Wednesday, February 02, 2005
CLASS WAR? ONE GUY'S REALITY OF THE HUNT BAN
Class war? At Brighton I was amused by the appearance of the stereotypical "Kitten" from Channel 4’s Big Brother, who was shouting at us from across the Police lines. She was accompanied by a small band of equally stereotypical individuals and bore a placard saying, "Hunt the Rich".
I looked around, but couldn't see anyone nearby who obviously qualified as "Rich", so I can only assume she meant the New Labour Aristocracy in the Brighton Centre..............
Reasonable debate was probably suspended a few weeks before that, upon the arrival of the Government Goon Squad in Parliament Square…..clad in samurai body amour, wearing 1,000 yard stares and fear/threat grimaces, thwacking heads with their batons.
Is it a Class war? Well I reckon so. Yet I've never:
ridden a horse
followed hounds,
killed a fox with a dog,
Worn any kind of uniform, red coat, Victorian/Edwardian fancy dress out in the field
Never the less, my hunting with a Lurcher for the table will be criminalised by the Hunting Act. And there are far, far, more like me who hunt with working dogs, than there are those who ride to hounds. In order to maximise the peevish, spiteful elements of their vengeance, maybe "New" Labour should take better aim, and just ban hunting with horses...........would that hurt their intended targets enough? Is this really the best they can do, after 1,000 years of class war?
The vast majority who're impacted by the Act, will be taken back those 1,000 years, to the days of Canute’s Forrest Laws. From “no mean man shall own a hunting dog” in 1016, to “no man whatsoever shall own a hunting dog” in 2005. Yet such food gathering activity is natural, instinctive, as ingrained as the compulsion that drives my wife and daughter to pick blackberries that only I will eat.
The Labour Party has alienated hundreds of thousands of people like me. People who would be natural socialists, if it wasn’t for the divided loyalties, unnatural alliances and painful conflicts Labour’s attempts to ban our working dogs have caused us…..
Everybody knows that this Government accepted a large donation from animal rights groups, on the understanding that they’d see to it that hunting with dogs was banned. It would be easy to suggest that New Labour might accept further sums of money in the future, in exchange for the sacrifice of Shooting, then maybe Angling.
As for those that whine “give us a break”, well my response is, let those who have no stake in this, get on with their lives. But for some of us, the time has come to “resist much, obey little”………………
Welcome to Banned It Country........
By Smallmouth, February 2005
I looked around, but couldn't see anyone nearby who obviously qualified as "Rich", so I can only assume she meant the New Labour Aristocracy in the Brighton Centre..............
Reasonable debate was probably suspended a few weeks before that, upon the arrival of the Government Goon Squad in Parliament Square…..clad in samurai body amour, wearing 1,000 yard stares and fear/threat grimaces, thwacking heads with their batons.
Is it a Class war? Well I reckon so. Yet I've never:
ridden a horse
followed hounds,
killed a fox with a dog,
Worn any kind of uniform, red coat, Victorian/Edwardian fancy dress out in the field
Never the less, my hunting with a Lurcher for the table will be criminalised by the Hunting Act. And there are far, far, more like me who hunt with working dogs, than there are those who ride to hounds. In order to maximise the peevish, spiteful elements of their vengeance, maybe "New" Labour should take better aim, and just ban hunting with horses...........would that hurt their intended targets enough? Is this really the best they can do, after 1,000 years of class war?
The vast majority who're impacted by the Act, will be taken back those 1,000 years, to the days of Canute’s Forrest Laws. From “no mean man shall own a hunting dog” in 1016, to “no man whatsoever shall own a hunting dog” in 2005. Yet such food gathering activity is natural, instinctive, as ingrained as the compulsion that drives my wife and daughter to pick blackberries that only I will eat.
The Labour Party has alienated hundreds of thousands of people like me. People who would be natural socialists, if it wasn’t for the divided loyalties, unnatural alliances and painful conflicts Labour’s attempts to ban our working dogs have caused us…..
Everybody knows that this Government accepted a large donation from animal rights groups, on the understanding that they’d see to it that hunting with dogs was banned. It would be easy to suggest that New Labour might accept further sums of money in the future, in exchange for the sacrifice of Shooting, then maybe Angling.
As for those that whine “give us a break”, well my response is, let those who have no stake in this, get on with their lives. But for some of us, the time has come to “resist much, obey little”………………
Welcome to Banned It Country........
By Smallmouth, February 2005
