Hunting - an ICON of England

A few months ago the Department of Culture media and Sport launched an 'Icons of England' website to find out more about what people regarded as quintessentially English <Here>. To their accute embarassment, Foxhunting was not only nominated but received the highest number of votes. A small minority of the comments were from the usual 'animal-rights' suspects, so what is the DCM&S doing about it?

Why they have decided to include foxhunting in their 'Icons of England' results, but have renamed it "Foxhunting and the Ban". Talk about changing the rules after the fact. It is crystal clear that the hand of a deeply embarrassed New Labour minister is behind it.

Just hours before the expiry of a FOI request by the Countryside Alliance, The DCM&S has justified the decision with the words: “Images of hunt saboteurs and scuffles with the police spring to mind alongside hunting as an icon of England". The CA response:

“Foxhunting is an icon of England, an activity inextricably linked to the English countryside. Public opinion opposes the Hunting Act, which has been shown up as a worthless law which merely allowed Labour backbenchers 700 hours to express their prejudice and bigotry.

Foxhunting was nominated as an icon; the ban was not; and while laughable, it is extremely concerning that the DCM&S suggests that thugs in balaclavas fighting with the police is an icon of Englishness. The DCMS has succumbed to political pressure, and in doing so, is promoting precisely the sort of animal rights extremism which the rest of the country is at pains to avoid.

There has never been a picture of a hunt saboteur on a beer mat, and there never will be.”

Quite.

Tags: Hunting, Hunting with Hounds, Fox Hunting, New Labour Spin, Animal Rights

Win a Peerage!

Just couldn't resist this one. Thanks to its creator B3ta - and be sure to vist Guido Fawkes blog and read the comments - should brighten your day.

Golly! what with Spring having sprung and Prezza's and His Toniness' contortions - and Broon's attempt to placate the English (Pull the other one you puritanical Scot - it's got bells on!) life is taking on a brighter hue at long last.

New twist on Prezza affair

The handbook for staff at the ODPM has been made available to opposition MP's. Juxtaposed with bits of Tracy Temple's diary published in the Daily Mail, it makes hilarious reading. Hilarious that is until you consider that this buffoon is the Deputy Prime Minister of the country, conducting his 'affairs' in a manner which merits summary dismissal under all norms of employer/employee behaviour - except those of a New Labour Minister it seems.

Get the detail from Iain Dale's blog < here > - one of his 30th May 2006 postings

Prescott is finished

Looks like old "contorted faces of the Countryside Alliance" Prescott is heading for the chop at last.

Pity really. The longer he hangs on to his tax-payer funded £133,000 salary, two personal assistants and two 'grace and favour' residences, with nothing to do but play croquet and mediate the Blair/Brown impasse, (with a little help from the new diary secretary perchance ??) the further what's left of New Labour's reputation will sink.

The job, such as it is, is an internal Labour Party matter. It seems that State funding - at least of the Labour Party - is a done deal then.

Just how stupid do they think we are?

Guardian Report here

The Little Red Book of New Labour Sleaze

"Purer than pure - whiter than white" - remember that from His Toniness just before the 1997 election? And here we are with the man still clinging to office at the head of what, in just 9 short years, has arguably become the most corrupt government in a hundred years.

This book is a 'must read' to refresh your memory on just how low they have sunk, with chapter and verse on over 100 cases of New Labour Sleaze since 1997.

There's a web site dedicated to it, with excerpts and cartoons <Here>

It's available from Amazon <Here>

Good for Kate Hoey - Again.

Nice to see Kate pitching in on what the hunting community has been saying for years.

Tony Blair's new found anger and indignation at the terrorist activities of the animal rights movement are a bit late in the day - not to say the height of hypocrisy (so what else is new?). Hunting people have been on the receiving end of 'animal rights' terrorism for years. Two of the people recently sentenced to long prison terms for grave desecration to 'save' guinea pigs cut their teeth as hunt saboteurs. Grave desecration has long been an acceptable form of 'activism' for these people, which should tell you all you need to know about them: The graves of both John Peel ( d'ya ken John Peel ) in Cumbria and the 7th Duke of Beaufort were both desecrated by hunt 'protesters' subsequently involved in the 'Guinea pig farm protests' .

