Hunting ban was 'a disaster' admits Blair in astonishing memoirs
Hunt campaigners called for the immediate lifting of the ban yesterday after Tony Blair admitted it was a "disaster."
In an astonishing revelation, the former Prime Minister said it would have been "less trouble" to propose culling every fifth pensioner than the outrage sparked by the Hunting Act.
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Tony-Blair
Mr Blair says it is the introduction of the ban – rather than war with Iraq or the cash for honours probe – that he "most regrets" from his time in power.
His opponents in the Westcountry have labelled the Act one of the "most illiberal, ineffective and wasteful laws of modern times" and say that the former Prime Minister's confessions must spell its end.
In his memoir, A Journey, Mr Blair claims to have deliberately sabotaged the 2004 Hunting Act to ensure there were enough loopholes to allow hunting to continue.
Describing it as a "masterly British compromise", Mr Blair claimed the Act left people able to hunt foxes "provided certain steps were taken to avoid cruelty when the fox was killed."
He says he also told then-Home Office minister Hazel Blears to steer police away from enforcing the law.
The sensational memoirs also reveal how Mr Blair blames a "maddening" Gordon Brown for Labour's landslide election defeat, feels "anguish" over the Iraq war and developed an unhealthy relationship with alcohol during his time in office.
The book, published yesterday, has provoked a scornful reaction across the Westcountry among former Labour MPs, hunt campaigners and members of the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS).
Even one of Mr Blair's previous allies, former Plymouth Sutton & Devonport MP Linda Gilroy, said she was "disappointed" with the ex-Premier concerning his comments about Mr Brown.
The Countryside Alliance yesterday called Mr Blair "delusional" and "completely duplicitous" while the LACS accused him of virtually perverting the course of justice.
Mr Blair claims he had not realised how passionate the hunting community was about the ban, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of hunt supporters storming London in 2002.
"The passions aroused by the issue were primeval," he said. "If I'd proposed solving the pension problem by compulsory euthanasia for every fifth pensioner I'd have got less trouble. By the end of it, I felt like the damn fox.
"I had a complete lapse. I didn't 'feel it' either way. I didn't feel how, for fox hunters, this was part of their way of life. I didn't feel how, for those wanting a ban, this was fundamentally about cruelty. Result? Disaster."
Mr Blair said he also had a bet with Prince Charles that fox hunting would continue: "He thought the ban was absurd and raised the issue with me in a slightly pained way," he said. "The wager was that after I left office, people would still be hunting."
The former Prime Minister said he initially agreed to a ban without properly understanding the issue.
He says he was pinned down on the topic on TV and should have shut it down "at the outset". Instead, he gave the impression it would be banned and boxed himself into a corner. "I was defined, and so trapped," he said.
He later claims he only understood the issue after meeting the mistress of a hunt while on holiday in Italy: "She took me calmly and persuasively through what they did, the jobs that were dependent on it, the social contribution of keeping the hunt and the social consequence of banning it and did it with an effect that completely convinced me," Mr Blair said.
Prime Minister David Cameron has described the law as a "farce" and said MPs would have the chance to vote on a parliamentary motion later in the year on whether to hold a free vote on the ban.
Graham Higgins, Master of the East Cornwall Hunt, said: "It always was a bad law. That is why so many hundreds of thousands of us went to London when the vote was being taken. You just don't get that amount of people who are wrong about something so close to their hearts and to the heart of the countryside.
"I'm pleased that Tony Blair has written this in his memoirs. It just goes to show that at the time we were right, and all of those people who voted for it were wrong and they knew it.
"It has been a pointless law, a waste of police time and has made innocent countryside people into criminals. When the person who brought it in admits it was a mistake that means it is high time to put a stop to it."
A spokesman for The Countryside Alliance said: "Mr Blair's memories of the birth of the Hunting Act will differ wildly to the memories of all who campaigned and demonstrated to save hunting.
