From: "David M", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ISSUE 2064 Thursday 18 January 2001
Shooting and fishing are next, MPs told
By Michael Kallenbach, Parliamentary Correspondent
LABOUR'S attempt to ban hunting with dogs means that fishing and shooting
could be next on the list to be targeted by animal rights campaigners, a
former Tory minister warned last night.
Speaking in the opening stages of a five-hour debate during the Committee
Stage of the Hunting Bill, John Maples (C, Stratford-on-Avon) said: "We
cannot simply ban things because we don't like them." Hunting, he told the
Commons, "is not just a hobby or a pastime. It is a right, a freedom and a
passion. It is the most efficient way of controlling the fox population and
the alternatives are very probably worse."
He predicted that the attention of campaigners would inevitably soon turn to
fishing and shooting if a ban was approved. As someone who did not hunt, he
spoke passionately about the future of hundreds of hounds which would have
to be put down.
But Tony Banks(Lab, West Ham) who is against hunting, gave assurances that
he, personally, would never ban angling. He said: "You don't hunt fish with
dogs and if you are a decent angler you put the fish back. I am a coarse
fisherman, as you would expect, and I don't think angling can be compared
with fox hunting."
David Lidington, opening the debate for the Tories, spoke of recent threats
against hunt members. "We are dealing with people outside this House who
have shown they are prepared to use intimidation, threats of violence and
actual violence in order to achieve their ends."
He said the Government's priorities were wrong, given that the Home Office
had only this week announced a huge increase in the rate of violent crime.
"The Government is showing, in this, a sense of priorities that verges on
the surreal. A ban on hunting would be both illiberal and intolerant. It
would harm individual freedom, without benefit to animal welfare."
For the Government, Mike O'Brien, a junior Home Office minister, said at the
outset: "Each individual member of this House is allowed to have a free
vote. It's a matter for each constituency MP to determine how they decide to
represent their constituents."
Mr O'Brien said the Bill followed the inquiry into hunting by the
cross-bench peer Lord Burns, whose report the three opposing groups - the
Countryside Alliance, Deadline 2000 and the Middle Way Group - said they
could work with.
Gordon Prentice (Lab, Pendle) said he was glad that Tony Blair had stuck to
his principles and would vote for a ban of hunting. "Hunting, whose time has
gone, is past." Those who enjoy it should "pick themselves up and dust
themselves down and get on with their lives". He called for a more factual,
more coherent discussion which he hoped would not be emotional.
Michael Howard (C, Folkestone and Hythe) called the Government trivial,
frivolous and irresponsible for introducing a ban on hunting. "It beggars
belief that any serious Government, faced with an explosion of violent
crime, would even contemplate distracting the police from tackling that
problem, by imposing on them these large, uncertain and impractical
burdens."
Michael Foster (Lab, Worcester), who was unsuccessful four years ago when he
attempted to ban fox hunting through a Private Member's Bill, said he was
glad the Government had taken up his cause and that he had not changed his
mind. "Hunting with dogs is cruel and unnecessary and it's time this
practice was stopped."
John Bercow, Tory home affairs spokesman, said he would vote against a ban
because it was "unjust, unfair, improper and a chronic waste of time". If
people wanted to hunt, they would continue to do so by going to countries
that did not ban it. He termed the Government's position as "deplorable".
Norman Baker (Lib Dem, Lewes) was concerned since the Bill had no chance of
becoming law before the next general election. He criticised the Middle Way
Group's proposal, saying it was an apology for hunting.
Owen Paterson (C, Shropshire North) said he and his family had hunted for
years and it was "decent, honest people" who go hunting for entertainment.
He predicted that a ban would be a terrible blow to sheep farming. Simon
Thomas, Plaid Cymru environment spokesman, told MPs that fox hunting should
exist in a regulated form. "Anyone who has seen what is done to foxes can be
in no doubt as to the barbarity of the hunt."
Lembit Opik (Lib Dem, Montgomeryshire) told MPs that he was one of the
founding members of the Middle Way Group. He said the debate did not need to
be so polarised and emotive, and called for a pragmatic solution.
Tony Baldry (C, Banbury) said hunting had been part of the tapestry of
English rural life for centuries and the ban would cause a great loss to
many people. But Bill Ether ington (Lab, Sunderland N) said: "I consider
that fox hunting is as barbaric a method of destroying a fox as it would be
possible to imagine."
James Paice (C, Cambridgeshire South East), who is against banning hunting,
said that cats caused more damage than foxes or hounds, yet nobody had
suggested banning cats. Mr Paice admitted that some people who went hunting
were "obnoxious", but added: "There are people in every walk of life who are
obnoxious, but that is not a reason for stopping them doing what they want
to do."
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