AH, The Hunting Laws. It IS a disgrace that 700 parliamentary hours has been spent on the laws concerning hunting with hounds – so why waste any more time trying to repeal the present law?
I repeat – hunts can still ride out, no one loses employment, etc, and if hunts really try to stay within the law they will not be prosecuted! No problem!
Hunting with hounds is neither an effective form of pest control nor a conservation measure as many hunting enthusiasts would have us believe – it is an entertainment, and if anyone wants to see a farce they need only watch the hunt in action.
As for party politics I would remind Andrea Keyte that I drew people’s attention to the website called ‘the blue fox’ – Conservatives against hunting.
This issue does cross party lines and took the form of a free vote.
Even the attractive and light-footed Conservative stalwart Ann Widdecombe voted against fox hunting.
Recently I listened to the BBC radio programme Open Country (hunting laws do they work?).
When asked about the tradition of ‘blooding’, the Master of Ledbury Hunt – addressing what I assume he thought to be an audience of ‘illinformed do-gooders’ – said: “People do not understand the importance of blood-rituals in a blood culture”.
Cue the theme music for The Twilight Zone.
STEVE ANDERSON.
Bourton-on-the-Hill,
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