Thursday, July 29, 2004
HABITAT MANAGEMENT & HUNTING
The Countryside Alliance has long argued that hunting is just one of the methods of managing fox populations and agrees with Professor Harris that habitat management plays a critical part. Once you get beyond the rhetoric, his study paints an interesting picture. The long-term stability of the fox population suggests the current system of managing foxes, using hunting, shooting and other legal methods, is working and producing a sustainable population acceptable to farming interests.
One part of that management has been the creation and conservation of natural habitats by hunts, recognised by reputable researchers as having far-reaching biodiversity benefits. In the absence of any evidence that hunting is any less humane than other methods of control, as confirmed by the Burns report, it would seem that Professor Harris's work proves that the best result for foxes, wildlife and farming is achieved by enabling the current proven methods to continue.Simon HartChief executive, Countryside Alliance
One part of that management has been the creation and conservation of natural habitats by hunts, recognised by reputable researchers as having far-reaching biodiversity benefits. In the absence of any evidence that hunting is any less humane than other methods of control, as confirmed by the Burns report, it would seem that Professor Harris's work proves that the best result for foxes, wildlife and farming is achieved by enabling the current proven methods to continue.Simon HartChief executive, Countryside Alliance
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
ROYAL WELSH
Thanks - by the ton
Jul 27 2004
Steve Dube, The Western Mail
"HAVE you eaten today? Thank a Farmer."
The slogan pasted on many four-wheel drives around Llanelwedd last week says it all, but it takes an event like the Royal Welsh to remind many people that food does not grow on supermarket shelves.
The show's popularity among townies - surveys indicate that 70% of visitors live in urban areas - suggests that the much-trumpeted gulf between town and country is not as wide as it sometimes seems.
There is, nonetheless, a culture clash between people raised face to face with the elements and those brought up in the artificiality of the city.
It is no coincidence that morally-inspired vegetarianism and, incidentally, diet-induced ill-health, have increased in direct proportion to the alienation of most of the population from the realities of growing food.
Decades of farm subsidies that effectively told farmers to intensify, regardless of any environmental consequences, did not help.
Farmers did not invent the production-based subsidies that turned them into food factory hands and produced butter and meat mountains and milk lakes.
But they got the blame and their popular image morphed from hard-working sons of the soil into freeloader looking out only for Number One.
The foot-and-mouth epidemic restored some public sympathy, but shrill, mostly urban, voices remain, attacking aspects of countryside culture such as hunting, shooting and, before long no doubt, fishing.
Newport East AM John Griffiths, for instance, was quick to contact the Press after visiting the showground on Tuesday.
He was upset that children were allowed - horrors! - to stroke the hounds during a hunt parade in the main arena, while the centenary cavalcade commentator described hunting as something that might be banned because of political dogma.
Mr Griffiths says fox hunting is a moral outrage that is out of place in the modern world of Newport East and beyond, and described the commentary as a misleading and cynical exercise supporting an outdated and barbaric practice.
Killing anything is dirty work, and hunt supporters will argue that there is no quicker or more humane way of culling elderly, injured or TB-ridden foxes and keeping a population of vicious predators under control.
As honorary show director Harry Fetherstonhaugh pointed out, the centenary parade was a celebration of the last 100 years of life in the countryside.
The reception given to the horses and hounds demonstrated the feeling that country people are being bulldozed into something they don't want - and will be left to pick up the pieces.
Mr Griffiths failed to mention that the centenary cavalcade was spectacular - and surprisingly emotional.
Jul 27 2004
Steve Dube, The Western Mail
"HAVE you eaten today? Thank a Farmer."
The slogan pasted on many four-wheel drives around Llanelwedd last week says it all, but it takes an event like the Royal Welsh to remind many people that food does not grow on supermarket shelves.
The show's popularity among townies - surveys indicate that 70% of visitors live in urban areas - suggests that the much-trumpeted gulf between town and country is not as wide as it sometimes seems.
There is, nonetheless, a culture clash between people raised face to face with the elements and those brought up in the artificiality of the city.
It is no coincidence that morally-inspired vegetarianism and, incidentally, diet-induced ill-health, have increased in direct proportion to the alienation of most of the population from the realities of growing food.
Decades of farm subsidies that effectively told farmers to intensify, regardless of any environmental consequences, did not help.
Farmers did not invent the production-based subsidies that turned them into food factory hands and produced butter and meat mountains and milk lakes.
