[Part II]
Hunting Bill
7:30 pm
Mr James Gray (North Wiltshire, Conservative)
The right hon. Gentleman summarises my position extremely accurately. I chose the number 40 from mid-air and am not arguing passionately in favour of it. I expect him to answer intelligently, although I realise that it is a forlorn aspiration that he should respond intelligently to anything. My point, to which the Minister plainly was not listening, was that if he acknowledges that two is too few, and even if 40 is the wrong number, it would be perfectly reasonable for him, as a Minister of the Crown, to say that we have made an interesting point and that he will ask his officials to examine it. He could consider the matter, take further evidence and come back to it on Report, but he will not do that.