The politics of Hunting...

G

golden_paloma

New User
Joined
31 August 2010
Messages
4
Location
London
Visit site
I was just interested about peoples politics within the hunting world!
IE-Is everyone who hunts a Tory voter? Is hunting available to everyone, whatever background, colour etc?
Obviously will spark some debate, but I do find it all a bit fascinating. (I'd have loved to do politics at Uni, but am a little academically-challenged, so decided to do performing arts instead!)

I was reading the huge thread started by Judgemental about hunting, and interested in how rudeness is a huge issue- be it to farmers/land tenants or general members of public, so I thought it interesting to look at the bigger picture.
People are always surprised that I am both an avid socialist and a lover of the country and horse sports, and that I'm also a 'bunny-hugging', organic free-range semi-vegan (I sometimes eat eggs) who agrees with fox hunting (no killing is humane, but quicker and better than the ridiculously cruel gassing and shooting.)
I've been bought up by a trade union rep father, labour mum, Grandparents on both sides marxists/communist party members etc etc. My Grandad, who has just sadly passed away, was the son of a docker Father and factory-worker Mum from New Cross/Bermondsey area, SE London- always voted red. YET he was an avid member of the West Kent hunt in the 50's and 60's, lived and loved horses (head groom of police horses in Richmond Park for 30 years) and all 'country' animals, secretary of west kent pony club, bred and raced terriers etc (all the while being a bohemian artist and writer!)

Did the hunting ban alone make people choose to vote blue? Personally I could never change my thinking based on the ban, because social policies are more important. But obviously, some people are more self-thinking.

Anyway, all very interesting!

I'm not at all trying to cause a huge guffaw- I get on with everyone (unless of course they're a raging fascistic toe-rag!) It's just totally out of interest.

All thoughts please!
 
Interesting question for sure.

I'll freely admit that I am a Conservative voter (I have probably been a Tory since I was 4 and asked my Mum if Maggie Thatcher would be the PM until she died). I have been a member of the party in the past and have campaigned in local and national elections for them.

The hunting issue is dear to my heart, but I am a great supporter of the Conservative policies relating to freedom and individual social responsibility. I briefly flirted with the Liberal Democrats when I was 17, but voted Conservative on my first visit to the polling station and have continued to do in all elections bar the Europeans.

However despite my political leanings I am not what you would think of as a typical convert to the hunting field. I'm quite an awkward sod and as soon as they tried to ban it I wanted to know more. Reading up on the subject was a start, but I wanted to see for myself and the local master invited me out. It was the start of a love affair with hunting that has continued for the past 7 seasons. Usually seen in my jeans and wellies flying about on foot or by bike and getting lovely and muddy, although I was convinced to try hunting on horseback for the first time last season.

I am a huge believer in good manners on the hunting field and an even bigger believer in taking country sports to the masses. I am happy to parade our minkhounds at shows across the region, to introduce kids to hounds and country sports at Countryside Alliance events and think we should all be shouting about the benefits that country sports can offer to everyone.
 
Interesting, I will look forward to seeing the answers but my initial thoughts that this is complex, there are so many drivers that it is not related to your political persuasion. This is also based on the people I have meet which come from such a wide variety of backgrounds.

My parents are strongly conservative, always have been, as were both sets of grandparents from what I can tell. As a small child I remember hunting with my father on holiday however neither of my parents agrees with it now.

My sister is very left wing, lives in west London and strongly disagrees with hunting, so much so that this is a completely taboo subject. I find it amusing that she doesn't like the town foxes using her garden as a loo and will do anything to get them to use the neighbours gardens but wouldn't dream of any level of cull as this is non-pc.

