Fox Hunting. Will Parliament ban it this time?
Bitter confrontation looms in Parliament
The Upper House at the Palace of Westminster, (Parliament), set themselves on a collision course with the House of Commons yestarday by voting overwhelmingly for foxhunting to be allowed to continue under licence. The radical republican broadsheet Guardian notes that "it flags a bloody confrontation with the Commons, which has voted for an outright ban. The more conservative Times reports that the RSPCA is to promote drag hunting, in which riders chase a human or artificial scent laid in advance, if fox hunting is indeed banned..
Most papers are cynical about the Government's intentions on the matter, noting that although the Prime Minister made one of his rare voting appearances in the House he supposedly leads to vote for an outright ban, he is known to prefer a compromise such as hunting under licence. He is anxious to avoid a damaging confrontation with the powerful rural lobby and the threat of half a million angry farmers and countryside dwellers marching on London. Full stories:
7 March
Parliament Reopens Foxhunting Debate
Parliament will vote yet again on 18 March whether to proceed with another bill to outlaw fox hunting. This vote will not actually ban hunting. As Jonathan Miller shrewdly noted in his weekly Sunday Times column Mean Fields last week, this is an exercise in class warfare; a carefully timed Parliamentary diversion from the Government's pressing problems of state. The hunted are the pink-coated allegedly 'upper class' rural gentlemen and their ladies rather than the fleeing fox. We shall witness the spectacle of Labour MPs in full cry after their bucolic political quarry under the pretence that they are seeking to ameliorate the fox's lot.
In giving vent to hot air sound bites for the benefit of folks back home in their urban constituencies, Members of Parliament will merely express their view on the three options put forward in the first anti-hunting bill which failed to pass through the House of Lords last year. So much hot air is expected to be expressed in the Commons debate that the Government has prevailed upon Buckingham Palace to postpone its annual champagne and canapes binge for MPs on that evening lest the thunder of oratory be curtailed.
The three options under discussion that day are firstly the voluntary self-regulation by the 230 Hunts in England and Wales; secondly the so-called 'middle way' entailing compulsory licensing of Hunts. This includes the curtailing of what are seen as cruel practices, together with an outright ban on the hideous sport of harecoursing. The third option is a complete ban on hunting with hounds in England and Wales and includes beagling as well as fox hunting.
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