Hunting

Boxing Day, or the Feast of Stephen, is the traditional big day for foxhunting in England, despite the practice being, supposedly, illegal. The papers, without much in the way of news or in the way of duty reporting staff, usually carry a big picture of the hunt going out, the huntsman and the hounds.

Today it is accompanied by a particularly silly article in the Daily Telegraph, which concludes 'What we see at work today, therefore, is a classic piece of British pragmatism. The Act is wrong, does not work and should be scrapped..... The time will come when a sensible Parliament will reverse one of the most illiberal and pernicious laws of recent times. Until that day arrives, tally-ho! '.

Now, I wasn't in favour of the foxhunting ban, designed, as it obviously was, to give a bit of red meat to the Labour backbenchers in Tony Blair's first term, in a possibly conscious attempt to mimic the giving of red meat to the hounds. I think it is a bad law and should be repealed. But let's get a few things straight.

This is not, by a large margin, 'one of the most illiberal and pernicious laws of recent times': the statute book is laden with poorly thought out and casually drafted attempts to limit our freedoms and individuality; this affected a very small number of people, attempting to stop them doing something they spent very little time at, and only in a certain season.

It is, however, puerile as it may be, the law of the land. The fact that hunts go out regularly and openly and that no one connected with a recognised hunt has ever been prosecuted is not a classic piece of British pragmatism, it is a disgrace.

If the police and the Prosecution Service are saying that you don't need to obey silly, ineffective laws, then we can feel free, this holiday season, to have a few drinks before driving as long as we are sober, to smoke in a public place and to ignore a vast number of European Directives.

Try a bit of racist abuse, too.
Tally ho!

Hunters hunted

The Italian hunting season (hunting means rough shooting, not riding around on a horse) should be over now, unless you live in one of the regions which has illegally extended it.

There were 35 killed and 74 injured – and that’s people, not the animals and birds, mainly other hunters but also innocent passers by, people going about their lawful business. One friend of mine was told his life was in danger if he went on to his own land between 1st October and 1st February without wearing a fluorescent jacket.

Italian hunters are not allowed to shoot within 150 metres of a house or 50 metres of a road, but they can walk all over your land, right by your front door carrying loaded weapons. And given the statistics above they are not too accurate when they open fire.

The Tourism minister, Michela Vittoria Brambilla (that’s her pictured, not a hunter) is one of the few ministers with some brains and some backbone. She is going to take on the hunting lobby, proposing to parliament that the safety distances be increased and preventing trespass on to private land. She deserves all the help she can get.

Italy: hunting

The Italian hunting season has started, and from 6am our house sounds as if it were in a First World War battle zone. Italians take this very seriously and are beautifully kitted out: imagine male catwalk models where 'paramilitary' was the style of the day. Their guns are often sophisticated multi-round pump action repeaters and their sunglasses more Schwarzenegger than Lennon.

They don't hit much - to be fair there isn't much left to hit. Last year some people were fined for shooting thrushes but there is little policing. If it moves they shoot it, be it squirrel, hare, blue tit or whatever. They have the right to walk all over your land in pursuit of this slaughter and many is the domestic dog or cat fed poisoned titbits to prevent it from disturbing the game.

About 20 years ago there was a referendum on whether these hunting rights should be restricted and the voting was about 15:1 in favour of stopping it. But unfortunately the turnout at under 50% did not constitute a quorum and the attempt failed.

This is one of the very few areas of Italian life which is crude, selfish and unlovely. Apparently a new attempt is in the offing to stop it. We shall see.