Results 1-20 of 150 for hunting speaker:Lord Stratford

Adjournment (Easter) (24 Mar 2005)

Mr Tony Banks: ...with my fantastic staff, I have dealt with thousands of personal cases, not always with success but always with our best endeavours. There are those who maintain that I have only worked to ban hunting—a cause that I am proud to have played a part in achieving. Let me disabuse them. Since 1983 I have introduced 20 ten-minute Bills covering a range of subjects including fixed-term...

Hunting Bill: Clause 1 — Hunting wild mammals with dogs (16 Nov 2004)

Mr Tony Banks: ...the elected Chamber must prevail. We are the people who will have to go out into our constituencies and defend our voting record. Many Labour Members represent rural constituencies where there are hunts, and they will have to justify what they have done, defend their position and look for votes, and I suspect that they will get them. A pro-hunting Labour peer told me, "Under no...

Hunting Bill: Clause 1 — Hunting wild mammals with dogs (16 Nov 2004)

Mr Tony Banks: ...the views of those who do not agree with me. My hon. Friend the Member for Ogmore more or less suggested that this was a class issue. We have heard this time and again. I wrote down "red-coated hunters". I do not really care what they are dressed in—I have not the foggiest idea what they wear. I have made this point time and again; I do not even like the word "toffs". The fact is...

Orders of the Day — Hunting Bill (15 Sep 2004)

Mr Tony Banks: Almost to a person, Labour Members in marginal rural constituencies and with hunts in their constituencies want a ban at the earliest possible time. With regard to voting, the Countryside Alliance and those that generally support it would not vote for my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister or the Labour party if we brought back witch burning and public executions and handed out free cider...

Orders of the Day — Hunting Bill (15 Sep 2004)

Mr Tony Banks: .... Ministers have now shifted their position. Their arguments, as I perceive them, are that a delay will lower the political temperature and allow the election to be used by those who are pro-hunting to express their views through their vote. That seems perfectly reasonable. If the electorate want a ban to remain in place, assuming that the Bill is passed, they should vote Labour or,...

Orders of the Day — Hunting Bill (15 Sep 2004)

Mr Tony Banks: ...that there is virtually no support in this House for a ban on shooting or angling. That being so, why do Conservative Members keep throwing the issue into the debate, as though somehow a ban on hunting is the thin end of the wedge? Organisations outside the House may think that it is; inside, I can tell them, there is no majority in favour of such a ban. Personally, I would support a ban...

Hunting Bill (Procedure) (15 Sep 2004)

Mr Tony Banks: ...they agree with the Bill, and those who disagree do not want to use the Act. I would be in favour of using the Parliament Act if this Chamber passed a measure—by the majority that it did on hunting—that I totally opposed, on the ground that I believe in principle that this Chamber's will must always prevail over that of the unelected Chamber. If this House had been unanimous on...

Business of the House (8 Jul 2004)

Mr Tony Banks: ...she told him that if he carried on doing it his eyes would eventually fail him. May I tell my right hon. Friend that, although he is trusted implicitly on the Labour Benches on the abolition of hunting wild mammals with dogs, there is also a degree of nervousness? It is a problem for us, and I hope that he will not misunderstand the fact that my right hon. Friend the Member for...

Hunting Bill: New Clause 1 — Compensation (9 Jul 2003)

Mr Tony Banks: ...women of the animal welfare organisations—the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the League Against Cruel Sports and the International Fund for Animal Welfare. A ban on hunting wild mammals with dogs is not the most important political issue facing the House or the country. Indeed, it is not the most important animal welfare issue, but it is not unimportant. It...

Hunting Bill: New Clause 1 — Compensation (9 Jul 2003)

Mr Tony Banks: ...both. The headline asks why the "Class Hate bigots of New Labour despise Middle Britain". The issue has never been a matter of class. It would make no difference whatsoever if all those who went hunting were paid up members of trade unions and new Labour and if they wore flat hats and clogs. Hunting is a question of morality and I must oppose it.

