If and it is a big IF this is put in the Tories manifesto, on that basis you know it will never happen.
At this time of the year, especially an election year, anyone of them will say anything to gather a few more votes.
Cameron is no different.
not this time no... we realise there's nowt can be done about nowt by no-one... anywhere.
lp
Thanks Tomu, for your reply, and taking the time to debate this, although not my thread, very difficult to explain hunting to others who know less about the subject.
I am not sure about people who drive from London to hunt, I guess the exist, but my 2 most local hunts, are all local people. Also, hunts may hunt several foxes a day. In fact most live on site at the kennels in tied cottages.
I could not find a link to the stats I was looking for, but we all know they can read what ever people wish them to read any way.
As for contradiction, I will try to clarify,. You have employed hunt staff, who are there to do the job, you then have some rich Toff's, hangers on, (the ones I fall out with :sad: ) what ever you might like to call them. And the there are the hunt followers who many well be mounted and if honest are probably only there for the social event and a good ride out, (They, on a popular day, or hunt can be hundreds) they will all be hunt members but not do a job of work. There are also foot followers who will follow on foot as best they can, many in cars who drive from road to road trying to glimpse the hunt at work, a few on off road bikes, quads and 4X4's who will follow at a distance.
My only point with meat eating is I have found over the years it will make may people just stop and re-think some of there values, never changes any one views on hunting, but reminds them they are not quite so far away from the barbarians who hunt. Meat does of coarse form part of our balanced diet, but as many vegans and vegetarians are living proof we do not have to eat meat to survive, therefore we must eat it because we enjoy it.
I have found that a large chunk of the population have lost touch with where meat rally come from, I will tell you what I think is an interesting story which actually happened to me about 14 years ago, try to bear with me on this one; One of my past times, at that time, was ferreting, that is I kept several ferrets and used them to catch rabbits. For those who do not know, what happens, you put purse nets over the rabbit holes, put a ferret in under the nets and the ferret chases the rabbit out into the net. I did this as a pest control hobby, for local farmers, which, yes i and hundreds of others enjoy doing. I was given a call buy the local town council who had a rabbit problem. I dully went along, caught about 20 rabbits, which I took to the local butcher and got 50 pence each for. Here is where my problems began, I carried the dead rabbits back to my land-rover, put them down at the back while I put the terriers, spade's, and ferrets into the land-rover, then put the rabbits in, and off I went. The next day I had the town council back on the phone to me, she said she had had a complaint; A father had been walking his dog with his 9 year old son and had passed by when the rabbits were on the ground by the land-rover, and his son had become very upset, they always walked there dog there, before they went to Tesco's. I was dumbfounded, Happy to walk through Tesco's with rows and rows of dead animals but a few dead rabbits upset them. This to me does describe how disconnected many are from the real world. (Other supermarkets are available)
Thank you for playing, as well. To be honest, the more detailed and clear you are, the more it makes me think about what exactly I think.
I think we as a society are too squeamish about animals and food; I think actually if we were more closely involved/aware it would result in much higher standards of animal welfare. I don't have a problem with rabbits being ferreted as pest control or for food; it feels like at least there is a point to their death. And I think that way is probably much kinder and more discriminate than myxomatosis.
I can also accept parts of the pest-control argument for fox-hunting; I'm in no position to know whether traps or poisons are any better and if you tell me they are worse, I'll accept that. Every time you hear about foxes being encouraged to multiply, it weakens this argument a little, but to be honest I'd accept that those stories are few and far between and not necessarily that credible.
I also don't have a problem with drag hunting, although if I owned a load of land I might object to them going across it without my permission, which again is something I've heard about but have no real knowledge about.
I think what I object to is the hangers on, as well as the ritualisation of it. I mean, if it's just the ritual and the tradition you're into, if it's the riding and the horns, go drag hunting. If it's the pest control, you only need the professional huntsmen as you described above. The need to combine the actual death of an animal with a large crowd of people driving along in their 4x4s to watch it... that can only be about the desire to be "there at the death". This hunger for participating in a killing... is what I find unsettling. It's a little bit like wanting to be part of a lynch mob or bringing your kids along to shout at paedophiles going into court.
Thanks, this has been interesting.
:thumbup: A really interesting thread - I am always surprised when I learn things on here. And I don't say that in a sarcastic manner, I genuinely mean it!
I have to say that I can't understand how the tories can be seen as supporting rural communities!
It was Margaret Thatcher who first started the idea that everying had to be profitable or be closed. Why now do rural people complain when their post office gets shut dowm? Why should their things be subsidised when the mines, steel mills and cotton mills (to name a few) weren't? Why should we have one price for electricity and gas? It costs more to supply some communities than others. The more expensive ones are the rural communities. They supported Margaret Thatcher when she wouldn't subsidise industries - why should townspeople subsidise the rural way of life when they would not subsisdise industry. And farmers are still subsidised.
Sindy - from the north but now down south.
*Quote*
He claims in the book he was "ignorant" about the sport and underestimated public feeling about it, and says he then deliberately sabotaged the Hunting Act to ensure there were loopholes which would allow the sport to continue.
I am not sure which is worse, the fact that he was happy to ban some thing he was "ignorant" of, or the fact that he deliberately sabotaged the bill?
From here
