I do not like foxhunting, and I do not like the hunting ban. The latter was introduced by Tony Blair and Hilary Armstrong, neither of whom voted for it, in order to buy parliamentary support for the Iraq War. Those who call it "the miners' revenge" are giving up for the fight for the things that really would be.
Still, it is the law, and it ought at least to be enforced as such. Is there any other crime, relatively recently defined as such, that people are permitted to commit with complete impunity if they dress up in a funny costume and claim that their ancestors have been doing it for centuries?
You can only have an absolutely principled objection to hunting if you are a vegan, which I am certainly not. The same is true of whaling. How many people who are today complaining about both do not wear leather shoes? Or did not spend much of yesterday eating huge quantities of meat, often battery-produced poultry? Hunting, shooting, fishing and whaling are all a lot more humane than that.
How has it come to this, that the division is between people who think that a theoretical ban on hunting avenges the miners and excuses the Iraq War, all the while tucking into their own turkey, and people who think that the law simply does not apply to them, indulged in that view by the Police?
Another hung Parliament is coming, however, and we need our people to hold the balance of power in it. I will stand for this seat of North West Durham, deep in both the hunting and the old mining heartland, if I can raise the £10,000 necessary to mount a serious campaign. Please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.
Still, it is the law, and it ought at least to be enforced as such. Is there any other crime, relatively recently defined as such, that people are permitted to commit with complete impunity if they dress up in a funny costume and claim that their ancestors have been doing it for centuries?
You can only have an absolutely principled objection to hunting if you are a vegan, which I am certainly not. The same is true of whaling. How many people who are today complaining about both do not wear leather shoes? Or did not spend much of yesterday eating huge quantities of meat, often battery-produced poultry? Hunting, shooting, fishing and whaling are all a lot more humane than that.
How has it come to this, that the division is between people who think that a theoretical ban on hunting avenges the miners and excuses the Iraq War, all the while tucking into their own turkey, and people who think that the law simply does not apply to them, indulged in that view by the Police?
Another hung Parliament is coming, however, and we need our people to hold the balance of power in it. I will stand for this seat of North West Durham, deep in both the hunting and the old mining heartland, if I can raise the £10,000 necessary to mount a serious campaign. Please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.
At last, someone who is prepared to confront these issues without flinching.
ReplyDeleteNeither side is terribly sympathetic, is it?
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