I am probably left of centre on most things, but I live in a strongly conservative area. When it comes to voting though I vote on the issues not for a specific party. I really only got into hunting about two or three years ago but my ex used to manage a sporting estate so I was exposed to shooting about ten years before that and that started my love of the countryside/country way of life. I still work in west London, at the end of the day you have to pay bills, but I would always choose to be outside with my horses if at all possible. I think my current status is due to exposure to a way of life I hadn't been involved in before, a growing knowledge and respect of the people and that way of life. I don't think that my politics, such as they are, have had any impact on my support for hunting.
 
I read somewhere that you should never vote "for" a political party but you should always vote "against"!

Personally I vote conservative because I believe that despite her failings my local MP will do her best for the area. She has been involved in many charitable projects and actually talks to people in the area rather than just open fetes and hide away like the Lim Dem representative. Labour have never been strong so if I voted for them then my vote would in effect be wasted.

I don't think I ever would vote Labour but I am a great fan of many of Tony Benns ideas. As he once said, when asked what her greatest achivement was Margaret Thatcher replied "New Labour".

Sadly there has been so much secrecy and putting things through under the table since Labour took power that I do feel rather let down and untrusting of all our Governmental parties. I also feel rather let down by the papers (Telegraph in particular) who have reported on certain aspects (using the expenses fiasco as an example) incorrectly then apologised in private and not in public to those who were not actually in the wrong. Please also note that it was *lair who cut the wages and increased the expenses allowable so it looked good to voters! All very dishonest and very back handed.

Personally I don't hunt. I have no time, money etc to do so. I may in the future and I enjoy keeping fairly up to date with what is happening on a very local level because I love the countryside. I am however very pro hunting because I see it as the most effective way of culling the population of foxes/ deer and maintaining a strong population free of diseases etc. I am far from against shooting, but the fox is a wiley devil and much of what I have seen in the case of shooting foxes has caused injury and not a swift death for the animal. Distressing for the marksman and the animal. These folk are also very keen shots and so I am very aware of the difficulty of getting a clean mark on these particular animals - they are not as stupid as rabbits! I am very against trapping. If a job such as culling has to be done - do it quickly and effectivly. Hunting satifies this "need" in the best possible way in my opinion. Having been brought up in the countryside I also aprichiate how very lonely it can be. Social isolation in rural areas can cause many problems in a persons mental health so I also see hunting as fullfilling a social need as well. It is also a good way to keep fit, get the local gossip and happenings, gain ideas and inspiration for work, make friends etc.

I have said this on many occasions and will say it again. Hunting is many things amagimated into one. It is a sport, a business, a hobby and an important conservational activity.

I don't think that you can class all "Hunters" as "blue" but I suspect that since the ban/ act and the activities leading up to the ban/ act many will have changed to blue to try and protect their rights.
 
I suppose I'm a classic middle-of-the-way liberal – I haven't totally made my mind up about hunting yet, but it annoys the hell out of me if someone who eats factory-farmed meat or wears commercially farmed leather complains about it. I was also deeply appalled that so many MPs turned up to the hunt debate, but NOT the discussions on whether or not we were going to invade Iraq and wreak havoc. That said, I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of hunting practices are less humane than the quick death of the fox in midflight.
I studied social anthropology at university and was lucky enough to have a good long natter with an anthropologist who has studied UK foxhunting, and that was fascinating. Certainly contributed to my relativist take on it.

I'm just finishing a book which is a kind of social history of British girls and ponies, and, inevitably, it is full of material on hunting. I don't take a position in the book as that's not what the book's about, but I'm wondering how readers will react to the neutral reporting of the sport. A literary agent warned me that there was a kind of strike by commerical book buyers (the people who buy stock for bookshops) against Jane Shilling's hunting memoir.

Have never actually hunted per se – in February I "followed" the East Anglian Bloodhounds and had a wonderful day, and on the last day before the ban I went coursing with my godmother who breeds deerhounds. Only one hare was caught and killed (pretty minimal casualty rate compared to the roadkill we passed on the way there), although apparently with greyhounds it's another story.
 
