The fox hunting lobby have been up to their tricks, invading the Commons while the bill to ban hunting was being debated.
I suspect that Tony Blair is using this to appease a country who don’t see him in a great light just now. Look at his new found environmental slant with a speech yesterday.
But I do want fox hunting banned. And while there are always more important things to be debated, that’s not a reason for not passing the bill. The majority of the country wants it banned. The majority of MPs want it banned. So ban it we should. It’s legislative animal cruelty. It’s not some kind of anti-countryside thing – it’s anti animal-cruelty, and just because you used to do it, it’s not right to continue to do it now. Many despicable things have been outlawed in this country from cock fighting and dog fighting, to the far more serious capital punishment and even slavery. Many people felt strongly about all of these at the time. But tough.
And of course the lobby have shot themselves in the foot by the invasion of the commons. All the debate will really be about how they got in. Some MP(s) are bound to be embarrassed, since that’s surely how they got inside the building. It’s unlikely to have just been some random queuing.