I hate this bill, though I have no interest in foxhunting

It's a good example of 'the tyranny of the majority'. The reason it is being passed is not because the Labour majority hate foxhunting, but because they hate foxhunters.

If concern for animal welfare was such a priority, they could start by tackling halal meat.

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Re: the Lords.

Ironic to hear an American lamenting the decline of the Lords.

I don't necessarily disagree with your underlying point, but it was democracy wot did for them.

(Oh, and in this instance it's the UK, not 'England'. )

Protection of predators, such as foxes, Great Horned Owls, cormorants, wolves and cougars is an aspect of the culture-war. Jews and Christians, following bibical concepts of the place of mankind in creation have no problem with a hunter-based ecology. Neo-pagans, on the other hand, tend to favor a system in which foxes control the pheasant population and cougars that of deer and joggers.

The fox hunting issue goes far beyond ecolunacy against individual freedom. It is wrapped up in the class struggle that still paralyzes Britain and that we have more or less avoided. The people who hunt foxes, it seems, retain rights from medieval times to trample all over other people's property as it suits them. The fox hunting culture is also one full of aristocratic bullying and lording it over the masses. To a great degree, the toffs have brought this on themselves.

As for me, I'm with George Bernard Shaw, 'Fox hunting is the pursuit of the inedible by the unmentionable.'

Bart:

"The people who hunt foxes, it seems, retain rights from medieval times to trample all over other people's property as it suits them."

If that were the case, the ban would be supported by local landowners. It's not - in fact, they are the ones most vocally opposed to the ban, claiming that the ban will damage rural economies. Instead, it is driven by townies, most of whom will never have been near a horse.

"It is wrapped up in the class struggle that still paralyzes Britain and that we have more or less avoided."

Now here you're onto something, though the issue of 'class' in Britain is nothing like as simple as it used to be.

The explicit argument for the ban is that the sport is cruel and unnecessary (despite the fact that an independent report found that the alternative methods of controlling fox populations (shooting, trapping) were just as cruel.)

The actual reason is that the urban and suburban middle classes (which is the huge majority of the British population) loathe the idle aristocracy (an absolutely tiny minority) almost as much as they loathe the French.

Foxhunting is emblematic of that class, but in fact, at the local level all classes of people participate in hunts.

What you have here is a split between town and country, which is becoming an increasingly hostile divide, with rural communities becoming more vocal about what they perceive as ignorant townies interfering in their business. Foxhunting has been the most contentious issue, but there have been others.

Incidentally, I�m with you and Shaw in my personal view of the sport. But I don�t like majorities trampling on minority cultures just because they can.

Brit, you are so right. And, here in the mid-south we have our own version of the fox hunt. We hunt 'coons by the light of the "silvery" moon. And we do cross property lines in the chase. In fact, we have specially bred mules that can clear a five foot tall barbed-wire fence with room to spare. Not quite as elegant in form as the English thoroughbreds, but we love them just the same. We also respect our neighbors property by not leaving anything other than hoofprints and footprints. I've never heard a neighbor complain about 'coon hunters on his property. We know, as well as the fox hunters in England know, 90% of the reason we hunt is the comraderie. During the daytime, farmers and ranchers, the caretakers of the land cross paths with few people. The time spent with neighbors during the hunt is truly fellowship and the embodiment of community. People of Britain, we mourn with you for your lost custom and your infringed freedom.