“The society which has abolished every kind of adventure makes its own abolition the only possible adventure.” Paris, May 1968


Wednesday 26 December 2012

Boxing Day Hunt Controversy Zzzzz!

Few things, apart from yet another  visit from the in laws, can generate quite so much Boxing Day heat as foxhunting. I have never been able to get my head round why so many people find this anachronistic but comparatively harmless hobby so important. When it finally dawned on the left-wing of the labour party that the New Labour project was never going to offer anything but a slightly pinkish tinged Thatcherism the 2004 Hunting Act was gratefully accepted as some kind of sop. It was an easy way to have a dig at the toffs. Personally I have always felt that if the English ruling class did nothing more socially damaging than chasing foxes we would have little to worry about.  Tally Ho!

2 comments:

Dr Llarregub said...

For many people fox hunting is not a matter of one class against another, town v country or Labour v Tory; it is seen as an animal welfare issue. Hence criticism of the activity from the RSPCA, the League Against Cruel Sports, Conservatives against Fox-hunting and many others whose allegiance to one class or another is unclear. If Cameron went ahead with repealing the ban he would face an interesting backlash from many Tory Ladies who are allied to Conservaives Against Fox Hunting

Woodsy said...

I wish the 2004 Hunting Act had retained hunting with hounds in some instances, e.g. as long as the quarry being chased was members of the Tory party and the BNP.