New clause 8 - Compensation
Hunting (Re-committed) Bill
5:00 pm
Mr James Gray (North Wiltshire, Conservative)
My hon. Friend makes an extremely good point. I can imagine all sorts of Bills that if I ever have the good fortune to be a Minister, I would pass—and would be glad that they had been passed—which would affect innocent people. I would like to think that, under those circumstances, I would say, ''I'm glad that the Bill has been passed,'' and that, for example, hunting had been banned, but that I was deeply concerned about the people who were losing their jobs, and the other consequences that would come about as a result of this triumph of reason—if that is what the Minister thinks it is.
As a result of being so worried, I would find ways to put in place some form of compensation and to ameliorate the situation that such people would be
facing. I would look after them even though I disapproved of the fact that they were kennel huntsmen. I would say, ''Kennel huntsmen are wicked people and I hate that, but I have put them out of business and I will find some way of compensating them.''
It is disgraceful merely to say that such people have the ability to go to the employment office like anybody else. Most people who go to the employment office do not do so as a result of parliamentary activity. We are passing a Bill that will put people out of work and my hon. Friend's new clause 8, which I support, would compensate them for that. [Interruption.]