Another day where all the excitement happens near our office without us knowing about it. During our post-lunch stroll today we went by County Hall and then along to the London Eye. We could hear the crowd noises from across the river and the hunting horns, we noticed the police vans on Westminster Bridge, and bumped into more tweedy posh-talking country bumpkins than normal. (Bumped into because the sods might complain about cities all the time but act like they own the place when they visit. Of course its always possible that they do.) We didn’t realise, however, just how much excitement there was until getting home and seeing the baton charging and everything on the TV.

In the end the Commons vote against hunting was pretty conclusive, but we will have to wait and see if it actually gets implemented.

I have no sympathy with the fox hunters. They might come up with all these justifications that it provides jobs, is part of the heritage, and is good for the foxes, but the dead giveaway is the term bloodsports. Note that its not blood-chores but sports. Child labour and slavery is part of our country’s heritage but we seem to be getting on OK without them, and legalisation of heroin would probably provide a lot of employment.

It did cross my mind, when I saw film of all the country folk in Parliament Square that really the authorities should have just sent in the mounted police and set the dogs on them. There would have been a certain poetic justice about it, and if the foxes get so much benefit from being chased by a pack of dogs then why shouldn’t a few farmers as well?

But I’m not sure we can blame the hunters for being cruel. They probably don’t have much choice in the matter, if they are told from birth that its a good thing and don’t know any better. And if, as soon as they are old enough, they get their faces smeared with the bloody body parts of freshly-killed foxes then of course they are going to be a bit disturbed for life.

The other great thing is when they say that most of the time they do not even catch a fox. So why not just go out for a ride in the country for the sake of it?