Clause 24 - Standard duration of registration
Hunting Bill
11:00 am
Mr John Gummer (Suffolk Coastal, Conservative)
The hon. Gentleman has not read the Bill. It is not individuals who are given the licence but the group. I am talking about the hunt, and the hunt has been doing the activity, very often for generations. The hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well that we are producing a Bill in the present circumstances, and those circumstances are that the people who will apply are hunts. Hunts are organisations, usually rather tough organisations, which make sure that those who hunt with them behave properly. That is one of their strengths. That is why the Middle Way Group—not a group that I support—has properly said that present ways of controlling hunting can be extended into a system that ensures that best practice is continued. As I understand it, that is its position.
All I am saying is that one could propose the amendment only if one did not want anybody to hunt. We know that the hon. Member for Worcester does not want anybody to hunt, but he must understand one important thing. It is difficult enough to believe the Government's bona fides in the way in which the Bill has been presented, because on two issues they have not given us a straight answer. They have not told us why they are proposing things that were never thought to be sensible during the three-day hearing—during which all these issues were supposed to be listened to—and they will not even give an indication of the sort of bodies that they believe might be involved in—