Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

By outing herself as the Cruella de Vil of the Tories with her fox-hunting move, May has been politically unwise

Pest control is not best implemented using such theatrical methods. I had some blokes round to clear out a wasps' nest and they didn’t bother with jodhpurs or stirrups

Sean O'Grady
Tuesday 09 May 2017 17:00 BST
Comments
Theresa May has voiced her support for a free vote on fox hunting
Theresa May has voiced her support for a free vote on fox hunting

Suddenly, like the chaotic arrival of a pack of hounds and their red-coated, bugle-blowing pork pie-munching unspeakable keepers in pursuit of the uneatable, the election has come alive. Yes, fox-hunting is back on the political agenda. Tally-ho!

In one of her rare encounters with the general public Theresa May gave what, in many respects, was an unremarkable sort of answer to a routine question about blood sports. She says she has "always been in favour" of this repulsive activity. She wants another free vote on the issue. Neither is so terribly surprising.

What is surprising is that she has carelessly allowed her campaign to become at least partly distracted by a peculiarly emotive topic, and that her tone has been so positive and enthusiastic. Stomach-churning. A real Cruella de Vil we have here.

What, I wonder, would Tony Blair or David Cameron have said? Blair’s government found itself bogged down for months in parliamentary trench warfare to get fox-hunting banned. Cameron watched that and, whilst making the usual noises sotto voce, avoided making any commitments too plainly about the return of hunting. Still less did he sound vaguely enthusiastic about it, even though he’s been on a few hunts himself, and I think may once have indulged in a bit of deer-stalking. I’m not sure May has yet been blooded.

Sensible politicians, in other words, do not go near fox-hunting until and unless it is absolutely unavoidable. Cameron allowed the topic to slip his mind in six years of government. He at least got that right.

It’ll cut both ways for May, as these things do. There are many in the countryside, and elsewhere, I concede, who believe it a human right. They argue for the keeping down of the crafty pest Reynard. They kill chickens for fun, you know, foxes (or so it is claimed). Us townies don’t understand the rural way of life and are best to keep our snouts out of it. It is a great and grand colourful tradition. Part of England’s heritage. Only dictators would want to impose their will on free people in such a way. All that.

Jolly good. Except of course that fox-hunting is, simply, cruel. That’s the beginning and end of it, just as it is with badger-baiting or bear-baiting, dog fighting and other barbaric pursuits (also once popular and traditional).

This, I also concede, is a well-worn argument, but the fundamental fact in all this – the cruelty issue – is central. Nothing really excuses that, and certainly nothing that the hunters come up with. Pest control is not best implemented using such theatrical methods.

Theresa May in soundbites

Tradition can be maintained by drag hunting and other substitutes. I had some blokes round to clear out a wasps nest and they didn’t bother with jodhpurs or stirrups. And, no, I am not bothered that Hitler banned fox-hunting, and the same way I am not impressed by the fact that he was a vegetarian or teetotal.

The fox-hunting ban is weak enough already, and the animal welfare groups have trouble enough getting the authorities to enforce the law without weakening it further. What has always seemed to be so strange to me is that people who, for example, might disapprove of smoking cannabis (unlawful still), or going on an illegal picket line, find excuses for when they or their mates blatantly refuse to obey the legal ban on hunting with dogs, and indeed take enormous pleasure in evading the law.

We have had years of debate about fox-hunting, and the position is well-settled. We don’t need a general election being diverted by fox hunting and we don’t need the nation divided once again; but seeing as Theresa May has broken cover, some of us are perfectly happy to give chase. I can’t see her winning many votes out of it, anyway, and I suspect she’ll motivate more Corbynites to get out, vote and campaign in marginal city and suburban seats than persuade Tories to vote in the Tory stronghold countryside seats. And anyway, hasn’t she got enough to be getting on with apart from opening up such a divisive argument midway through a snap election?

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in