Last edited:
There is a long tradition of hunting supporters who are also Labour voters. Lord Paget, Baroness Mallileu (sp) and others. It was the vote of the miners representatives that prevented hunting being banned after the war in the 1950s.

Some of the most devoted foot followers lived in council houses, although no-one could know how they vote!

I don't think that hunting people much mind WHAT anyone's politics are, everyone is united in their love of the countryside and the hounds.
 
golden_paloma said:
I was just interested about peoples politics within the hunting world! I don't vote never have never will, sorry.
IE-Is everyone who hunts a Tory voter? Is hunting available to everyone, yes it is and so it should be. whatever background, colour etc?
Obviously will spark some debate, but I do find it all a bit fascinating. (I'd have loved to do politics at Uni, but am a little academically-challenged, so decided to do performing arts instead!) Good for you believe it or not my son Max is doing Gov and Pol and wants to go to Uni next year, doesn't get his brain from me.
I was reading the huge thread started by Judgemental about hunting, and interested in how rudeness is a huge issue- be it to farmers/land tenants or general members of public, so I thought it interesting to look at the bigger picture.
People are always surprised that I am both an avid socialist and a lover of the country and horse sports, and that I'm also a 'bunny-hugging', organic free-range semi-vegan (I sometimes eat eggs) who agrees with fox hunting (no killing is humane, but quicker and better than the ridiculously cruel gassing and shooting.) Unfortunatly your one of a kind I wish their was a few more like you.I've been bought up by a trade union rep father, labour mum, Grandparents on both sides marxists/communist party members etc etc. My Grandad, who has just sadly passed away, was the son of a docker Father and factory-worker Mum from New Cross/Bermondsey area, SE London- always voted red. YET he was an avid member of the West Kent hunt in the 50's and 60's, lived and loved horses (head groom of police horses in Richmond Park for 30 years) and all 'country' animals, secretary of west kent pony club, bred and raced terriers etc (all the while being a bohemian artist and writer!) Did he write a book by any chance, he bloody should have hoe interesting.
Did the hunting ban alone make people choose to vote blue? No Personally I could never change my thinking based on the ban, because social policies are more important. But obviously, some people are more self-thinking.

Anyway, all very interesting!

I'm not at all trying to cause a huge guffaw- I get on with everyone (unless of course they're a raging fascistic toe-rag!) It's just totally out of interest.

All thoughts please!
Click to expand...

Good post this should go on a while esp when JM gets back from playing cowboys. x
 
ORANGEHORSE said:
I don't think that hunting people much mind WHAT anyone's politics are, everyone is united in their love of the countryside and the hounds.
Click to expand...

that Orangehorse said....

I hunt alongside some incredibly wealthy land owners (tory), some self-made millionaires (labour), and all sorts of professionals (goodness only knows how they would vote!) and a large number of people who one might describe as tradesmen or labourers...

we all talk to each other as equals, and one's politics are of no consquence... what matters is that we're supporting the hunt.
 
Paddydou said:
Well your the only person that does!!!

***Must be something in the water round you...***
:)

Hows that! Am catching up with JM now with all these colours and sizes!
Click to expand...

Meant as a joke just in case that came across wrong, off to the city now boooo! Speak later.xx
 
I'm out of touch with hunting now, but my father was an MFH and he always laughed at the idea that hunting was class-ridden. He founded two packs of beagles, one of harriers and hunted 3 packs of foxhounds over nearly 40 years, and his fields included every type of person. He always pointed to the hugely successful 'Welsh miners' packs' as examples to prove the classless point, and my guess would be that there weren't many Tory voters down there!

He treated everyone in life, and on the huting field, with the same courtesy (or sometimes lack of courtesy as he had a short fuse) and over all the years I hunted I found it the same. Nobody wanted to know your politics. And, as an earlier post said, look at people like Baroness Mallaliew, AND Kate Hooey too.

