Mrs May Admits Defeat On Hunting With Dogs

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42594068

A Manifesto promise made only a few months ago is now abandoned.

[emmie]

so a hunt without the fox, which is just a ride in the country...

[naomi24]

Emmie, not really.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_hunting

[Peter Pedant]

every possible legislative corner has been cleared for Brxit legislation

GMC reform - "lets only bring cases which affect patient safety" has to wait - so the hunt for doctors with parking tickets goes on !

[emmie]

ok so drag hunting, using the foxhounds to hunt for a scent, at least its not using the fox as bait.
And its been around a long while.

[emmie]

peter
possibly wrong thread...

[ToraToraTora]

how is this a "defeat" - she listened to people's views, including yours mikey. Do you really want political leaders that never react to circumstances? Of course you do!

[jno]

I don't think public opinion's changed much on this since the election, Islay. More likely she's just got more important stuff to attend to. It was a foolish vote-grabbing promise in the first place, but it's taken her a while, comparatively speaking, to rescind it - remember, some policies get dumped within hours rather than months.

[woofgang]

While I agree that the Act as it stands is not monitored and enforced as it should be, it has had an unseen effect on land owned by public bodies and by bodies who must be seen to comply with the law....so Crown Estate land, national parks, land owned by the government in general including the armed forces, and, of course, regimental hunts. Again is compliance and monitoring perfect? No of course its not. When seatbelt law was brought in, compliance was poor too, but as time rolls on, compliance improves

[woofgang]

Has she actually rescinded or just said not yet? Was there a promise that the vote would happen in the life of this Parliament? I honestly don’t remember

[jno]

as I understand it, Cameron promised a vote that didn't happen, and the promise was repeated before last year's election. She now says "On this issue of foxhunting, what I can say is that there won’t be a vote during this parliament. "

Election promises generally refer to the life of the next parliament ("If elected the X Party will ...") since they're meant to get people voting for them in the coming election.

[woofgang]

So never explicitly promised for a stated timeframe.....

[naomi24]

Rather than it being an ‘election promise’, I seem to remember it resulted from a leaked email from someone requesting another vote. Could be wrong though. Frankly I’d have thought the government was well aware that it wouldn’t be a popular suggestion.

[Khandro]

Does it really matter, just as long as the ban isn't repealed?
She knows that the vast majority of British people, quite rightly, find killing animals for sport is an anachronism and an obscenity.

[woofgang]

Naomi, I believe it has been in the manifesto since the ban came in

[naomi24]

Has it? I didn't know that. Okay. I just recall reading about a leaked email during the run up to the last election.

[Jackdaw33]

It seems to be a law more honoured in the breach than the observance. Have there been any successful prosecutions for such breaches?

[gulliver1]

Why can't May, put Jeremy Hunt in as the Hunt Master
what a Hunt ! that would be .

[jno]

and, er, what are you going to do with Liam Fox, gulliver?

[jno]

it seems to have been in the manifesto for several elections

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-40085091

It appears though that they now blame the promise for their poor performance in the election last year: it may have delighted country squires who would have voted for them anyway but it made them look as if they were in favour of cruelty to animals, and it didn't appeal to the younger voters they needed.

May seems to be personally in favour of hunting, so she must be annoyed at having to U-turn; none the less she's smart enough to see which way the wind's blowing. Dropping the ban isn't a vote winner and may well be a vote loser.

[dannyk13]

jno, She is not dropping the ban, she is dropping the debate,