Results 1-20 of 107 for hunting speaker:John Gummer

Orders of the Day: Compensation Bill [Lords] (8 Jun 2006)

John Gummer: ...my hon. Friend suggests. A farmer in my village used to give up two days to display lambs to young children—one to raise money for the parish church and the other to raise money for the local hunt. He can now do neither, because the HSE warned him that the children might catch a disease if they touched the lambs. That has had a devastating effect on our small village, so how can we...

Orders of the Day — Constitutional Reform Bill [Lords] (17 Jan 2005)

Mr John Gummer: ...at some time, the Government might have believed that the Bill was a convenient measure to introduce when they did not want to present anything too controversial with the public to make up for the Hunting Bill, but that is not the reason for our debating it now. We are debating it now because the Prime Minister shot from the hip and found that he had shot his fox.

Orders of the Day — Constitutional Reform Bill [Lords] (17 Jan 2005)

Mr John Gummer: ...we could even have a debate about the Iraq war—an unnecessary and unacceptable war that we should have debated properly. We spent seven hours discussing it, yet we spent 200 hours on the Hunting Bill. This Government have no priorities and, above all, they do not know how to do things. They should not institutionalise the means of achievement, and that is why the Bill should be opposed.

Written Answers — Environment Food and Rural Affairs: Countryside Agency (15 Nov 2004)

Mr John Gummer: ...the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether, in appointing a new head of the Countryside Agency, shortlisted candidates were asked their views on (a) field sports and (b) hunting.

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

Mr John Gummer: ...grand people like the right hon. Gentleman; we are talking about very simple people who have spent their lives doing a legal job. We are also talking about ordinary people who are members of a hunt who have property and hounds for the purpose of that hunt. Their case is exactly parallel to the issue that has been prayed in aid—those who were in the business of fur farming. When fur...

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

Mr John Gummer: ...responsibility to pay compensation. I had to ask the Minister how he was able to speak about morality, given that no figure who is normally thought of as an arbiter of morality shared his view on hunting. No Church, Jewish community or member of the Judeo-Christian Church suggests that they take such a moral position. I said that if he wanted to know about morality, perhaps he should talk...

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

Mr John Gummer: The right hon. Gentleman says that this is the same Bill. The Bill that was introduced into the House of Commons did not ban hunting: it licensed it. This Bill bans hunting: it is therefore a completely different Bill. My authority for that is that the right hon. Gentleman himself said that the Bill that he introduced was not to ban hunting. The fact is that he is now introducing another...

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

Mr John Gummer: ...a display of the usual ignorance to fail to understand that many agricultural tenancies are provided specifically because animals have to be looked after? That is due not to the way in which the hunt is run but to the way in which we have made special arrangements for those who have to look after animals. Labour Members show their ignorance and lack of concern for the countryside in making...

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

Mr John Gummer: Will my hon. Friend remind the House that the Government asked the hunts to help in the removal of fallen stock, as they were an important part of such a service? This is the only country in the European Union that, because of the Department's incompetence, has not yet found a satisfactory way of dealing with the relevant legislation.

Public Bill Committee: Hunting (Re-committed) Bill: New clause 8 - Compensation (3 Jul 2003)

Mr John Gummer: ...in Europe has responded to it well. The reason why it is going wrong in Britain is that the Government, particularly in England and Wales, failed to produce a sensible policy and relied on the hunts for getting by. They now have the effrontery to suggest that the industry should pay for the scheme while they abolish hunting. The scheme has been more sensible in Scotland under the Scottish...

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

Mr John Gummer: ...that there is no principle behind this. I know what has happened: the Minister and the Government have been very worried by the fact that it was widely—and rightly—thought that once hunting had been banned, shooting and fishing would be next. Everyone knows that that is the case, because that is the logic and the morality. The Government have never managed to explain the...

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

Mr John Gummer: ...and why we are asking for a few other people to be interviewed on the subject. We all know that the campaigners will go after shooting next and that the police who are being used now to stop the hunt saboteurs will be used to stop the shooting saboteurs. The idea that many spare policemen will be available to stop hunting activity is, of course, entirely fictitious. Finally, once we get...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting (Re-committed) Bill: Clause 1 - Hunting wild mammals with dogs (3 Jul 2003)

Mr John Gummer: ..., will choose, with all the evidence in front of it, to pass amendments that make illegal the better way in terms of animal welfare. I agree with some Labour members that there are occasions when hunting could be seen as a less good way. If the amendments enabled us to distinguish between those and the other occasions, I would support them. However, each of them would make it impossible...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting (Re-committed) Bill: Clause 1 - Hunting wild mammals with dogs (3 Jul 2003)

Mr John Gummer: ...priorities. The Committee needs to know whether the priorities of the Home Office will change and whether there will be additional funds if necessary. Has the Minister considered the fact that if hunting is totally abolished, many of those who are extremists on such issues will turn their attention to other sports, which will then require police intervention?

Public Bill Committee: Hunting (Re-committed) Bill: Clause 1 - Hunting wild mammals with dogs (3 Jul 2003)

Mr John Gummer: ...moment to pass without pointing out that by changing the Bill in such a way, we now have to raise some of the arguments that we did not have to previously. For example, why is it morally right to hunt rats and morally wrong to hunt hares or foxes? That is a real issue. It was not when there were exceptions, but it is now a fundamental moral issue that is being avoided by the Government,...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting (Re-committed) Bill: Clause 1 - Hunting wild mammals with dogs (3 Jul 2003)

Mr John Gummer: I want to clarify whether those who voted against the Minister's advice during the debate in the Chamber—it was honourable for the Minister to vote as he did—were seeking to ban hunting entirely. That was the view, but he has decided not to table an amendment to the long title of the Bill, which says, ''Make provision about hunting'', no doubt on the basis that a schedule seems to...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting (Re-committed) Bill: Clause 1 - Hunting wild mammals with dogs (3 Jul 2003)

Mr John Gummer: ...title would be more accurate if it said that other activities as well as hare coursing were prohibited? It would have been more correct to have a long title that made specific the fact that the hunting of foxes and deer, as well as hare coursing, even using the word colloquially, are prohibited. It would be better to put that in, simply for the understanding of the public as a whole. That...

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

Mr John Gummer: Could the right hon. Gentleman return to the point and explain why it is moral to use terriers when one goes shooting but not when one goes hunting? Why is it moral and acceptable to allow that use by gamekeepers, whom rich people can employ, but not by farmers who do it themselves?

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 45 - Interpretation (25 Feb 2003)

Mr John Gummer: ...endangering young people on ponies? It has escaped, is rushing around and is a danger. It is a serious danger; we are not talking about a rabbit. Is the Minister really suggesting that instead of hunting and killing a wild boar, people should wait for months to obtain a licence? Should children and animals threatened by a wild boar have to wait for the Secretary of State to give permission...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 45 - Interpretation (25 Feb 2003)

Mr John Gummer: ...on horses and ponies and by rooting up and destroying large quantities of crops, gardens and other things. That is the nature of the animal. In the end, we could get rid of it only by a form of hunting; that was the only mechanism that could be used. I remind the Committee in case it has forgotten during the week that we were away—perhaps the sharpness of the debate has...