July 10th, not the Twelfth, will be a notable day for three planeloads of people from Ireland who, according to Country Life, will fly to England to join a protest at the Labour Party's possible move towards the banning of fox hunting. The big demonstration will be in Hyde Park, London, and already relays of protesters from all over Britain, it appears, are on their way. Perhaps 100,000 are expected. It is all a bit reminiscent of the famous Jarrow march of the 1930's when unemployed from all over, converged on London to protest their plight.
At present the one open move is that the Labour MP Michael Foster has put down a private member's Bill, seeking to ban fox hunting. According, again, to Country Life of June 19, many who have never been to London before, are expected. "Marching to save the Countryside" is the main heading and the journal points out the money involved direct expenditure on country sports was £3.8 billion in 1996, giving the Government £634 million from taxes, licenses, etc. And the British Field Sports Society says: "We will not allow jobs, hounds and horses to be sacrificed on the altars of political correctness and animal rights propaganda." It is hardly, in their eyes, apparently, a matter of the rights and wrongs of doing an animal to death in a spectacular, and sometimes dangerous way, but of money - showing politicians of all parties the enormous number of people who derive their income from `country sports'.
As to the cruelty aspect, some defenders of the fox hunting lobby point out that keeping chickens crowded into tiny cages where they can hardly turn round in their short life is cruelty on a massive scale, as opposed to the few foxes that meet death at the jaws of the hounds.
And, of course, there is the suspicion that if fox hunting were outlawed, the next move might be against shooting. And not only those top people who are at times photographed, in plus fours or breeches, standing proudly behind a carpet of slaughtered, hand raised pheasants. Maybe against the odd gun club man knocking off a few pigeons at the weekend. As to angling . . .