people can get their jollies off.
They go on about the class issue being the reason behind the ban, yet many rough and ready council house tenants also hunt and kill and animals for fun, so how can it be a class issue?
It also seems to have escaped these AWFUL people’s minds that just before the ban, Simon Hart and another whose name escapes me, was saying there was a shortage of COUNTRY FOXES for the hunt and so they were calling on hunt masters around the country to use artificial earths to encourage the breeding of foxes. Kinda lends a lie to foxes over populating then!
It’s only mankind which has spread out of control across the globe. Maybe we should start culling them instead – starting with the pro-hunt SCUM.