But they got the blame and their popular image morphed from hard-working sons of the soil into freeloader looking out only for Number One.
The foot-and-mouth epidemic restored some public sympathy, but shrill, mostly urban, voices remain, attacking aspects of countryside culture such as hunting, shooting and, before long no doubt, fishing.
Newport East AM John Griffiths, for instance, was quick to contact the Press after visiting the showground on Tuesday.
He was upset that children were allowed - horrors! - to stroke the hounds during a hunt parade in the main arena, while the centenary cavalcade commentator described hunting as something that might be banned because of political dogma.
Mr Griffiths says fox hunting is a moral outrage that is out of place in the modern world of Newport East and beyond, and described the commentary as a misleading and cynical exercise supporting an outdated and barbaric practice.
Killing anything is dirty work, and hunt supporters will argue that there is no quicker or more humane way of culling elderly, injured or TB-ridden foxes and keeping a population of vicious predators under control.
As honorary show director Harry Fetherstonhaugh pointed out, the centenary parade was a celebration of the last 100 years of life in the countryside.
The reception given to the horses and hounds demonstrated the feeling that country people are being bulldozed into something they don't want - and will be left to pick up the pieces.
Mr Griffiths failed to mention that the centenary cavalcade was spectacular - and surprisingly emotional.
Thursday, July 22, 2004
SPLENDID PRESENT FOR WHOM???
From BBC News
Hint at hunting ban by Christmas
Are hunts' days numbered?Commons leader Peter Hain has hinted that the government will move to ban fox hunting by Christmas.
During the last business questions before the recess he was repeatedly asked about the issue which many MPs feel is still unfinished business.
Labour's David Winnick said a ban would be a "splendid present" to opponents of hunting with dogs.
Mr Hain said: "When I was a boy I always looked forward to Christmas... for splendid presents."
He said Mr Winnick should "bear that in mind".
The size of Labour's majority means a Bill banning foxhunting could get through the Commons speedily.
If peers then block the move again the government could invoke its powers under the Parliament Acts to force a ban through.
Mr Hain was also urged to announce the government's plans for a ban by Tory MP Sir Teddy Taylor and Labour's Dennis Skinner.
Sunday, July 18, 2004
THE YOUNG PEOPLE
Young, free and rural at YCA launch
Almost 400 young people turned out for a night in the City to launch the Young Countryside Alliance (YCA) on Wednesday 14 July at the Gibson Hall, Bishopsgate, London.
Organiser Alicia Billyeald said: "The party was a huge success and we now have almost 400 young members and supporters who are all prepared to help organise, and take part in, events not only in London but throughout the country.
"The Alliance has an increasing number of younger supporters and the Young Countryside Alliance will offer them a way to support and contribute to the campaigning and fundraising work of the Alliance. Look out on the website and the grass e-route for future YCA events this year."
Adam & I had a great time and were able to hear Simon Hart address those who had attended. Looking forward to more events soon.
Almost 400 young people turned out for a night in the City to launch the Young Countryside Alliance (YCA) on Wednesday 14 July at the Gibson Hall, Bishopsgate, London.
Organiser Alicia Billyeald said: "The party was a huge success and we now have almost 400 young members and supporters who are all prepared to help organise, and take part in, events not only in London but throughout the country.
"The Alliance has an increasing number of younger supporters and the Young Countryside Alliance will offer them a way to support and contribute to the campaigning and fundraising work of the Alliance. Look out on the website and the grass e-route for future YCA events this year."
Adam & I had a great time and were able to hear Simon Hart address those who had attended. Looking forward to more events soon.
DON'T HAVE A COW MAN!
Cow in the road
From Mr Paul Bartlett
Sir, The decision to award damages to a motorcycle rider who had the misfortune to collide with a cow (report, July 13) is in my view barmy.
We have lived in rural locations for many years and have spent many holidays in Devon. If you have an ounce of sense you know that there’s a likelihood of meeting livestock on the road, as I did last Friday.
If you don’t know the simple rules when using and driving in the countryside, you shouldn’t be there.
From Mr Paul Bartlett
Sir, The decision to award damages to a motorcycle rider who had the misfortune to collide with a cow (report, July 13) is in my view barmy.
We have lived in rural locations for many years and have spent many holidays in Devon. If you have an ounce of sense you know that there’s a likelihood of meeting livestock on the road, as I did last Friday.