"Blair describes the Act as a 'masterly British compromise' despite it being nothing of the sort, and nothing like what his Government designed. Mr Blair owns up to making a huge mistake in allowing the Hunting Act onto the Statute Book, but he can't kid himself or any of the rest of us that what exists now was a deliberate piece of subtle law making.
"The Hunting Act is a product of fudge, political expediency, class war and cowardice. It is bad law, but the fact that Mr Blair let it happen knowing it would be, makes it worse, not better."
The League Against Cruel Sports said Mr Blair's "change of heart" on hunting ignored the findings of his own government's inquiry.
Barrister John Cooper QC, chairman of the charity, described the admission as "remarkable", adding: "It is alarming in the extreme that the prime minister should respond to the proper passage of an Act through parliament by not encouraging its enforcement. He is sailing perilously close to perverting the course of justice."
Douglas Batchelor, the league's chief executive, said: "Thankfully, the police ignored any instruction to ignore the law, and there's an average of one conviction every fortnight."
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by Timothy, pz
Saturday, September 04 2010, 6:12PM
“Thought tis might interest you Charles: "TB, caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, kills up to 2 million people each year, and it is estimated that a third of the world¿s population are infected by M. tuberculosis bacteria. However only 10% of those infected develop full TB. The remaining people simply carry a latent form of the disease, which lays dormant within them. It is unknown why some become sick, whilst others don¿t, but the new test hopes to help determine those who will develop full TB." Time to get tested!”
by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Friday, September 03 2010, 6:02PM
“:) "Three cheers for Dude the Maran!! . Brown and speckled eggs for ever!! . All Arbor Acres pay tribute to our Speckled brothers and sisters! . Your dark Cornish brothers and sisters and all Plymouth Rocks know how you've all suffered. .These honkey White Leghorns are wimps when it comes to foxes! . Our time has come at last!!"
And Maxine, go and meet some typical farmers and country people. . They are not all toffs though some occasionally are. . There's never any demarcation and they don't care how you speak when it come to breeding any sort of animals or growing any different fruits or vegetables, they just expect honesty and some basic manners. . If you mind your business, they'll mind theirs you'll find, and they'll always be the first to help you if they are able to, if ever you have any real problem.”
by Mad Maxine, St Erth
Friday, September 03 2010, 5:01PM
“Charles,
Who's trying to insult you! Sorry if your senseabilities have been touched.
Point I was making was that many of the arguments people use to rationalise and excuse fox hunting are the same arguments people use for rationalising and excusing these other, as you put it, abhorrent, 'sports'.
Tim,
Not 100% sure, but I don't think anyone stone people in Britain. Mind you, you're from Penzance - I have heard things similar there.
So yes, there are much more obvious wrongs in the world, but this is one we can actually do something about. By all means though, fly out to Iran, or Northern Afghanistan, they're stoneing their quite regularly I hear (They also hunt foxes for sport in Afghanistan - but with eagles don't you know) if you feel strongly about it.”
by cheekyman, Redruth
Friday, September 03 2010, 4:12PM
“the sooner those evil chicken get killed the better...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1254900/Revenge-chicken-Three-hens-cockerel-named-Dude-peck-fox-death-broken-coop.html”
by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Friday, September 03 2010, 3:54PM
“:| "The cruel death of a fox." . You are being a little disingenuous now I feel Tim. . Now rat poison, there's a cruel slow death(anticoagulant), or a badger skinning a hedgehog; or a fox tearing out a lambs gut and feeding it to its young. . But if you want a really cruel death, watch this fox killing and eating the squirrel.
