Clause 8 - Tests for registration: utility and
Hunting Bill
9:30 pm
Mr Peter Luff (Mid Worcestershire, Conservative)
I regard my right hon. Friend's argument as devastating because hard fact, calm analysis and logic have no place in the minds of Government Members, whose view is dominated by misplaced, misguided sentiment. They are trying to tighten the utility test because they are anxious to ensure that hunting is banned for sentimental reasons.
The alternative sport of drag hunting would lead to drag hounds being shot at the end of their working lives. I urge Members to consider widening the utility test rather than taking the misplaced view that moving to drag hunting will solve all the welfare problems. It would not solve them but it would create a new set of problems.
My right hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk, Coastal talked about facts, to which we should get back. One important thing about the utility test is to try to include better recognition of the preservation of the landscape as a test for the continuation of hunting, which is something that I thought we were debating at Portcullis house. However, I have since discovered that we were not debating, but merely wasting the experts' time.