If you don’t know the simple rules when using and driving in the countryside, you shouldn’t be there.
Thursday, July 15, 2004
MINORITY RULES
Subject Hunting People
Posted by olive
Posted on Wed Jul 14 09:22:33 2004
From IP 195.92.67.78
I had no problems with hunting up until about 5 years ago. On 5 occasions the local hunt trespassed across my land, upset my horse so badly by riding through her paddock that she was unrideable for 3 months, ignored my pleas to let me know when they were in the area, left local gates open, took gates off hinges in a neighbours field after they were asked not to use the land, rode passed a friend's young horse they had frightened and who had subsequently got itself tangled in wire in a state of panic.... the list goes on, I know of a great many people, in different areas of the country, who used to support hunting but now want it banned, not for the killing of foxes but to outlaw the ghastly people who pretend to know the countryside and ride roughshod over all and sundry in order to have their sport.
My response:
There was silly old Claire thinking you shouldn't condemn the majority for the actions of a minority. Obviously I have been labouring under a misapprehension.
I can't speak for all hunts but I know our local hunt works damn hard to keep landowners informed of where they are going to be and when. They use personal visits, e-mail, telephone calls and are trying to set up an automatic e-mail reminder system.
You cannot, I repeat cannot condemn every single member of an activity because a few have managed to behave in a less than ideal way.
It angered me to see football supporters (and yes they were genuine football supporters) going on the rampage through my adopted city in Birmingham - they threw bottles to vent their frustration and the riot police had to be sent in. Do you see me ranting on about banning soccer - NO!!!!!
If we start condemining activities like that where will we stop - oh I know some smokers blew their smoke in my direction and made me cough lets ban smoking, some ramblers dropped litter let us ban everyone from rambling, hell someone sent me a computer virus why don't we just ban the internet.
Insane isn't it.
I'm very sorry that you have had problems with this hunt but maybe instead of automatically thinking ban, ban, ban you should instead seek a meeting with the master and talk about your problem just in case there has been a good old communication breakdown or if the hunt is at fault they will know that there is a problem and you can try and find a mature solution that you can all live with.
It just shows the insanity behind people agitating for a ban....
Posted by olive
Posted on Wed Jul 14 09:22:33 2004
From IP 195.92.67.78
I had no problems with hunting up until about 5 years ago. On 5 occasions the local hunt trespassed across my land, upset my horse so badly by riding through her paddock that she was unrideable for 3 months, ignored my pleas to let me know when they were in the area, left local gates open, took gates off hinges in a neighbours field after they were asked not to use the land, rode passed a friend's young horse they had frightened and who had subsequently got itself tangled in wire in a state of panic.... the list goes on, I know of a great many people, in different areas of the country, who used to support hunting but now want it banned, not for the killing of foxes but to outlaw the ghastly people who pretend to know the countryside and ride roughshod over all and sundry in order to have their sport.
My response:
There was silly old Claire thinking you shouldn't condemn the majority for the actions of a minority. Obviously I have been labouring under a misapprehension.
I can't speak for all hunts but I know our local hunt works damn hard to keep landowners informed of where they are going to be and when. They use personal visits, e-mail, telephone calls and are trying to set up an automatic e-mail reminder system.
You cannot, I repeat cannot condemn every single member of an activity because a few have managed to behave in a less than ideal way.
It angered me to see football supporters (and yes they were genuine football supporters) going on the rampage through my adopted city in Birmingham - they threw bottles to vent their frustration and the riot police had to be sent in. Do you see me ranting on about banning soccer - NO!!!!!
If we start condemining activities like that where will we stop - oh I know some smokers blew their smoke in my direction and made me cough lets ban smoking, some ramblers dropped litter let us ban everyone from rambling, hell someone sent me a computer virus why don't we just ban the internet.
Insane isn't it.
I'm very sorry that you have had problems with this hunt but maybe instead of automatically thinking ban, ban, ban you should instead seek a meeting with the master and talk about your problem just in case there has been a good old communication breakdown or if the hunt is at fault they will know that there is a problem and you can try and find a mature solution that you can all live with.
It just shows the insanity behind people agitating for a ban....
Monday, July 05, 2004
BANNER TURNS GAMEKEEPER
Labour MP turns gamekeeper - and discovers the 'benefits' of shooting
By Melissa Kite, Deputy Political Editor
(Filed: 07/03/2004)
One of Labour's most outspoken opponents of field sports has become an advocate for the social and economic benefits of shooting after swapping his sedentary Westminster life for a week as a gamekeeper.
