‘Fundamentalism’ and fox-hunting
Posted: 02 Nov 2006 @ 00:00
From Revd Mike Dixon
Sir, — Which planet does the Revd Richard Thomas (
Comment, 24 September) live on? We have a democratically elected Government
that made the promise in its manifesto to ban fox-hunting, which is in line
with the will of more than 70 per cent of this country (according to all
objective polls). The issue has been discussed exhaustively for many years, and
has been brought before Parliament and overwhelmingly supported there, except
in the unelected section.
To equate this with fundamentalism is a grotesque misuse of language. As
many people who live in the real countryside (not the effete Oxfordshires of
this world) know, the cry of the hunters is, I hope, the last croak of
feudalism, where the rich and powerful still consider it their right to ride
roughshod over the dastardly lower classes. Bring on the Parliament Act.
MIKE DIXON
The Vicarage, Shilbottle, Alnwick
Northumberland NE66 2XR
From Cllr Frank McManus
Sir, — The Revd Richard Thomas needs to
recognise that there is nothing new in the excesses of some police officers in
defending Parliament against possible hostile incursions. Similar methods were
used against Vietnam demonstrators in 1968, and against miners in 1984. In
neither instance has there been an adequate inquiry or corrective action of the
kind that is now needed.
I hold no brief for Tony Blair; but it is Parliament that has voted
unwhipped to ban hunting, in accordance with Labour’s election pledges, 1997
and 2001, to put the issue to a free vote and finalise it this session. I have
never come across an instance of a party’s being so vilified for fulfilling a
decisive mandate.
Your contributor has, I fear, allowed his sense of proportion to weaken —
hence his excessively sulphurous invective.
FRANK McMANUS
Locksley House
97 Longfield Road
Todmorden OL14 6ND