A Matter of Trust

I never cared for the hunting ban. Not that I ever like foxhunting, but the ban was introduced by Tony Blair and by his then Chief Whip, my then MP, Hilary Armstrong, in order to buy off parliamentary opposition to the Iraq War. Shame on those who were so bought. Neither Blair nor Armstrong went on to vote for the ban, and Blair bet Prince Charles a tenner that hunting would be continuing unimpeded 10 years after it had formally come into force. He won his bet.

But the hunting ban has now been the law of the land for well over a decade. Its non-enforcement, and the practice of the Police in certain areas of acting as escorts to the hunts, arresting only anyone who might object, raises serious questions about certain other legislation, such as the most recent attack on trade unions. Why is that to be enforced, when this is not, and indeed was never intended to be?

Still, how many people know that the National Trust was founded out of the Fabian Society? (The Ramblers' Association, by the way, was founded out of the Communist Party.) Someone needs to look into how it became a pillar of Toryland. The National Trust, that is. Not the Fabian Society.