Peter Kilfoyle now admits that shooting is a classless pursuit with "huge" economic benefits after his experience with beaters at Shieldhill Castle in Biggar, south Lanarkshire, one of the oldest shooting estates in Scotland.
The Liverpool Walton MP confessed that he had previously known nothing about shoots and said his week had been a "massive education". He also made the startling admission that during the 1970s he had shot kangaroos in Australia, putting him off field sports for life.
Mr Kilfoyle was initiated into country ways for a BBC television programme, My Week In The Real World, to be broadcast this week.
He arrived for work on the 700-year-old estate in jeans and an anorak but was soon kitted out in £700 of country clothing, including tweed cap, waxed jacket and wellies.
At the start, Mr Kilfoyle dismissed the shooting parties as "toffs" and described the beaters as downtrodden but as he got to know both groups his attitude softened.
The portly MP spent his first day wheezing up hill and down dale, stopping to light up in between hitting the ground with his stick to send pheasants into the air. He also had to haul sacks of pheasant feed and learn how to work a dog.
Mr Kilfoyle was born in 1946, the 11th of 14 children of a council labourer and cleaner. After getting four A-levels he went to Durham University but lasted only a year because it was "full of public schoolboys".
In 1985 he began work as the Labour Party organiser on Merseyside and was the scourge of the Militant Tendancy. He became an MP in 1991, taking his present inner-city constituency at the by-election after Eric Heffer's death.
In 1994, he was among the first to back Tony Blair's leadership bid and after the 1997 election was made a cabinet office minister and then - against expectation - a junior defence minister. He resigned in 2000, disillusioned with New Labour, but promised to be a "critical friend" to the party high-command.
Still seen as one of Labour's bruisers, he managed during filming to pick up dead rabbits during a night of "lamping", when pests and vermin are shot. He also cut the heads off dead rabbits and put them into trapping boxes designed to catch weasels and mink.
But he froze during one shoot when a dog dropped a half-dead duck at his feet. Mr Kilfoyle radioed for help, shouting: "Can you hear me anyone? I don't know what to do, it's wounded." Eventually a member of the party arrived to wring the duck's neck. Mr Kilfoyle confessed: "It's not for me, not for me."
During lengthy discussions with his fellow workers, Mr Kilfoyle wrestled with what he felt was the moral dilemma at the heart of field sports. Pointing to his head, Mr Kilfoyle repeatedly asked his fellow beaters: "What I don't understand is what happens up here when you get a buzz out of killing something." One explained: "You put your wits and thoughts and eyes on trying to bring a bird down that is 40 yards high."
The MP protested that the countryside was riddled with class prejudice. He was shocked that, as a beater, he had to stand outside the castle in the cold with a sandwich and a Thermos while the shooting party ate three courses inside.
As the week went on, Mr Kilfoyle's objections weakened. Halfway through, he conceded: "I do appreciate the skills without a doubt. I appreciate the hard work; the economic need; that it is skilful, that you manage the countryside."
By the end, the MP said: "I really don't know how they do it. It's been a massive educational process for me. I knew nothing about shooting. I knew nothing about the background, the effect on the economy and it is massive." He also admitted that all the walking had left him "absolutely knackered".
He added: "My image was of a bunch of toffs all out for the day, Lord and Lady Muck, and that was it. But I was disabused of that in a number of ways. We had a large group from Yorkshire of ordinary working men. It is all about bonding for them. It doesn't matter if they are a bricklayer or a baronet. Ultimately it is rather classless."
Last night Mr Kilfoyle insisted that he remained implacably opposed to hunting with hounds. He told the Telegraph: "I would not have gone foxhunting because I can see no rational justification for it.
"I don't understand why people kill things for pleasure. I understand that the birds end up on the table and that they are in the food chain. But the psychology still mystifies me."
He has however been convinced of the economic need for shoots. "In Scotland all the textile mills have closed down. For many of the beaters, that is the only job they can do."
The former defence minister later explained how he came to kill kangaroos. "I was with a friend on a farm in the bush," he said. "There were mobs of the things. They were seen as vermin. We shot quite a few. It put me off shooting for life."
