What beautiful weather it was for the Opening Meet of the North Cotswolds Hunt. A perfect day.
There were more than a hundred horses out with double that number of followers. If only the ignorant people who took part in the League Against Cruel Sports' poll reported in yesterday's IoS could have been there.
It took me a long time to appreciate hunting. It is an integral part of rural life and I defy anyone who saw the North Cots off on Saturday (apart from lunatic bigots and animal-rights terrorists) not to appreciate this wonderful tradition.
Far from being the sport of a few toffs and nobs, the majority of those there - hunting as well as following - were ordinary country people. And there were large numbers of children, some very young, out for a glorious day in the beautiful Gloucestershire countryside.
The hunting ban, apart from being the most shameful abuse of parliamentary process in my lifetime, has created an unworkable law. More people hunt now than when it was legal and the police are refusing to prosecute as the conviction rate is so pathetically low.
What the Labour government succeeded in doing was politicising thousands of rural dwellers and creating the sort of solidarity that used to be associated with trade unionists.
David Cameron is committed to repeal but Nick Clegg doesn't get it. I know. I tried to explain it to him without success shortly before he became leader of his party.
Take Me To Your Leader Writer
- David Seymour
- ...has written more leaders (newspaper editorials) than anyone alive or dead, an honour still to be recognised by the Guiness Book of Records or the Nobel judges. I have produced them for the Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, Sunday Mirror, Today, the Sunday People, the Evening Post (Hemel Hempstead), the Caithness Courier and the Student (Edinburgh). My creed is: Have opinions, Will travel.
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