Posted on 09/18/2004 5:40:12 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
MPS voted overwhelmingly to ban hunting after a debate was interrupted when five demonstrators stormed the Commons chamber yesterday.
Emergency talks were being held last night after the third House of Commons security breach in six months despite millions being spent on tightening security at Westminster.
News of the breach, which forced a 20-minute suspension of the hunting debate, was greeted with cheers by 10,000 pro-hunt protesters who rallied outside in Parliament Square. Frustration and anger turned to violence as hundreds of protesters tried to breach police barricades only to be beaten back.
Four demonstrators burst onto the floor from behind the Speaker's chair while a fifth dodged a doorkeeper guarding the main entrance.
Some Labour MPs shouted "get out" as one protester screamed at Rural Affairs Minister and Cardiff South MP Alun Michael, "This isn't democracy. You are overturning democracy."
The stunt may have a long-term impact on Commons security but it did little to halt the Second Reading of the Hunting Bill. In a free vote MPs voted for a ban by 356 votes to 166 for a ban.
The Bill will be debated by the Lords next month and, if they reject it, the Parliament Act will be used to get it onto the statute books.
With a ban expected by July, 31, 2006, the Countryside Alliance has warned of mass defiance in the countryside as well as a lengthy legal challenge.
Last year the matter of fox population control was studied thoroughly by a commission set up by the British government. Other means of controlling foxes--like shooting, poisoning, or trapping--were investigated. The trouble is that all of these are less efficient, less successful, and more cruel, than the quick snap of the neck a foxhound administers.
In addition, the end of foxhunting in England will be the ruin of an entire industry, one that is vital to British agriculture. There are thousands upon thousands of people who make their living from breeding, training, transporting, shoeing, grooming, doctoring, and selling hunt horses. Others manufacture hunt tack and equipment, make or sell clothing for hunters, breed and handle hounds, work for the hunts in various capacities, run horse or hound shows, maintain registries, teach riders. . .it's endless. People who have no other training in life and no knowledge of anything but an agricultural existence will be driven out of work. Is it really good economic policy to destroy an industry, wreck family farms, and throw thousands out of work on a tiny island like England?
The entire problem is being created by two interconnected groups of people: the British commies who are full of class hatreds and are trying to destroy anything smacking of British tradition, and the PETA types who don't want anything fuzzy to be inconvenienced, much less killed. Both are in grave error. Foxhunting is not just a sport for the rich, and in the UK, particularly, foxhunters are average working people of every class. It's not a sport for snobs because it doesn't cost a lot over there. As for the PETA types who don't like the fuzzy foxes to be hurt: within the past few days 350 foxhounds had to be put down in Scotland, which banned hunting last year. Foxhounds do not make pets, and when their work was ended, no one could be found to take them. The sick freaks from PETA certainly didn't volunteer. Is this what they wanted? That thousands of fine hounds should die so that a few foxes might go on living and destroying farm animals? Apparently so.
Only five people broke in and raised a ruckus.
How encouraging for the antis here in the USA.
Hunting is a major force in the rural economy. But the urbanites who are spearheading the ban-hunting drive don't understand that and don't WANT to understand that, or else they'd just as soon the countryside folk went under. They despise rural Britons in the same way that effete Manhattanites despite Southerners.
I prefer to barbecue them. Paste the meat with a strong garlic sauce, let the meat sit overnight in the fridge.
A friends wife uses this recipe. Just got off the phone with her.
garlic to taste
1 hot pepper
Clean and cut fox into pieces. Boil in water with pepper and garlic. After boiling fox drain. Dip fox into beaten egg. Roll in flour and deep fry.
Good hunting
Guns of all kinds were sold virtually everywhere, and even someone as young as 12 years old could purchase a firearm, providing they had sufficient funds...
Gun control began in Britain during the "Great Socialist Awakening" at the turn of the century..
Workers demanding better wages and work conditions gathered under socialist and union (labor) banners and marched, demonstrated, and sometimes, rioted..
The British government responded by planting stories of a rise in criminal offenses involving guns, emphasising them in the government controlled press at every opportunity..
The British population, conditioned by the anti-gun propaganda, accepted gun control laws without much of a fuss..
By the beginning of WW2, Britain was disarmed, to the extent that the NRA created a national campaign to send guns to Britain for the Home Defense forces..
Hundreds of thousands of privately owned firearms, pistols, rifles and shotguns, were gathered and sent to Britain..
They were not returned at the end of the war, they were simply gathered up and destroyed..
( more than you ever wanted to know about Britain and gun control.. )
It's certainly true that socialism and gun control are highly correlated.
Hounds. No one would be so barbaric as to shoot the little buggars. They'd rather let the dogs tear them to pieces.
The Brits take their ancient privileges very seriously. The English Civil War was caused by the king basically abrogating ancient rights and privileges of his subjects.
Same as dog. :-)
Here's a link to an English gunshop so you can see what's typically on offer in this country rifle-wise: Rifles in England
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