Orders of the Day — Hunting Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 6:25 pm on 15 September 2004.

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Photo of James Gray James Gray Conservative, North Wiltshire 6:25, 15 September 2004

I warned the Minister that I did not intend to enter into a backwards-and-forwards discussion on numbers because the figures are plain: many people will lose their livelihoods as a result of the Bill. However, the end of the Minister's intervention was interesting. He sought to make fun of my comments about numbers—we could argue about that; it is an interesting academic subject—but he finished by saying, "Anyhow, lots of jobs were lost in the steel industry." One or two other hon. Members said earlier, "You never said that about the miners when Thatcher threw them out." Revenge is therefore all right. I do not accept that.

We are discussing implementation of the measure and whether an 18-month delay will be useful. The many thousands of people—I suspect that it will be tens of thousands if we include saddlers, farriers and others who are involved—that the Bill affects will not be helped by the 18-month delay. That is the substantive point.