Schedule 3 - Hunting with Dogs: Prohibition
Hunting Bill
6:15 pm
Hon. Nicholas Soames (Mid Sussex, Conservative)
Whatever the hon. Gentleman may say—he paints a caricature of the countryside—there are indeed parts of the countryside that look as he has described. Incidentally, very few of those parts--the prairie farmlands of Britain, for example, which I think are odious to look at—will be where there is a great deal of hunting, as opposed to Belvoir vale in Nottinghamshire, where a patchwork of countryside is intricately laid out for sport. What the hon. Gentleman says is untrue. I know of many hunts that plant covers and trees, keep hedges in good repair and run hedge-laying competitions to improve their area. If anyone does to the countryside the sort of things that the hon. Gentleman is mentioning, it is greatly deprecated.