WHEN rural affairs minister Alun Michael announced six months of consultation on hunting with hounds, the Countryside Alliance made every effort to co-operate.
The alliance has gone out of its way to persuade the rural community to give him the benefit of the doubt, and time, to prove his commitment to a fair solution.
Sadly, it is now clear the minister is prepared to betray that trust.
His stated intention to find an honourable and fair solution appears to have been surrendered to party political expediency.
The minister has chosen to ban deer hunting and competitive coursing out of hand, without giving the Alliance the chance to make its case to the regulator, citing "incontrovertible evidence" which he has never produced.
Other forms of hunting are little better off and face a virtual back-door ban.
They are to be tested against a distorted definition of "utility" which ignores hunting's social, economic and environmental benefits - to the great consternation of the shooting and angling communities who see in this a political precedent which could threaten their sports.
He is even proposing to give taxpayers' money to "animal welfare" groups to contest hunts' licence applications while hunts themselves would, of course, have to foot the whole bill for the process.
John Haigh,
Regional director for Yorkshire,
Countryside Alliance, Thirsk.
Updated: 11:07 Friday, February 07, 2003
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