By Melissa Kite, Deputy Political Editor
(Filed: 07/03/2004)
One of Labour's most outspoken opponents of field sports has become an advocate for the social and economic benefits of shooting after swapping his sedentary Westminster life for a week as a gamekeeper.
Peter Kilfoyle now admits that shooting is a classless pursuit with "huge" economic benefits after his experience with beaters at Shieldhill Castle in Biggar, south Lanarkshire, one of the oldest shooting estates in Scotland.
The Liverpool Walton MP confessed that he had previously known nothing about shoots and said his week had been a "massive education". He also made the startling admission that during the 1970s he had shot kangaroos in Australia, putting him off field sports for life.
Mr Kilfoyle was initiated into country ways for a BBC television programme, My Week In The Real World, to be broadcast this week.
He arrived for work on the 700-year-old estate in jeans and an anorak but was soon kitted out in £700 of country clothing, including tweed cap, waxed jacket and wellies.
At the start, Mr Kilfoyle dismissed the shooting parties as "toffs" and described the beaters as downtrodden but as he got to know both groups his attitude softened.
The portly MP spent his first day wheezing up hill and down dale, stopping to light up in between hitting the ground with his stick to send pheasants into the air. He also had to haul sacks of pheasant feed and learn how to work a dog.
Mr Kilfoyle was born in 1946, the 11th of 14 children of a council labourer and cleaner. After getting four A-levels he went to Durham University but lasted only a year because it was "full of public schoolboys".
In 1985 he began work as the Labour Party organiser on Merseyside and was the scourge of the Militant Tendancy. He became an MP in 1991, taking his present inner-city constituency at the by-election after Eric Heffer's death.
In 1994, he was among the first to back Tony Blair's leadership bid and after the 1997 election was made a cabinet office minister and then - against expectation - a junior defence minister. He resigned in 2000, disillusioned with New Labour, but promised to be a "critical friend" to the party high-command.
Still seen as one of Labour's bruisers, he managed during filming to pick up dead rabbits during a night of "lamping", when pests and vermin are shot. He also cut the heads off dead rabbits and put them into trapping boxes designed to catch weasels and mink.
But he froze during one shoot when a dog dropped a half-dead duck at his feet. Mr Kilfoyle radioed for help, shouting: "Can you hear me anyone? I don't know what to do, it's wounded." Eventually a member of the party arrived to wring the duck's neck. Mr Kilfoyle confessed: "It's not for me, not for me."
During lengthy discussions with his fellow workers, Mr Kilfoyle wrestled with what he felt was the moral dilemma at the heart of field sports. Pointing to his head, Mr Kilfoyle repeatedly asked his fellow beaters: "What I don't understand is what happens up here when you get a buzz out of killing something." One explained: "You put your wits and thoughts and eyes on trying to bring a bird down that is 40 yards high."
The MP protested that the countryside was riddled with class prejudice. He was shocked that, as a beater, he had to stand outside the castle in the cold with a sandwich and a Thermos while the shooting party ate three courses inside.
As the week went on, Mr Kilfoyle's objections weakened. Halfway through, he conceded: "I do appreciate the skills without a doubt. I appreciate the hard work; the economic need; that it is skilful, that you manage the countryside."
By the end, the MP said: "I really don't know how they do it. It's been a massive educational process for me. I knew nothing about shooting. I knew nothing about the background, the effect on the economy and it is massive." He also admitted that all the walking had left him "absolutely knackered".
He added: "My image was of a bunch of toffs all out for the day, Lord and Lady Muck, and that was it. But I was disabused of that in a number of ways. We had a large group from Yorkshire of ordinary working men. It is all about bonding for them. It doesn't matter if they are a bricklayer or a baronet. Ultimately it is rather classless."
Last night Mr Kilfoyle insisted that he remained implacably opposed to hunting with hounds. He told the Telegraph: "I would not have gone foxhunting because I can see no rational justification for it.
"I don't understand why people kill things for pleasure. I understand that the birds end up on the table and that they are in the food chain. But the psychology still mystifies me."
He has however been convinced of the economic need for shoots. "In Scotland all the textile mills have closed down. For many of the beaters, that is the only job they can do."
The former defence minister later explained how he came to kill kangaroos. "I was with a friend on a farm in the bush," he said. "There were mobs of the things. They were seen as vermin. We shot quite a few. It put me off shooting for life."
