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Fox killings double since ban Scots hunts despatch twice as many animals with marksmen outdoing hounds EDDIE BARNES POLITICAL EDITOR THE ban on hunting with dogs in Scotland has resulted in a doubling of the number of foxes killed, it emerged last night. New figures obtained by Scotland on Sunday show that large numbers of foxes are now being shot by hunters, and dozens of the animals continue to be legally killed by hounds. Scotland biggest hunt, the Buccleuch, killed an average of 50 foxes a season prior to the ban. Figures produced by the huntsmen themselves show that for...

Hunt ban muddle as Blunkett signals softly-softly approach Riders in the storm Gaby Hinsliff, Juliette Jowitand Antony Barnett Sunday November 21, 2004 The Observer The ban on hunting was plunged into confusion last night after Home Secretary David Blunkett warned that police needed more time to gather intelligence on rebels - and suggested hunts would not be prosecuted for killing foxes unless it was clearly deliberate. He made clear he had wanted the ban delayed to allow detailed preparations to combat the expected campaign of mass disobedience. Crucially, he compared the issue to the introduction of seatbelts or curbs on...

A member of the Government admits today that the hunting ban is driven by old-fashioned class warfare and is, at its heart, a bitter battle for control of Britain. Writing in The Telegraph, Peter Bradley, the parliamentary private secretary to Alun Michael, the rural affairs minister, reveals that the real reason that Labour MPs feel so strongly about the ban is because it is aimed at killing 'the old order' and is the first time in history that a Labour government has taken on 'the gentry'. Mr Bradley says: 'We ought at last to own up to it: the struggle...

The Speaker of the Commons, Michael Martin, last night invoked the Parliament Act, overriding the opposition of the House of Lords and bringing to an end almost 700 years of foxhunting in England and Wales. Within hours, the Queen gave her royal assent and the total ban on hunting with dogs will be enforced from February 18 next year. In the first signs of the campaign of civil disobedience and protest promised by pro-hunt supporters, a 1,000-strong demonstration was staged at the state banquet at Windsor Castle where the Queen was hosting French president Jacques Chirac and Tony Blair. After...

"The Queen is our last chance," said the Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik. "We'll have to throw ourselves at her feet and ask her not to sign the Bill." The huntsman from Tiverton last weekend was even more depressed. "If they are going to shoot us, I would prefer them to put us out of our misery now. A clean shot is better than a wound. I would hate to bleed to death slowly." So this is it. If the Parliament Act is invoked this week and the Queen doesn't drop her marmalade on the dotted line, hunting will be...

LONDON (AP) - Tens of thousands of hunters and their hounds raced through the countryside on horseback Saturday, opening a fox-hunting season that could be one of Britain's last. The more than 300 hunts had a defiant air, with participants still angry over the government's plans to ban hunting with hounds. The House of Commons voted two months ago to outlaw the sport. The House of Lords refuses to endorse the bill, but the government has threatened to force it into law anyway by next year. Fox hunting supporters were undaunted. "We are just as determined to be here next...

The political row over fox-hunting is set to reignite in the House of Lords tomorrow. More than 40 peers are scheduled to debate the Second Reading of the Government’s Bill banning hunting with hounds. The controversial legislation – which the Government has threatened to steamroller into law using the Parliament Act if peers attempt to delay it – criminalises the traditional rural sport. It has already been speeded through the Commons, with MPs debating all stages during a one-day sitting last month, while a rowdy and violent demonstration by hunt supporters took place in Parliament Square. Proceedings in the Commons...

A senior Church of England bishop warned the Government yesterday that it would provoke a violent backlash if it "misused" its powers to push through a ban on fox hunting. The Bishop of Exeter, the Rt Rev Michael Langrish, said ministers had underestimated the depth of alienation felt by much of the rural population. "I fear an overspill of anger into non-peaceful protest which will be a real danger for public order. I think it is serious," the bishop said. "To use the Parliament Act to overrule the House of Lords would be unwise and would set a dangerous political...

BRIGHTON, England (Reuters) - Pro-hunt demonstrators dumped animal carcasses and women went topless amid noisy protests on Tuesday outside Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor Party conference. Blowing horns and waving signs that read: "Fight Prejudice, Fight the Ban" and "Fox-Off Blair," about 8,000 demonstrators against plans to outlaw fox-hunting marched along the Brighton seafront, flanked by hundreds of police in riot gear. Several women dressed in black bathing suits removed their tops and jumped into the chilly English Channel waters as part of the protest. They were joined by members of "Surfers 4 Hunting" riding surfboards. Tempers flared between some...

