That’s how the libtard bunny-huggers are going to spin it, anyway, when – as is expected – David Cameron tries to repeal the hunting ban after the next general election. Already, their house journal the Guardian is starting to get anxious about the prospect, as we see from a report today on donations by “bloodsports”enthusiasts to Tory agriculture spokesman (and committed ban-repealer) Nick Herbert.
So how are the Tories going to stop this (uncharacteristically, for Cameroons) highly principled decision being used against them?
My friends at Spectator Coffee House have considered the problem:
“As the Norwich North by-election showed, Labour will have a go at turning this into an election issue—hoping that it will aid their attempt to paint Cameron and Osborne as people most interested in looking after their wealthy friends. Norwich North suggests this attack won’t have that much cut through. But once elected, the politics of repealing the hunting act will be tricky. It would look a bit odd if the Tories were to immediately devote substantial parliamentary time to it given all the other problems the country is facing.”
And they have come up with a cunning solution:
“However, there is an idea doing the rounds in Conservative circles as to how the party could get around this problem. Rather than a bill devoted exclusively to repealing the hunting ban, there would be one that would concentrate on a whole host of civil liberties issues including ID cards. Hunting would merely be a section of it, with a free vote on the issue. This way the party would avoid the appearance of spending a considerable amount of time on the relatively fringe issue of hunting and would get to frame repeal of the ban as a civil liberties issue.”
Needless to say, I’m in full agreement. Though I don’t go hunting very often, I do happen to think it is the greatest sport ever invented and probably ought to be made a compulsory experience for every child between the ages of 16 and 25 – as a way of teaching them discipline, courage, self-respect, how to read terrain, about horsemanship and hard drinking, as well as steering them away from dangerous tendencies like vegetarianism or obsession with Elf n Safety. (The porkers would have to be farmed out to somewhere like the steppes of Mongolia, I suppose, where they could chase jackals on shire horses).
I feel as strongly about the civil liberties bit as I do about the fox-hunting bit. One thing I’ve long felt to be agonisingly absent from the policy thinking of Cameron’s alleged Tories is any understanding of the notion of liberty. Au contraire, they have hitherto demonstrated almost as much belief in the primacy of the state (and the inevitable suborning of individual freedoms) as New Labour.
In future blogs, I shall be coming up with suggestions as to one or two of our stolen freedoms which the Tories ought – at little or no expense – to be returning to us as soon as they get into office. Perhaps you can suggest a few yourselves.
I still have little if any faith in the ability of Cameron’s Conservatives to rescue ruined Britain. But at least this glimmer of light re foxhunting is better than no light at all.
Related posts:
- The Tory test that all Conservative candidates should pass
- Why would anyone want to vote Tory? (pt II)
- Norwich North: If only they could ALL lose
- Why would anyone want to vote Tory? (Pt 1)