But you have to sign in. It's gruesome.
http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DOasbn6NsVlA
By the way Mad Maxine; badger bating and cxck fighting is abhorrent to all of us. . Disagree with me by all means, but please do not try and insult me. . Thankyou. . Best Charles.”
by TimV, Pz
Friday, September 03 2010, 2:45PM
“David says rather naively perhaps, "I can see no comparison between killing cows and sheep humanely for food, and people with an IQ equal to or less than their age, chasing an animal to exhaustion and then subjecting it to a very cruel death." Comparison can be made of course. Killing is always justified by people who do it or benefit from it. "Killing humanely" is a misnomer that only the victims are qualified to judge. In the Christian tradition we start from the premise that all killing is wrong, then make the exceptions that vary in their rationality and persuasiveness. The Iranians apparently believe it is acceptable to stone a woman to death (after ninety nine lashings) for having an allegedly "adulterous" relationship. We, meanwhile get more worked up over the cruel death of a fox, for surely no one would disagree with it being cruel, than the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians as a direct result of our actions! And in this is Tony Blair's cleverness, that few have spotted. By resurrecting the fox hunting debate, he has astutely deflected the debate away from the much more important issue, and we all fall for it - the Wily Fox!”
by Mad Maxine, St Erth
Friday, September 03 2010, 2:06PM
“"Fox hunting has been a large part of rural life for centuries"
A couple of centuries, maybe, but not as long as the fox has been a part of the natural environment. You might say, but what is natural these days? But isn't that half the point Charles?
Where do you stand on other issues of Rights Charles?
Rodeos abusing horses?
Bull fighting?
Badger baiting?
Foul fighting? (I have to say foul as male chicken terminology would be removed! But we all know what I mean)
These are all century old traditions that provide economic benefits for the rural community - at the expense of the morality of society of course.
Hunting with hounds never was anything more than hunting with hounds - most hunts would agree with that too. Controlling 'vermin', that's something else. And more importantly to the Bill, and the rational of it's creation, something that can be achieved less cruelly, more efficiently and without the moral consequences.”
by Mad Maxine, St Erth
Friday, September 03 2010, 1:52PM
“If anyone thinks what Blair has said on this has anything to do with a down turn on the Hunting Bill they're mad. Hunting is one of the most contentious and divisive debates in the UK. Blair quite crudely is just plugging his book to the 'market'.
This, to me, just shows the shallowness of Blair these days. Hunting foxes with horse and hound is unnecessary, cruel and was proved to be a disaster of a sufficient control measure for foxes; the Bill with numerous convictions in a short amount of time has become one of the most successful pieces of legislation to come out of the New Labour deal in Blair's Premiership. Sure, you can say it was rushed through, but that was synonymous and typical of Labour¿s policies after the removal of Hereditary Peers from the House of Lords, they had to, strategic dismantlement, just like the Tories are doing now to the Welfare System. The fact that Blair now wants to use his mistakes and premature ideology to get a little bit more publicity and sell a few more books... ... ... .. . whilst drumming up old (saw) ground and creating a problem where there doesn't need to be one just shows Blair's real identity.
Blair, go back to the US and leave Britain alone - you've done enough damage.”
by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Friday, September 03 2010, 1:19PM
“:| Get a life David. It's nothing to do with money. . You continually appear to have this huge chip on your shoulder and never seem to have got over never being able to earn more than an ordinary wage. . What sort of world would this be if people like you were the pinnacle of success in life? We wouldn't ever have any employers. . Fox hunting has been a large part of rural life for centuries.
http://www.freewebs.com/nwtf/05.%20Livestock%20&%20Pets%20Lamb%20Stalk.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3467/3358975209_e9923438c3.jpg
http://patdollard.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/fox_and_chicken.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3053/2600779349_be949dcf49.jpg?v=1214164477
http://www.freewebs.com/nwtf/06.%20Livestock%20&%20Pets%20Lamb%20face.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/nwtf/04%20Livestock%20&%20Pets%20kill9a.jpg
http://www.keeping-chickens.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/chicken-killed-by-fox.jpg
http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/apr2009/5/6/fox-hunting-pic-pa-161062217.jpg
.”
by David, St Austell
Friday, September 03 2010, 12:02PM
“I can see no comparison between killing cows and sheep humanely for food, and people with an IQ equal to or less than their age chasing an animal to exhaustion and then subjecting it to a very cruel death. But then money always talks doesn't it? Hunting any animal for so called sport is cruel and anyone who thinks otherwise is not worth calling human.”