Clause 8 - Tests for registration: utility and least suffering
Hunting Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Hugo Swire (East Devon, Conservative)
Yes. I would hazard a guess that were hunting or sporting activity to cease in large areas of the country, landowners—or land managers as we must learn to call them—would be obliged to find alternative ways of making their country pay and would be more tempted by the blandishments of planting conifers, which are unsightly though undoubtedly necessary in some cases.
The difference in the clause is that the Minister has taken it upon himself to be judge and jury in the case of stag hunting and coursing. Why he has it in for stag hunting in particular, I cannot fathom. I believe that he has chosen the wrong target. In terms of utility, as my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton (Mr. Flook) was saying this morning, the case for the continuation of stag hunting is arguably easier to make than it is for any other form of hunting. I believe the ban reflects prejudice. Some hon. Members still believe that hounds chase a hapless stag, which is cornered, savaged and torn to bits by hounds. We know that that is not the case, and misconception and ignorance are behind the total ban.
Will we be any better off if there is a total ban? I refer to something that the hon. Member for St. Ives (Andrew George) said some time ago. He asked if the Minister would
''ensure that, before the Bill is enacted, a proper deer management and culling plan is in place on Exmoor to avoid the predictable mayhem that would ensue in the area''.—[Official Report, 3 December 2002; Vol. 395, c. 761.]
What has been put in place? Of course, the answer is nothing. Endless questions have been asked in the other place by Lord Mancroft and others, asking various Ministers what wildlife management programme was to be put in place in the event of a
total ban on stag hunting and the limitation of other forms of foxhunting and answer came there none.
We have often quoted Mr. Graham Sirl, the former head of the west country operations of the League Against Cruel Sports. It is worth quoting again something that he said about the importance of hunting to the deer population, with the caveat that he makes it clear that he has not changed his view on hunting with hounds. He still believes it to be unnecessary and that it involves cruelty to the deer being hunted. However, he goes on to say:
''I do now believe that hunting with hounds does play an integral part of the management system for deer on Exmoor and the Quantocks. In some instances, hunting in general is a constitutive part of West Country rural community life. Those who don't acknowledge this to be true, or similarly choose to ignore same, are turning their backs on an argument they know is difficult to win.''