Massive Protest at Parliament Square in London
NEWS
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This page was last updated on Monday, August 20, 2007
Wednesday, 15th September 2004
Last updated:
Monday, August 20, 2007 5:39 PM
Up to 20,000 people gathered at Parliament Square in London this afternoon to voice their opposition to the bill banning hunting in the UK.
The Bill to ban hunting was passed on its second reading by a majority of the MPs who voted in a free vote on the bill this afternoon. The Labour Government's Rural Affairs Minister, Alun Michael, has talked of using the Parliament Act to over-rule the House of Lords in the event of their likely rejection of the bill. The ban would take effect from July 2006.
Outside the House of Commons, at least 10,000 people were protesting against the bill, which is widely seen as a major infringement on liberty and human rights. The majority, by far, of those present at the protest were peaceful, and they were there to stand and be counted as objectors to the legislation. There some scuffles with riot police, in which at least seventeen protesters and one policeman were injured.
In an event that is likely to go down in history, eight protesters managed to break onto the Floor of the House of Commons today, and air their objections directly to the MPs present. This is regarded as the most serious breach of security in the House of Commons since the reign of Charles the First, almost 400 years ago. The eight were arrested, and serious questions are now being asked about how these people managed to breach the security of the House of Commons. Most MPs do not condone the breach, but outside Westminster, there is some sympathy with the extremism that has come about as the direct result of the government's apparent assault on the rural people of Britain. The Countryside Alliance has comdemned the breach.
A press release for the UK's Countryside Alliance reads:
Today's disruption in Westminster is unfortunate and unnecessary, but ultimately the responsibility of those pursuing vindictive, unjust law says the Countryside Alliance.
Simon Hart of the Countryside Alliance said: "The scenes of disruption in Westminster are unfortunate and unnecessary, but when the Labour party is destroying people's lives in some perverted game of political football, they are not surprising.
"We do not condone any lawbreaking of any kind, but DEFRA Minister Alun Michael inflamed the situation this morning by admitting that the Government is banning hunting as part of some sort of electoral game".
countryside ireland's Chairman, David Wilkinson, said this evening that this is a sad day for rural life in the UK. "Field sports are a great tradition in the UK and Europe. One has to wonder where the animal rights movement is going to stop." On the vote, he says, "The majority of MPs voted to support this ban, and so one would normally expect it to go through the process unhindered. However, the House of Lords exists in order to examine all proposed bills and reject them if they do not make sense, and on that basis they are likely to reject this bill. In order to overcome this, House of Commons may misuse a piece of legislation to force it through anyway. I think that this threatens democracy in the UK and is certainly a snub against people's liberty. This could be a much bigger issue than fox hunting."
With regard to the possibility of people from the UK coming to Ireland looking for hunts to join, in the event of a ban, David Wilkinson advises that hunts are already over-subscribed in Ireland. There are reports of people from the UK already looking for land to buy in Ireland. "But, the fact is that less than 1% of land in this country changes hands every year, and most of this is bought by Irish people and much of this is for new housing.", said David Wilkinson.
Most of the opinion polls conducted in England show that a majority are not in favour of the government's ban on fox hunting. Even more people feel that the government should be giving priority to a range of considerably more important issues than this.
Hunting in Ireland has grown notably in popularity in recent
years.