Hunting Bill: New Clause 1 — Compensation (9 Jul 2003)

Mr Tony Banks: ...Reading debate. We have debated the situation in the House ad nauseam. There is a line in politics and although one can never be as neat as everyone wants, my line excludes angling. My opinion on hunting is not a matter of class hatred but of principle and morality. We gave an undertaking to ban hunting and we are fulfilling our manifesto promise. There is a lot of passion surrounding the...

Hunting Bill: New Clause 1 — Compensation (9 Jul 2003)

Mr Tony Banks: ...at our heart strings, when the facts that he mentioned are little known throughout the country. Will he also add that young hounds are destroyed if they do not show the necessary proclivity for hunting? We do not know the numbers because they do not have to be registered.

Public Bill Committee: Hunting (Re-committed) Bill: Schedule 1 - Exempt Hunting (3 Jul 2003)

Mr Tony Banks: ...ever, rather like the Bible, and we can always find something to prove contradictory points. However, I note that Burns referred to terrier work and suggested that it should be banned even if fox hunting was not banned. [Interruption.] It is in paragraph 9.20 on page 149. Alun Michael rose—

Hunting Bill: New Clause 13 — Registered Hunting: Absolute Bans: Deer, Hares, Foxes and Terrierwork (30 Jun 2003)

Mr Tony Banks: ...still conform to the Parliament Act. My right hon. Friend the Minister has said that, with new clause 13, the Bill will deliver "Labour's long-cherished commitment to ban the sport and cruelty of hunting with dogs". I am afraid that I do not share his certainty. It is a good hope and thought but, unfortunately, it is not a certainty. If hunting is to be banned, why cannot the Bill say so?...

Hunting Bill: New Clause 13 — Registered Hunting: Absolute Bans: Deer, Hares, Foxes and Terrierwork (30 Jun 2003)

Mr Tony Banks: ...but it contains exemptions that allow an as yet unknown registrar with unknown guidelines to determine what goes on. Those exemptions might move beyond our control and we will find that we have fox hunting under a different name. That is the problem that we foresee, and it is largely the reason why we have been opposed to the idea of a registration system.

Hunting Bill: New Clause 13 — Registered Hunting: Absolute Bans: Deer, Hares, Foxes and Terrierwork (30 Jun 2003)

Mr Tony Banks: I agree. What disturbs and worries me so much about the Government's position is that if people can see that there is still hunting going on—there will be plenty of coverage of it—it will look as though we totally reneged on the undertaking that the Prime Minister and the party gave, and they will not understand it. People understand what a ban is, but exemptions can mean...

Hunting Bill: New Clause 13 — Registered Hunting: Absolute Bans: Deer, Hares, Foxes and Terrierwork (30 Jun 2003)

Mr Tony Banks: ...is that the flushing of foxes to guns is not restricted in terms of the number of dogs that can be used to achieve it, so a whole pack of hounds can be used to flush the foxes to the guns. That is hunting by another name. At least in the Bill the Minister has correctly limited the flushing to two dogs, so a pack of dogs cannot be used. There are exemptions, and even my new clause 11 allows...

Hunting Bill: New Clause 13 — Registered Hunting: Absolute Bans: Deer, Hares, Foxes and Terrierwork (30 Jun 2003)

Mr Tony Banks: I think the Minister meant new clause 13, which refers to "Registered hunting: absolute bans: deer, hares, foxes and terrier-work", rather than the Bill.

Hunting Bill: New Clause 13 — Registered Hunting: Absolute Bans: Deer, Hares, Foxes and Terrierwork (30 Jun 2003)

Mr Tony Banks: .... That is why I am concerned about handing the matter over. I and my colleagues on all sides believe that a total ban is clear and unequivocal. It means exactly what it says: a total ban on the hunting of foxes with dogs, although as I said, we would still leave a registration system in place, if the Government wish to do so. If new clause 11 is agreed to, stoats, weasels, wild boar and...

Hunting Bill: New Clause 13 — Registered Hunting: Absolute Bans: Deer, Hares, Foxes and Terrierwork (30 Jun 2003)

Mr Tony Banks: ...(Mr. Bellingham), is the gist of the gentle message that I was given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and, of course, I accept her word. However far the Bill goes, a ban on fox hunting is not the most significant animal welfare issue in the world. Because of everything that is going on, I had to miss a significant meeting today on elephant welfare in east Africa—an...