Best Of

Morning all

When the fox hunting ban was proposed, the Countryside Alliance mobilised a huge protest including at racemeetings I attended where they were, to be blunt, aggressive in demanding support for opposing the ban but of course the ban happened and it seemed the world didn't end.

I've no issue with trail hunting except that it appears (I've no proof) to have been used as bait for actual killing of foxes by hounds (poor choice of words).

The disconnect between town and country is obvious but there's also a disconnect within rural communities too, it would seem and it may be there's pressure within communities not to be seen to be too vocally opposed to hunting with hounds - I don't know.

Is it a hill anyone would choose on which to die? Not a fox, I'd presume and I see a lot of foxes here in East London who live well off the gastronomic detritus of modern society (and they are incredibly adept at, for example, getting cold fried chicken leftovers out of the box. I'm not sure a group of hounds trying to work their way round East Ham would be anything more than a nuisance but the control of urban foxes is an issue too.

I like it - the Newham Hunt: I can just see them galloping across the Connaught Bridge, stopping briefly at Custom House for a tot of brandy before charging down Prince Regent Lane in hot pursuit of the foxes congregating around the Slim Chickens rubbish bins.

Still no peerage for me for services to political blogging.

You don't want a peerage. There's at least a presumed expectation to actually show up occasionally to legislate, though the government of the day then yells at you if you do it when they don't like it (and plenty ignore it). An honour opens doors with the right crowd and comes with no expectatiosn at all.

Costs less to procure as well.

I can see the 'fun' when I turn up to vote to remove benefits from the poor whilst wearing a £550 Turnbull & Asser shirt, £6,000 bespoke suit, £1,400 loafers, and a £12,000 watch.

The politics of envy is grim in this country (and that's with me slumming it.)

I hope you have the cost of that suit pinned to the front, as I'm sorry to tell you that people cannot tell the difference between a £2000 suit and a £6000 suit (and if someone says otherwise they are a liar or someone trying to sell a £6000 suit) so the poor might miss the scale of the burn otherwise.

You wouldn't want to pin it to the suit. Imagine the cost of the damage you'd do. I could knit him some fluorescent sweatbands to display the price on.

Gongs and price list on lanyards is the answer.

With fox hunting, at least they could see a benefit to a load of dogs and horses trampling all over the place. What's the benefit of trail or drag hunting?

Its a hunting version of clay pigeon shooting, no real fox is used.

Wonder what the yougov definition of someome who lives rurally is

I know what it is. I'm just pointing out that it essentially means a load of people running around on horseback with dogs in tow for no good reason.

Arguably, the approval figures would have been higher if they'd said 'and they kill lots of those annoying foxes on the quiet.'

Aye, I have heard tale of plenty of farms who dont want the hunts on them due to the damage they cause to the land. Dressing up in red coats to ride a horse/hunt on boxing days is not really a thing up here

Bonjour tout le monde.

No surprise at all with the poll. I think a lot of people would be amazed that people still dress up like idiots and do anything in such an organised way any more. If you say what about bringing back fox hunting they would look at you as though you had suggested we should bring back bear baiting.

The Hunting Act was a Bad Law. It was spiteful, illogical, not based on science and class envy-driven. As one T Blair accepted. But it helped to shore up the left and brought some of the class warriors and super-lefties back on side.

Let's now look at the state of the (voting preference) polls. Lab is bumping along the bottom, with My Party and the Greens eating their (quorn-based) lunch. They need something to bring some lefties back into the fold and aiming at the red-coated toffs is as good a way as any. While not such a searing insight, it nevertheless remains probably the most important factor in this Lab committment. We may be full-blown capitalists in everything but name but we still can performatively hate the toffs.

So a plurality of Tory supporters oppose a trail hunting ban and less than half of Reform voters want to ban it either. The Boxing Day hunt also is a crucial part of village and rural life in areas like where I live. Hundreds turn out on the village green and the pub serves mulled wine as the hunt gathers and for its supporters in rural areas it is a big deal. Even if they have to hunt a trail or drag hunt now not a fox (whose numbers still need to be kept down).

Labour may try and ban trail hunting as most of its supporters want as it banned fox hunting but with Farage and Badenoch opposed to a trail hunting ban, if Labour lose power at the next general election it will be restored

I doubt it. Cameron failed to do it, even when he had a majority post GE2015. Much to my disappointment.

Public opinion is just too far over on this one.

I know Hunts, especially the Hampshire Hunt. They are good people passionate about their horses, their animals, their dogs and the countryside. They take the law very seriously. They come from all walks of life, and most of the stereotypes about them simply aren't true. They are animal lovers themselves.

It's rare I find myself in a small minority where I simply fundamentally disagree with the majority of my fellow countrymen, and can't understand why they are where they are, but that's where we're at on this one.