Thursday, January 06, 2005
LORD WHITTY CORNERED
Not me this time!
Hunt ban protesters corner Lord Whitty - The Times
THE Farming Minister, Lord Whitty, was cornered yesterday by protesters opposed to the hunting ban as he arrived to address a conference.
Police had to intervene as demonstrators brandishing Countryside Alliance placards surrounded him outside the Examination Schools in Oxford. The confrontation lasted about a minute.
One of the protesters, George Juer, 23, kennel huntsman of the Radley Beagles in Oxfordshire, said that the hunting ban would destroy “what we live and breathe for”.
“We were trying to ask him if he had any reason for the ban,” Mr Juer said. “All the reports say that there’s no reason for banning hunting on the grounds of cruelty. The only thing I heard him say is, ‘It’s cruel, it’s cruel’ — but I’m willing to bet he’s never done a day’s hunting in his life.”
In his speech to the Oxford Farming Conference, Lord Whitty told farmers that they continued to receive large subsidies from the European Union only on the understanding that they acted as protectors of the countryside.
He had no sympathy with farmers opposed to cross-compliance regulations such as care for land, soil and water. “There’s no other justification left . . . for the level of support which Europe gives to farming,” he said. “I have heard some farmers complain that ‘the environmentalists have won’. That’s wrongheaded and counter-productive.”
He gave warning that farmers should be prepared to disclose the level of subsidies they received, in keeping with the Freedom of Information Act.
Hunt ban protesters corner Lord Whitty - The Times
THE Farming Minister, Lord Whitty, was cornered yesterday by protesters opposed to the hunting ban as he arrived to address a conference.
Police had to intervene as demonstrators brandishing Countryside Alliance placards surrounded him outside the Examination Schools in Oxford. The confrontation lasted about a minute.
One of the protesters, George Juer, 23, kennel huntsman of the Radley Beagles in Oxfordshire, said that the hunting ban would destroy “what we live and breathe for”.
“We were trying to ask him if he had any reason for the ban,” Mr Juer said. “All the reports say that there’s no reason for banning hunting on the grounds of cruelty. The only thing I heard him say is, ‘It’s cruel, it’s cruel’ — but I’m willing to bet he’s never done a day’s hunting in his life.”
In his speech to the Oxford Farming Conference, Lord Whitty told farmers that they continued to receive large subsidies from the European Union only on the understanding that they acted as protectors of the countryside.
He had no sympathy with farmers opposed to cross-compliance regulations such as care for land, soil and water. “There’s no other justification left . . . for the level of support which Europe gives to farming,” he said. “I have heard some farmers complain that ‘the environmentalists have won’. That’s wrongheaded and counter-productive.”
He gave warning that farmers should be prepared to disclose the level of subsidies they received, in keeping with the Freedom of Information Act.
