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Anti-hunting laws were attack on the upper clsses
WHAT has been the effect of the Hunting Act since it was passed in 2004?
Judging by the response to the latest survey carried out by the Countryside Alliance, virtually none.
Three hundred hunts responded to it – and that there are still so many in existence says it all – and of these, 93% said they had lost no subscribers in the last five years, with some gaining members.
Three-quarters of hunts had the same number of hounds, with 10% having more. The same statistics go for employees of hunts.
Now before the anti-hunting fraternity get on their high horses and start shooting Mr Pendle down – puns sadly unavoidable – let him say he has no strong feelings on this subject one way or the other.
He merely reports the findings of the survey and comments accordingly.
But he finds the words of Simon Hart, the Alliance's chief executive, ring true when he says "legislation based on prejudice, rather than evidence and principle, can only ever be temporary".
For that is what the Act was, first and foremost – an attack on the upper classes.
When it was passed, the Alliance pledged three things. First, to keep the infrastructure of hunting in one place. It has obviously done so.
Second, it said it would demonstrate the Act was a farce. The fact there have been just three major prosecutions in the five years since it reached the statute books proves that point.
And third, it said it would get repeal of the Act on the political agenda. With the General Election just months away, it has done that – and Mr Pendle awaits the response from the next Government to the Alliance's call with interest.
IT is all well and good the Electoral Commission calling for people to be given a wider range of options for voting in elections, such as being able to vote at weekends or in advance of polling day.
But it does not say how this would operate – when would voting be allowed, who would run the polling stations and how would electoral fraud, already thought to be widespread in certain parts of the country, be prevented?
And what about the voters themselves?
The date of an election is publicised weeks in advance, giving them ample time to make arrangements to go to their polling station and vote (it is, after all, open for 15 hours in the day and casting one's vote takes little more than a minute).
To Mr Pendle, this is just another case of people being simply too lazy to change their daily routine and expect everything to be laid on a plate for them.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
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Weather for Pendle
Friday 25 May 2012
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Temperature: 10 C to 22 C
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