Friday, July 02, 2004
HUNTING AS A LABOUR SCAPEGOAT
Jun 29 2004
The Western Mail
SIR - It was with total incredulity that I heard Michael Foster the MP for Worcester blaming Labour's huge loss of seats in the council elections on the fact that it had not banned hunting with dogs!
Surely it had more to do with the Prime Minister's position on Iraq, the complete failing of his government, after nearly eight years, to improve the National Health Service, or, it would appear to me, any other government service.
Take Defra for instance. How many hundreds of hours of civil servants' time were used up on the "hunting" issue last year, when they should have been concentrating on a fallen stock scheme for farmers and a passport scheme for the horse industry, both required by his government's beloved Eurocrats over 12 months ago and only now about to be implemented?
If Michael Foster gets his way 100 packs of hounds will disappear in Wales. They account for 20,000 foxes, another 5,000 are accounted for by farmers with their own terriers and lurchers. Many farmers have had contracts with hunts for 50 years, paying a levy of 20p a sheep for fox control services, free lambing call-outs and the removal of fallen stock.
Many do not realise that all use of dogs to control foxes will be made illegal by Alun Michael's amended bill, with only one exception, for gamekeepers to use terriers to control foxes underground. Why he considers it vital for gamekeepers to use terriers to protect pheasants, but if a farmer takes the same action to protect his lambs, it makes him a criminal, facing possible imprisonment, is completely beyond my comprehension.
How does Michael Foster propose that farmers control foxes? With the use of high powered rifles used at night with lamps. Do we really want thousands of farmers turning upland areas like Wales, Cumbria etc into a rifle range? Will the government allow it to happen? Will it be rushing in legislation to control the use of rifles to Defra approved pest control officers costing ?1,000 a night? But then, as the government may well have impinged on the farmers' human rights they may well be able to claim the cost back from Defra!
Lord Burns' inquiry of June 2000 and the Alun Michael seminars of last year did not reach a conclusion that hunting needed to be banned, but regulated. If Michael Foster wishes to treat his constituents with such contempt, by suggesting that the only major item needed to be addressed by his government, after its hammering in the elections is banning hunting, then he well deserves to become an ex-MP. At the next election he may well do so.
DAVID THOMAS
Federation of Welsh Packs,
Llandrindod Wells, Powys
The Western Mail
SIR - It was with total incredulity that I heard Michael Foster the MP for Worcester blaming Labour's huge loss of seats in the council elections on the fact that it had not banned hunting with dogs!
Surely it had more to do with the Prime Minister's position on Iraq, the complete failing of his government, after nearly eight years, to improve the National Health Service, or, it would appear to me, any other government service.
Take Defra for instance. How many hundreds of hours of civil servants' time were used up on the "hunting" issue last year, when they should have been concentrating on a fallen stock scheme for farmers and a passport scheme for the horse industry, both required by his government's beloved Eurocrats over 12 months ago and only now about to be implemented?
If Michael Foster gets his way 100 packs of hounds will disappear in Wales. They account for 20,000 foxes, another 5,000 are accounted for by farmers with their own terriers and lurchers. Many farmers have had contracts with hunts for 50 years, paying a levy of 20p a sheep for fox control services, free lambing call-outs and the removal of fallen stock.
Many do not realise that all use of dogs to control foxes will be made illegal by Alun Michael's amended bill, with only one exception, for gamekeepers to use terriers to control foxes underground. Why he considers it vital for gamekeepers to use terriers to protect pheasants, but if a farmer takes the same action to protect his lambs, it makes him a criminal, facing possible imprisonment, is completely beyond my comprehension.
How does Michael Foster propose that farmers control foxes? With the use of high powered rifles used at night with lamps. Do we really want thousands of farmers turning upland areas like Wales, Cumbria etc into a rifle range? Will the government allow it to happen? Will it be rushing in legislation to control the use of rifles to Defra approved pest control officers costing ?1,000 a night? But then, as the government may well have impinged on the farmers' human rights they may well be able to claim the cost back from Defra!
Lord Burns' inquiry of June 2000 and the Alun Michael seminars of last year did not reach a conclusion that hunting needed to be banned, but regulated. If Michael Foster wishes to treat his constituents with such contempt, by suggesting that the only major item needed to be addressed by his government, after its hammering in the elections is banning hunting, then he well deserves to become an ex-MP. At the next election he may well do so.
DAVID THOMAS
Federation of Welsh Packs,
Llandrindod Wells, Powys