Tony Blair pandered to them when it suited him - and when there was money on offer (£1.25 million in Labour Party donations up to the 1997 election). Now, when he senses public outrage he changes sides. The man is a charlatan

Tags: Hunting, Hunting with Hounds, Fox Hunting, Sleaze, Animal Rights, Animal Rights terrorism

A Staggering U-turn on Hunting

The National Trust are giving serious consideration to allowing stag hunting on their Exmoor land again. Six years after banning it on the Holnicote Estate (against the express wishes of the Late Sir Richard Ackland who donated the property) and 18 months after the Hunting Act, the NT Board of Trustees are to consider the matter shortly.

The change of heart has been prompted by the self-evident fact that, without the use of a trained pack of scent hounds, it is impossible to find and dispatch sick and wounded animals and that the suffering thus caused far outweighs any suffering allegedly caused by doing things in the way that nature has always done them - selective predation of the weak, wounded and sick.

Predictably enough anti-hunting organisations are outraged (when were they ever NOT outraged? They are paid to be outraged; it is their natural condition to be outraged; they thrive on being outraged). They would clearly prefer all such wounded animals (and there are many from RTA's and shooting) be left to extended slow deaths from gangrene and starvation. Heaven forbit that 'toffs on horses' should derive satisfaction from providing a no-cost welfare service and managing the healthiest Red deer herd in the world in the manner which most closly approximates to natural predation.

News links <Here> and <Here>

Tags: Hunting, Hunting with Hounds, Fox Hunting, Animal Rights

Blair off on his 'liberty, tolerance, justice' mantra yet again

"Prime Minister Tony Blair called on the world community to unite to promote the "global values" of liberty, democracy, tolerance and justice" < Guardian>

See Here for about 30 examples of his past appeals to these values, which he is very selective about applying in his own back yard.

And just what is 'The world community' supposed to be - if not all 6.5 thousand million of us (or maybe just the PC ones, the remainder being clearly 'beyond the pale') paying homage to the bold selfless inspired leadership of His Toniness?

Tags: Hunting, Liberty, Freedom, Tolerance, Tony Blair

Reinstate Roger Helmer

About three of years ago attended an RSPCA AGM. The platform, together with attending delegates were dominated by the sort of self-righteous animal-rights mindset that hunting and other country sports people have become depressingly familiar with over the years.

One of the motions accepted for debate involved re-homing retired racing greyhounds. The last speaker to be selected was Roger Helmer MEP for East Leicestershire (the organisers clearly had no idea what he was about to say). To many sighs, oooh's, ahhh's, nods of approval and the odd ripple of applause, Roger described just how lovable and worthy such animals are as household pets. He then concluded by saying - and I paraphrase as accurately as I can remember it:

"I should know; over the past 20 years I have taken on 5 retired racing greyhounds; without exception they have been contented rewarding animals to care for; and every year they come with me to Altcar - to fulfill their potential in the Waterloo Cup, doing just as nature intended".

Those of us from the hunting community had no idea it was coming and neither did anyone else; There were a few seconds of hushed, disbelieving shock; then the place erupted. It was a moment to savour. Hundreds of earnest, sour-faced, puritanical, do-gooders provoked to outrage (and we all know just how comical an outraged puritan is to behold!) - it was hilarious! Presentation and timing were masterful. It made my day and I'll never forget it.

Anyone who applauds such fearless honesty and independence of spirit in elected representatives will be outraged to learn that Roger has had the Conservative whip withdrawn (note the word whip - just a small example of how hunting-with-hounds permeates the language) for being too enthusiastic in challenging and rooting out corruption at Brussels. He was required by his party to back off, in another example of that "shhhh keep-your-head - down; don't-rock-the-boat" approach to life that has played such a large part in assisting the enemies of country sports. But Roger is not the sort to keep his head down; if he spots an injustice he tackles it and the stuffed shirts can lump it. We need more like him.

