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Originally Posted by scastle
True, and I personally agree with the protection of rights for everyone. Otherwise we would end up with dictatorship. However, protecting minority rights does have a limit. What if the "rights" of a minority included ritual sacrifice of humans (extreme example I know)?
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This proves the point rather neatly. Human sacrifice is something that threatens society as a whole due to its tendency to kill people. And as no man is an island entire of itself, the death of one person affects many, therefore it is a societal issue, therefore it's quite right for the Law to intervene. Nobody has yet demonstrated to me the corrosive effect on society of foxhunting, except for those of course who believe that the exisence of a sport that props up the aristocracy is bad for society.
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Tony doesn't seem to have listened much to left wingers before. How come he is doing it now? It's probably true that some left wingers, and some politicians on both sides have leapt on this for publicity (that seems to be the nature of some politicians though - if a view seems trendy, make out you agree), but I suspect quite a few actually do object to fox hunting itself, rather than the people who partake.
BTW, in case you haven't guessed, although I am not left wing, nor would I ever vote for the Labour party, I don't agree with fox hunting.
I do find it odd, however, that it's been on the backburner for years, then suddenly becomes an issue when a General Election is near (ish).
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Labour has been committed to banning it for quite some time but thankfully has given the lion's share of Parliamentary time to issues of genuine importance. Even when they have tried to enact a ban in the past, the Lords have effectively shredded the legislation and sent it back to the Commons for amendment. Even Tony knows you can't just invoke the Parliament Act willy nilly, so he has had to try and fail a number of times before reaching this final point.
As for the issue of listening to his backbenchers, it has always been an issue of how the facade of New Labour maintains control over the predominantly Old Labourite back benches and grass roots. In the early years of the Labour Government it was enough to scare them with threats of another two decades in opposition if they screwed up again. Seven years later that won't wash and Tony is going to have to throw Skinner and his ilk more sops like this to keep them on side.