Clause 1 - Hunting wild mammals with dogs
Hunting Bill
9:30 am
Mr Peter Luff (Mid Worcestershire, Conservative)
I have an opportunity now publicly to pay tribute to my hon. Friend, who has shown a rare flexibility of thought and intelligence of approach. That does not always characterise debates on hunting. Nationally and locally, I have been criticised for supporting the sort of approach outlined in new schedule 2. I have heard words such as, ''Leave us alone; you don't understand. We should be left to get on with it''. If the Independent Supervisory Authority on Hunting had been set up 10 or 15 years earlier, that leave-it-alone approach might have worked. I remember a leading supporter of the League Against Cruel Sports—a Labour Member of this House—telling me that if the codes of conduct had earlier been tightened as they now have been, and if ISAH had been set up sooner, the campaign to ban hunting would not have been able to gather steam. The right regulatory framework on a voluntary basis is now in place. However, the hunting world tragically left those changes too late, so we now need statute law to control hunting if we are to put this wretched political issue to bed.
I should mention in passing that my hon. Friend the Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik) is not here because he has had to go to discuss the deaths of soldiers in army camps. He took the judgment, with which I agree, that the death of people is more important than that of foxes. I apologise for his absence; he would like to be here to support my remarks.