A campaign to have Roger reinstated is underway and I urge you to support it. The website is <Here> Email <Here>

Transcript: Full Text of Bush's Private Exchange at G-8 Summit

Transcript: Full Text of Bush's Private Exchange at G-8 Summit

Washington Post
Monday, July 17, 2006; 10:48 AM

President Bush was caught on an open microphone talking with other leaders at the Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg as they ate lunch before adjourning on Monday. At times the television camera was on Bush, at times it was panning the room. Some of the exchange was hard to hear over the clinking of plates and pouring of drinks. Here's a transcript by The Washington Post:

Someone, probably an aide, asks Bush something, evidently whether he wants prepared closing remarks for the end of the summit:

Bush: No. Just gonna make it up. I'm not going to talk too damn long like the rest of them. Some of these guys talk too long.

The camera is focused elsewhere and it is not clear whom Bush is talking to, but possibly Chinese President Hu Jintao, a guest at the summit.

Bush : Gotta go home. Got something to do tonight. Go to the airport, get on the airplane and go home. How about you? Where are you going? Home?

Bush : This is your neighborhood. It doesn't take you long to get home. How long does it take you to get home?

Reply is inaudible.

Bush : "Eight hours? Me too. Russia's a big country and you're a big country."

At this point, the president seems to bring someone else into the conversation.

Bush : It takes him eight hours to fly home.

He turns his attention to a server.

Bush : No, Diet Coke, Diet Coke.

He turns back to whomever he was talking with.

Bush : It takes him eight hours to fly home. Eight hours. Russia's big and so is China.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair approaches.

Bush : Blair, what are you doing? You leaving?

Blair : No, no, no, not yet.

Blair, standing over Bush as the president eats, tries to engage on the stalled global trade negotiations.

Blair : On this trade thing . . .

Some of the ensuing conversation is inaudible. Blair evidently wants Bush to make a statement on the talks.

Bush : If you want me to. I just want some movement. Yesterday, I didn't see much movement. The desire's to move.

Blair : No, no there's not. It may be that it's impossible.

Bush : I'll be glad to say it. Who's introducing me?

Blair : Angela. [German Chancellor Angela Merkel ]

Bush : Tell her to call on me. Tell her to put me on the spot.

Bush then changes the subject, presumably to a gift Blair must have given him for his recent 60th birthday.

Bush : Thanks for the sweater. Awfully thoughtful of you. I know you picked it out yourself.

Blair : Oh, absolutely.

Both of them laugh. Then Bush turns serious, asking Blair about comments apparently made about the Middle East crisis by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, another guest at the summit.

Bush : What about Kofi? That seems odd. I don't like the sequence of it. His attitude is basically ceasefire and [then] everything else happens. You know what I'm saying?

Blair : Yeah. No, I think -- the thing that's really difficult is we can't stop this unless you get this international presence agreed. Now, I know what you guys have talked about but it's the same thing.

The next remarks are i naudible, but the conversation turns to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

Blair : . . . see how reliable that is. But you need that done quickly.

Bush : Yeah, she's going. I think Condi's going to go pretty soon.

Blair : Right. Well, that's, that's, that's all that matters. If you -- see, it'll take some time to get out there. But at least it gives people a --

Bush : A process, I agree. I told her your offer too.

It's unclear what offer he means, but apparently Blair offered to make some sort of public statement.

Blair : Well, it's only if it's -- I mean, you know, if she's gotta -- or if she needs the ground prepared, as it were. Obviously, if she goes out, she's got to succeed, as it were, whereas I can just go out and talk.

Bush : See, the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over.

Blair : Who, Syria?

Bush : Right.

Blair : I think this is all part of the same thing. What does he think? He thinks if Lebanon turns out fine, if we get a solution in Israel and Palestine, Iraq goes in the right way, he's [inaudible ] . That's what this whole thing's about. It's the same with Iran.

Bush : I felt like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen. We're not blaming Israel. We're not blaming the Lebanese government."

At this point, Blair notices the microphone and turns it off.

Tags: G8