David Cameron and his Dirty Politics

Cameron is a hunting fan

p-Ed: We were promised a free vote on repealing the hunting Act in the Tory manifesto. Now that’s all changed because Mr Cameron has realised that a free vote won’t necessarily go the way he wants it to go.

So to hell with democracy, and to hell with the 80% of the general population who have made it clear in poll after poll that we don’t want UK wildlife ripped apart for the entertainment of a few bloodthirsty toffs.

It’s not just urban folk who have said NO to bringing back hunting, an overwhelming number of decent country people have also said they don’t want Cameron’s dirty recreation.

Cameron’s cunning plan to repeal the hunting Act in all but name was quietly announced yesterday when everyone else’s mind was on the budget.  He will use a little known piece of legislation called a Statutory Instrument, to tweak the Law to bring it into line with the Scottish hunting Act.

This sneaky move is a piece of genius as far as the hunters are concerned.

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After all who can argue, hunting was banned in Scotland a year before the English ban and people in their thousands have been asking the SNP to back the English ban if we’d had the promised free vote. The Scots can hardly vote against their own law becoming the rule in England and Wales can they?

The problem lies in the number of dogs allowed to flush foxes. In England and Wales only two dogs can be used and the fox must be shot as soon as is practically possible. He/she must not be chased after flushing. The two dog rule was a concession to Welsh hill farmers who said they needed to use dogs to control foxes in rough terrain. (This was in spite of several studies which proved that foxes are not a huge problem for livestock including free range hens. Better husbandry and lambing in doors and control of dangerous dogs would have saved more livestock than killing foxes)

In Scotland’s hilly areas a full pack of dogs can be used, but again the fox must not be chased.

Hunters both north and south of the border regularly flout the Law, and it’s hunting as usual more often than not, but at least in England and Wales, there is a chance of bringing these bloodthirsty law breakers to court. If English and Welsh law is brought into line with Scotland, hunters won’t need to pretend they are trail hunting, they will simply flush foxes with a full pack and they will let their dogs tear those poor animals apart with little or no fear of prosecution. Other than the saboteurs, who risk being charged with criminal trespass if they enter private land, there will be no one to police the hunter’s nefarious activities. 

Sneaky at best, this dirty politicking is to enable a minority of Cameron’s rich friends who have the ear of his government, to bring back a barbaric form of recreation which should have been put to bed ten years ago when the hunting Bill became Law. This perverted minority has done everything in its power to circumvent the law, aided and abetted by the pro hunting press and the Countryside Alliance.  It would seem the CPS has been instructed to go easy on hunt crime and the RSPCA has been threatened and bullied into leaving the hunting abuse of animals well alone. When hunts have been caught illegally killing foxes there are specialist lawyers and sympathetic judges to get them off with a slap on the wrist. This is in spite of provisions in the law for confiscating their tools of trade and prosecuting the whole hunt as a corporate body.  

In 2004 the Hunting Act took over 700 hours of Parliamentary time, Cameron’s Statutory Instrument will take no longer than 90 minutes. His plastic policy will bring back old style hunting in the autumn and we can look forward to knowing that once again those small red cousins of our own dogs will be persecuted and abused to pander to the so called sport of the country set who should be in facing prison and a ban on being around animals for life for their cruelty. 

More by this writer:

Keep the hunting ban, only civilised way forward
Traditions and tribulations of a fox hunter
The Donoughue con