Hunts must act to change public and political perception

Nick Herbert’s remarks, as Chairman of the Countryside Alliance, to the Festival of Hounds

Joint-masters, my lords, ladies and gentlemen.

I’d be very grateful, although I know it’s keeping you from your lunch, if you would just listen to what I have to say for the next two minutes.

An hour and a half ago, His Majesty delivered the King’s Speech, and I am pleased to tell you that there was no mention of an anti-hunting bill.

The truth is, that while we can welcome the fact the new government did not introduce a bill to fulfil its manifesto commitment to ban trail hunting in a first term government bill, we are not out of the woods.

One of the things that The King says in that speech is, ‘other measures will be laid before you’. And another very great risk is that there will be a Labour member of parliament who introduces a Private Members’ Bill which the government would then support to take action to fulfil the manifesto commitment.

I have worked in politics for 40 years, and I say this with regret but complete conviction, it is not a question of whether an anti-hunting bill will come forward in this parliament, it is a question of when. There are over 400 Labour MPs, and there may be others, who may be susceptible to introducing this legislation or supporting it, and it is a manifesto commitment.

Now we know that the justification for introducing this measure is that there is a perception that hunting is not abiding by the law, so it is their duty that the law must be changed, tightened up. We need to change that perception.

What I want to say to you, is that the Countryside Alliance, working with the BHSA [British Hound Sports Association] and all of our allies, will do everything in our power to change that perception.

Whether it’s through public relations, whether it’s through the work that we do in parliament, but what we all need to understand, is that the biggest single way to change perception lies in our hands, lies in your hands. It is not somebody else’s job.

“We must not hand an excuse on a plate to MPs to pass wholly unacceptable and draconian legislation”

We must not hand an excuse on a plate to malevolent members of parliament and pressure groups, to give them the excuse to pass wholly unacceptable and draconian legislation. Nobody must give them that excuse. That means upholding the highest standards of conduct in the hunting field, this season and going forward.

Now, there may be a few, who think this is a moment for a last hurrah, an opportunity to go on as people went on once before, without changing behaviour and regardless of the consequences. I say to you in all candour, that attitude would be selfish and wrong - selfish because we owe it to future generations to ensure that everybody can go out with hounds; that this marvellous event can continue; that hounds can remain in kennels; that hunts can continue to have their opening meet and the tradition can continue. That’s what we all want and why we are all here.

We owe it to the next generations so that they can go out, and that means we have got to fight draconian legislation that may make it completely impossible.

It is our behaviour that will really matter in the months going forward so we can successfully persuade members of parliament that there is no need to change the law, that the law is being upheld and that to change the law would be draconian, illiberal and wrong.

Nobody here wants to be the person that gives the anti-hunting cause the opportunity to say ‘ah-ha, we told you - this is why the law needs to be changed’.

So the future doesn’t lie in somebody else’s hands, it doesn’t just lie in the hands of the Countryside Alliance or the BHSA, though we will do everything in our power to fight the legislation when it comes. It lies in all of our hands and that is the message that I want to leave you with today.

It is one of realism but it is also one of hope, because I believe that most people, when they consider what is proposed, will think that it is extraordinary, extraordinary, that a government could commit to rerunning an argument that was run 20 years ago. ‘Hasn’t hunting been dealt with already,’ they’ll say. ‘Is this really your priority for the countryside? Is it really acceptable to so change the law that it’s impossible to go out with horses and hounds at all?’

These are the arguments that we can win, and we must win. But only if we do the right thing, and do the sensible thing, and above all, that’s what I want to urge all of you today. If you care, as I do, as we at the Alliance do, about the future of hunting and hounds, if you want to fight for it, then do the right thing going forward. Don’t give our opponents the excuse they want to pass illiberal measures.

Play your part. It might not be what you want, it might not be how things have been done in the past, but it is how we will defend our sport, our love, our passion, not just this year, or the year after or in this parliament, but for the generations to come.