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Mr. Kevin McNamara (Hull, North) (Lab): I declare an interest, in that I have for many years been a vice-president and patron of the League Against Cruel Sports, which I congratulate on having protested against the cruelty of hunting with dogs and many other barbarities long before many other organisations. I welcome on board the RSPCA, which did not support us when we first started our campaign, as well as the International Fund for Animal Welfare and others.
This is the end of my parliamentary career. When I started it in the 1960s, we began our campaign against hunting, and I am pleased that the matter will now be resolved once and for all. I take this opportunity to pay a compliment to those colleagues, some dead, some in the House of Lords—perhaps it is the same thing—who played a part, including Eric Heffer, John Ellis, Lord Corbett and others. In very difficult times, they first pushed on hare coursing and then got the whole country behind them in opposing hunting with dogs in any shape or form.
It has been said that all this has been done to appease Back Benchers. If so, I am glad that the Government are doing it and I hope that it will be regarded as a precedent that they will follow on many future occasions. Far more important is the fact that passing the Bill will help to restore people's faith in Parliament. When the Bill presented by my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester (Mr. Foster) was not given extra time by the Government, people said that Parliament had a chance and that the Government funked it. People did not understand the subtleties of the Government's argument. They felt that they had supported the Government on this issue in the important election of 1997 and had been betrayed. Since the intention to bring in the Parliament Act to pass this measure was announced, many of the phone calls and letters that I have received have posed the question, "Do they really mean it?" Let us hope that the Government really mean it, because that will help to restore the country's faith in the work of Parliament.
I want to make two fairly brief points. First, it is often said that we do not understand what is going on. Those who have attended hare coursing meetings, as I did in the east of England with my late colleague Arnold Shaw more than 30 years ago, have seen hares torn to pieces by hounds and heard them screaming. "Collateral damage", I understand, is the phrase used for the points earned by the greyhounds—it is cruel, harsh and evil.
Secondly, I want to draw a contrast. In that particular case, hounds are trained for their speed, whereas in fox hunting, as we have heard today, they are trained for their stamina. It is not a question of quick and easy pest control or getting rid of the fox by a sharp swift hound going in and carrying out its job. It is a question of the sport entailed. That is the distinction. It is not a class distinction between town and countryside; it is a question of understanding how we use or abuse animals.
Unlike my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham (Mr. Banks), I am not a vegetarian. I am not opposed to using some animals in experiments, if necessary, to develop drugs to protect and enhance the life of humankind, though I have severe reservations about the way in which some drug companies go about it. As a principle, I am not against that, but I am against
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gratuitous cruelty, the ending of which is what the Bill is all about. I congratulate the Government on doing a very good job on this matter this time.
5.28 pm
Mr. James Paice (South-East Cambridgeshire) (Con): Let me start by saying that I wholly condemn violence from wherever and whomever it comes. I also condemn anyone who seeks to disrupt the proceedings in this Chamber. I want to make it absolutely clear that my party and I take that view. I do not believe that those who have disrupted our proceedings this afternoon are any more representative of hunt supporters than the violent end of those who seek to oppose hunting are representative of hunt opponents.
I believe that this is a sad day for this country, not just because of hunting, but because of issues that are more fundamental. I refer to the fundamental and historic virtues of tolerance and respect for minorities. The debate is the consequence of the Government's determination to contradict the clear evidence of their own advisers through the Burns inquiry and the Portcullis House hearings.
For generations, Labour MPs have urged us in this place, often quite rightly, to respect the rights, freedoms, cultures and even sexual practices of different races and religions. Here, however, they want to go much further. We are a tolerant country. We accept in our society people with many conflicting views who carry out different activities, some of which we may not like. It is not a crime to live in Britain and to plot the overthrow of the Government of another country. We allow the freedom of speech of those who try to overthrow even our own democracy. We permit peaceful demonstrations by countless minorities, however much they disrupt the normal life of other people. Those are all features of a just, tolerant and pluralistic society, of which we should be proud and which we should seek to maintain. However, this Bill is totally contrary to those values. It will criminalise the activities of a small number of people who, in every other aspect of life, are valued members of our community. They include doctors, nurses, teachers, firemen, business people, farmers and many others.
Whatever public opinion may be, in the history of this House there have been many occasions when hon. Members quite rightly have stood back and viewed an issue objectively, and when they have said that the House must not necessarily respond to public opinion and be pressurised by it. One of the starkest examples of that was the question of capital punishment. For decades after its abolition, there was no doubt about where public opinion lay, despite repeated votes in the House that such punishment should not take place.
The consequences of this Bill are quite clear. In numerical terms, it will not save the life of a single animal, and that brings me to a crucial point: the distinction between the welfare of an individual animal and that of the species. The desire to protect one animal from one form of death is understandable, but the Bill will damage the welfare of the species. That was demonstrated over and again in the evidence given to the Burns inquiry, and in the conclusions that the inquiry reached.
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I come now to what I believe is the fundamental point to be made about this debate. Many people, both in the House and outside it, oppose hunting, and I readily accept that their number includes many of my constituents. As the hon. Member for Hull, North (Mr. McNamara) said a few moments ago, those people believe hunting to be cruel, and they consider it wrong for people to gain pleasure from what is perceived to be cruel.
That is a perfectly honourable position, but I want to make two points to counter it. First, if it is the alleged cruelty of hunting that attracts its followers, they will often be sorely disappointed, because the reality is that few hunt followers ever see the kill, and the vast majority of those involved in a hunt are hundreds of yards behind when the hounds catch up with the fox.
Secondly, and more importantly, the evidence given to the Government and the conclusions of the Burns inquiry make it clear that there will be no overall reduction in animal suffering, nor in the cruelty that some people believe takes place. That brings us to the fundamental question: should this House decide what may give people pleasure, if that does no damage to others and if it is not to their detriment? Should we decide what is good for people's souls? I believe that we should not.
If there were clear evidence that banning hunting would markedly reduce animal suffering, the Bill would be justified, but there is no such evidence. No animal will be saved and no human being will gain from a ban. We will be sacrificing the fundamental values of freedom, choice, liberty and tolerance that generations of our predecessors in this House have nurtured and cherished.
If we diminish those values on this issue, who knows what will be next? Whose freedoms will next be diminished? I urge the House to pause before it turns against a minority just because it disagrees with it.
5.33 pm
The Minister for the Environment and Agri-environment (Mr. Elliot Morley): I begin by welcoming the very firm comments that Opposition Members have made about the need to respect the rule of law and the democratic process, including the democratic processes of this House. The hon. Member for St. Ives (Andrew George) made some important points about people who think that they can pick and choose when it comes to obeying the law.
In the debate, hon. Members have said that there are more pressing issues on which to legislate, and that this is not an issue for Parliament. It has been stated that a ban would set supporters of the sport against its opponents, that sufficient laws already exist to prevent abuse and that minority rights must be considered along with the sport's social value. It was even stated that hunted animals derive pleasure from the activity—although similar remarks were made when the abolition of bull baiting was debated in this House in the 1800s. It seems that the arguments about blood sports have been aired not just in the lifetime of this Parliament, but for nearly 200 years.
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