I think the thing that separates hunters and the antis is purely a perception of life. What I can't get my head around is that some of my anti-hunting friends will tear hunting apart (always ignoring the fact that ALL dogs will chase foxes) and then happily sit round the TV of a Sunday evening watching animals torn to pieces - but because that's in the Serengeti and David Attenborough is commentating, it's OK

I suppose that, in the past, Labour voters perhaps tended to live in urban areas and therefore did not hunt, shoot, fish etc. and therfore had little reason to espouse 'country sports'. But that's no longer true.

What an interesting thread. Thanks for bringing it up
 
I don't suppose anyone assumes that people who hunt are tory, people can share a common love of hunting from all different political walks of life.
I was born into a family whose life revolved around hunting and shooting and farming, and therefore I've always leant towards tories.
 
Simsar said:
Meant as a joke just in case that came across wrong, off to the city now boooo! Speak later.xx
Click to expand...

Does this mean its my turn to wind you up??? I am sitting in my office which is located in the middle of a forest, we have 4 escapee cockrills wandeing around, a bunch of cats, some deer a few rabbits, a squirel or two, the sun is shinning through the trees...

and your in the city! Pah! Shame on you! I bet your not even wearing wellies are you!
 
Simsar said:
PD how are you today??
Click to expand...

Bored out of my wits, everything is breaking at work! Just about to go and make the boys some bacon sandwiches to cheer them up!

Fed up because OH is due to be back tonight and that means my lovely little house is going to be trashed again all weekend. I will not be able to get out for a ride because he has organised suppers with all of his friends (mind you they are bloody good fun that lot - I think I get on better with them than he does!).

To top it all of I let C out a bit earlier than in retrospect I should of done and the grass has shot up in the paddock so now he is tippy on his toes. Could hit myself I really could. M was a dirty stop out and didn't emerge from the rabbit holes until gone midnight, because M was down a hole P wouldn't come back either. M then promptly made attempts to use the douvet as a towel, one bedtime treat wasn't enough so she then spent 20 minutes tapping my head with her paw then when that didn't work she sat on my head and trumped. Bloomin' spoilt dogs! She did have so much fun and caught 2 rabbits and a pigeon though! So got to forgive her!

But other than that perfectly happy and cheery as usual. Still not dusted behind the radiators in the church! AND remind me to hide the very nice bottle of white I brought last night. I am looking forward to enjoying it and don't want the boozy one to waste it! I am looking forward to it!

How was the city?
 
LOL! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Hope tippy toes will be ok????

City was cold and wet! Nothing got erected in time! So waste of time going really, Boss went to orange and white plane man's supper. Home by 11.30 pm perfect.
 
Simsar said:
Nothing got erected in time!
Typical eh!

C will be fine. He is just really prone to laminitus. He is one of those that is fine then plop he is tippy toes all round the paddock.

He has had a really good year this year. I started cutting back 2 months earlier than usual (Feb this year poor boys!) and have managed to keep the weight off of them. They are a bit porky but not as fat as they could be! Poor little C. Checked on him on the way to cook the bacon sarnies and he is walking better today and there is less heat in them. Will cold hose his toes tonight and keep the bucket on his head. Stupid stupid me. Rain warmish weather of course my grass is going to spring up! Gah! Poor boy. What makes it worse is that he is such a little sweet heart, he is not greedy like normal shetties, he is very well mannered and very quiet and shy so it makes it worse when he is poorly. The other one is a real thugget so when he gets ill, much as I hate to say it, its a blessing because he behaves for 5 minutes!

Still we shall see if his nibs can stay sober this weekend. You never know I might be able to have a drink when we go out... doubt it will be worth the risk as last weekend he said he would drive then handed me the keys at the end of the evening. Guess it was lucky I hadn't had much then eh but we shall see.

Must remember to take the dusters and hide the wine tonight...!
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Sorry OP we again have taken over a post Paddy that's your fault! If you didn't put such great posts I'd stop talking!!!!!!!! LMAO think not. LOL
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top