From: "David M", [EMAIL PROTECTED] I detect some hardening of attitudes (!) among those being discriminated against so unjustly in Britain! I have recently been listening to some recordings of Sir Winston Churchill's speeches and one in particular springs to mind. I wonder if you can guess which one it is? There is evidence that the Canadians are being defiant the Australians too. If the British country sports people refuse to bow to this sort of tyranny does anyone think that the New Zealanders will meekly accept legislation aimed at curtailing our right to own firearms and to hunt and shoot should any government be foolish enough not to listen to what we are telling them? DM Electronic Telegraph ISSUE 2064 Thursday 18 January 2001 'The higher the stakes, the harder we will fight' By Charles Clover, Environment Editor EAST Anglia's largest mounted field in the history of hunting turned out at Higham point-to-point racecourse in Suffolk yesterday in defiance of icy, treacherous ground and the prospect of a hunting ban. Close to 500 mounted followers, from 21 hunts, and around 2,000 on foot reserved their warmest applause for those speakers who threatened to go to jail if the sport was made illegal. The sight of a small army riding off to hunt through the frosted lanes was a poignant one for this particular spectator whose early encounters with the horse world began as a seven-year-old pushed up to watch the races from a Morris Traveller's roof. The bossy voices, the ready-made sausage rolls, the port complexions, the military-style organisation were the same as long ago. What was strikingly new, since the demonstration in Trafalgar Square which accompanied the second reading of the Hunting Bill in the Commons last month, was the anger and the number of speakers prepared to talk of defiance. Neil Curtis, regional director of the Countryside Alliance, read out a message warning that "one rash incident could result in us losing hunting for ourselves". But that was not what the crowd wanted to hear. To applause Mark Howard, gamekeeper and vice chairman of the Union of Country Sports Workers, told the crowd: "I've just about had enough of this Mr Nice Guy approach." Balaclava-clad animal rights protesters with hammers in their pockets pursued law-abiding hunts with impunity, he said. "This gathering is not to mark the end but the beginning and the defiance of any Government who thinks we would heed bad law. It's my livelihood, my right and my countryside. The higher the stakes, the harder I'll fight." George Bowyer, joint master of the Fitzwilliam Foxhounds, concluded: "I am prepared to go to jail to defend this sport I love." Earlier Robin Page, farmer, conservationist and columnist in The Daily Telegraph, said: "If hunting is banned, I will join a hunt for the first time. I will not back Blair's law. I will be Blair's first political prisoner." David Trotman, huntsman with the Essex and Suffolk foxhounds based in Hadleigh, said: "If hunting is banned, my livelihood is gone. The cottage we live in is tied to hunting and we shall be out on the street. "My son wants to be a huntsman and his future is gone. This is a very sad day. I would defy the ban." Earlier Prof "Twink" Allen, who hunts with the Thurlow, tried at the 11th hour to rebut the belief, on which most Labour MPs were likely to vote last night, that hunting was cruel. A hunted fox became alarmed, stressed and then for 15-20 seconds distressed when it realised it was going to be caught, he said. It was killed quickly by the lead hound or by other hounds, a quick but painful death. Compared with the septicaemia, cold, blood loss and gangrene suffered by shot foxes which got away or the cruelty of poisoning rats, "hunting pales into insignificance", he said. Around 1pm, the Essex and Suffolk hounds were led off to hunt, past a lone protester, pursued by the enormous field. Almost immediately, they found and killed a fox. Countryside Alliance organisers announced that the police had decreed that no more than 10 cars should follow through the narrow lanes. The message was studiously ignored. Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ____________________________________________________________ T O P I C A -- Learn More. Surf Less. Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Topics You Choose. http://www.topica.com/partner/tag01
