Hunt ban U-turn isn’t wanted (From Gazette & Herald)

Hunt ban U-turn isn’t wanted

12:31pm Thursday 8th January 2009 in Letters By Reader's letter

So, Edward Duke (Sinnington Hunt master) hopes a future Tory government will overturn the hunting ban (Gazette, December 31).

My advice to him would be: ‘‘Don’t hold your breath.’’ If he thinks the new ‘caring Conservatives’ are going to risk an early attempt to overturn the ban and all the media trouble that will bring, then I believe he will be as disappointed as all the anti-bloodsports Labour supporters were by phoney Blair’s prevarications.

Blair only offered the hunt ban vote to appease Labour backbenchers after the lies over Iraq and WMDs, and a future Tory prime minister would have to be in a similar political position before wasting time on what is likely to be an unsuccessful attempt at overturning the ban.

The Gazette article described one of the highlights of the Sinnington Hunt meet as a coach, horses and passengers in Victorian costumes.

This contrasts with Sinnington Hunt highlights pre-ban which included pet cats being killed, gardens invaded, hounds killed after causing an accident on the A170, foxes torn apart, children smeared with fox blood and, of course, two fox cubs being discovered trapped underground in a hunt-owned covert.

Joe Public no more wants a return to the hunting of foxes, deer, mink or hares, than they wish to see a legal return of badger baiting, wren hunts or dog fighting.

T Woodward, Pickering