Clause 8 - Tests for registration: utility and
Hunting Bill
8:55 am
Mr Peter Luff (Mid Worcestershire, Conservative)
May I say what a pleasure it is to have a rare moment of agreement with the Government? I believe that I can, without fear of contradiction, support Government amendment No. 185, which is a welcome change.
I am sorry that my hon. Friend the Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik) cannot be with us today as he has important business on the Northern Ireland portfolio for his party. That is a shame because this group of amendments and this part of the clause are probably the most important in the whole Bill for the Middle Way Group. I shall miss his absence—I mean his presence—very much. [Interruption.] I sometimes miss my hon. Friend's absence also.
It is sad that the Committee is today debating the utility of the way in which we kill 26,000 foxes—not whether we kill them—on the same day that, by curious symmetry, the House is discussing sending 26,000 additional troops to the Gulf. That reveals very clearly the Government's strange sense of priorities.
The utility test and amendments Nos. 110 to 113 in my name and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Montgomeryshire are important because we believe that the Government have drawn the utility test much too tightly and much more tightly than they suggested during the consultation process. That is a serious breach of faith by the Government.