Saturday, December 26, 2009

Minding your own business

The governments of todays UK are obsessed with meddling in peoples lives, be it in drugs, alcohol, health and safety, even hobbies and pastimes.
One of the great acts of spite from the Labour government was the hunting ban, it was a purely class driven piece of spite as a sop to those on the left of the party so that those who actually ran things could get on with ruining the country for generations.
Personally I don't have a problem with what people do in their spare times, if they want to get up in fancy dress and chase vermin around the countryside on horses and with dogs that's their affair so long as they don't ask me to pay for it and repair any damage done in the meantime by their activities.

Still we have a Labour government in charge and this activity is still being used as a class issue to try and get votes because the "evil" Tories will probably repeal the legislation Labour brought in.

BBC.
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn is launching a campaign to boost support for the fox hunting ban.
Mr Benn is urging people to sign up on a website backing the ban.
He claims the Tories plan to make repeal of the Hunting Act "a priority". Party leader David Cameron has promised MPs a free vote on the issue.
The pro-hunting Countryside Alliance has said today's meets could be the last traditional Boxing Day hunts before the ban is repealed.
Hunting foxes with dogs was outlawed in 2005, although hounds are still allowed to follow a scent or flush out a fox, but not kill it.

'Barbaric act'
Mr Benn's campaign is being launched to coincide with the Boxing Day hunts and is backed by the actors Patrick Stewart, Jenny Seagrove and Tony Robinson.
The environment secretary said: "For David Cameron, getting the act repealed is a priority.
"He used to hunt foxes; he talked about fox hunting in his first ever speech to Parliament; and he has said that if he becomes prime minister he will get rid of the fox hunting ban.
 Note the emotive language there, "barbaric" etc, clearly designed to woo voters and paint a picture of the Tories as someone you wouldn't touch with a bargepole.
And yet the clues are still there in the text, Cameron has promised a free vote, no whips as Labour have used to force legislation through in the past. In other words it will be a vote of conscience, something Labour have foregone these days with their gutter politics and class warfare policies.
So, it's not a priority at all for Cameron, I doubt it will even be in the manifesto, though I may be wrong.
In my mind it's all about civil liberties and the libertarian in me thinks that so long as no one else is harmed why should the government interfere in any activity, it may be cruel and barbaric, but so what, it's what some people want to do and so long as they don't ride their horses through my house it's really not a major issue with me or I suspect a lot of people.

This whole hunting ban was simply an issue of Labour spite, for that reason alone it should be repealed. After that should come a repeal of the gun laws brought in after Dunblane, but then again I've always suspected that our politicians don't want the ordinary man in the street to have access to weapons in case they use them on politicians, quite happy with criminals having them though as the result of the legislation so it would seem.

Still a return to civil liberties and personal freedoms would be welcome, though I suspect that a repeal of the hunting ban would be as far as we get with the Tories, but at least it's a start.

9 annotations:

Anonymous said...

Seven decades too late for the ideal job of concentration camp kid shooter?
MTG

subrosa said...

Fox hunting isn't a 'Scottish thing' but, now I live in the countryside, I see how important it is to control foxes. Pity some of these raving lefties aren't forced to watch the damage foxes do.

As for turning it into a sport we've got to live and let live. Of course labour don't agree with that, they want a society which is totally dependent on government.

After Cameron repeals the fox hunting ban, do you think he's concentrate on improving the standard of basic education?

Quiet_Man said...

Oh my, it's a first for me with the invoking of Godwins Law in a comment by MTG :-D

Anonymous said...

Not quite, Quiet. I was of course referring to British concentration camps of that era.
MTG

Quiet_Man said...

Sorry MTG, that simply wont wash, the second Boer War was 1899 to 1902 which was of course 107 years ago not 70.

If you're going to fib, please at least make it plausible.

70 years = 1939 = Nazi Germany unless of course you were referring to Stalins Gulags both edifices of socialistic states gone mad where the ends justified the means. Something you wouldn't get under a libertarian state where the state is weak and the citizen in control of their lives and destinies.

Anonymous said...

Recipe for flawed equation pate:

Whisk a couple of raw conclusions
Add a spoonful of incomplete History
Spice with a pinch of bigotry
Serve raw and.....voila!

Anonymous said...

As a Scot it's of no interest to me what the English do about Fox hunting, or badger baiting or cock fighting. I can understand that foxes need to be controlled in the countryside, but I've have issues with people who think it is sporting to have them torn to pieces by dogs.... Still it's not my business any more than is the distasteful running of the bulls in Spain.

Banning fox hunting has happened in Scotland and it will stay, I would imagine, until we get a Tory government here, so I wouldn't be holding my breath.

Like Subrosa though I can't help wondering why on earth Cameron and Benn are making a huge song and dance about this when the country is hanging on what we would call a shogglie nail...

Important though it may be to a small number of people, I wonder if it compares with the fact that half the kids leaving school can't read and write, the prisons are full, hosptials are the dirtiest in Europe, our troops are dying in a mad unwinnable war, we're broke, the banks won't lend any money until they have satistified their shareholders (well, except us), drink has become an epidemic .... and so on.....

Prioritise David... I doubt this is at the top of most people's lists...

Quiet_Man said...

Tbh Tris, I don't think it is a Cameron priority, otherwise it wouldn't be a free vote. I think it's a Labour priority as they are looking to gain votes by it.

James Higham said...

They need to keep TF out of our lives.