Supporters of fox hunting stormed Britain's parliament Wednesday and clashed with police in the streets, but failed to stop lawmakers from voting by an overwhelming margin to ban the blood sport. Debate was suspended for 30 minutes after five pro-hunt protesters, in the first incident of its kind in modern times, burst into the House of Commons chamber -- the second dramatic security breach in London in three days. "Clearly the intrusion was a carefully planned operation," said Commons speaker Michael Martin, adding that parliament was asking police to carry out a full investigation. The five, wearing T-shirts depicting Prime...

The Washington Times www.washingtontimes.com Outfoxed by LabourBy Helle DalePublished September 22, 2004 WINCHESTER, England. -- A most un-British spectacle broke out in the House of Commons Wednesday of last week. As a people, Britons are better known for resolving political disputes with barbs of finely honed wit than with fisticuffs and bloody noses. The issue at hand, however, was such that passions could not be contained. And what was this matter of life and death? Not the war in Iraq, which is stretching the British military thin, not the National Health Service, not the future of Britain in the...

HUDDERSFIELD MP Barry Sheerman has defended his outspoken "no" vote to a ban on hunting. Taking a stand against the vast majority of his Labour colleagues, he was one of only three Government members who voted against the ban last week, amid turbulent scenes inside and outside the House of Commons. "I have always been someone who came into politics to fight for the rights of minorities," he said yesterday. Some political commentators believe the overwhelming ``yes" vote had a deeply political motive - to revenge Margaret Thatcher's treatment of the miners 20 years ago. Mr Sheerman said: "Although I...

Hunt protesters invade Commons(Filed: 15/09/2004)MPs have voted in favour of a Bill to ban hunting with dogs following a debate that was briefly suspended when five pro-hunting protesters broke into the House of Commons. The Bill was backed by a vote of 356 to 166 after a tense afternoon when riot police were brought in to Parliament Square to control pro-hunting protesters. Four of the protesters reached the floor of the House from behind the Speaker's chair before one of the men confronted Alun Michael, the rural affairs minister. He shouted: "This isn't democracy. You are overturning democracy." Another man...

<p>The purpose of the program was to spotlight the monumental damage that has been done by animal rights "humaniacs" to law-abiding, researchers, educators, sportsmen, wildlife managers, restaurateurs, rodeos, circuses and breeders who treat animals in a humane and compassionate way.</p>

Robin Page, a columnist for The Telegraph, has been arrested on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred after making a speech at a pro-hunting rally. Mr Page, 61, was detained in a police cell after being interviewed about remarks made by him at a country fair at Frampton-upon-Severn, Glos, on Sept 6. Yesterday, he vehemently denied having made any comment that could be construed as racist during the address, in which he encouraged his audience to attend the Liberty and Livelihood March in London later that month. Mr Page also told his audience that Londoners had the right to run...

The countryside will erupt in fury if the Government does not listen to the Liberty and Livelihood march's concern about a possible ban on hunting, John Jackson, chairman of the Countryside Alliance, warned yesterday. At the start of the largest civil rights demonstration ever staged in the British Isles - which according to alliance figures attracted 407,791 people on to the streets of London between 10am and 5.38pm - Mr Jackson said hunting was the marchers' "touchstone issue". His warning was echoed by one of his regional chairmen, Michael Clayton, who said that in Leicestershire's hunting country, where 1,000 riders...

Billed as one of Britain's biggest ever protest marches, about a quarter of a million country folk invaded London Sunday for a rally in support of fox hunting and against the erosion of rural life. From remote corners of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, a vast spectrum of hunters, farmers, landowners and others poured into the capital for the ``Liberty and Livelihood'' march organized by umbrella group The Countryside Alliance. ``This is the people from the countryside coming together to say we're not happy,'' said marcher John Clunas, a tweed-dressed gamekeeper from an estate in Scotland's Perthshire province. ``My...

Government officials have decided that foxhunting will be illegal in Scotland from the beginning of August, confirming a law that pro-hunting activists say will destroy the Scottish rural economy. Legislators in the regional Scottish Parliament approved the ban in February and from Aug. 1 anyone caught hunting foxes or any other wild mammal with dogs will be subject to fines and up to six months in jail. Landowners allowing hunting on their property could also face prosecution. Scottish Rural Affairs Minister Ross Finnie signed the legislation and earlier indicated his intention to enact the law before the start of the...