IT'S the paradox of our times; people who want to chase a living creature to exhaustion, and then watch it ripped to death by hounds, should, by the very nature of their desire, never be allowed to take part in hunting.

It's just not good for them. And neither is it good for them to act up in the shameful way they have been.

Let's get this straight. We Brits have a proud tradition of banning vile and vicious practices. Outlawing slavery, sending small children up chimneys, women down mines, bear- baiting, public beheadings, executions and disembowelling is in our nature.

It's called civilisation.

Banning hunting with hounds is just another step on the shining path.

Of course, certain folks get their fun out of terrorising foxes and hares and watching them being shredded by dogs.

One of the chief protesters on Wednesday was an odious little brat called Otis Ferry, son of Roxy Music's Bryan. According to Otis's girlfriend: "Hunting and everything associated with it is all he wants to do for the rest of his life."

Why don't Otis and his foxhunting, aristoprat chums get a life, instead?

Why, if our farmers are so broke and overworked, do they always have the time and the money to attend endless demos, protests and riots outside Parliament?

Why, if their "sport" is so inclusive, was the protest on Wednesday what Greg Dyke would have described as so "hideously white"?

Why do they insist that fox-hunting is an effective method of pest control when they know damn well we already have one, known as the motor car. (More than 60,000 squashed renards a year, at the last count.)

And, can anyone tell me, if this tedious debate IS all about pest control, just how many chickens and baby baa-lambs have all those lethal brown hares killed in the past 10 years?

Normal people, the 80 per cent of us who believe that hunting is barbaric, and that killing for kicks is wrong, already know the answers.

Hunting is bad for foxes. It's bad for stags and bad for hares. Most of all, because it is cruel and unnecessary and pitiless and savage, it is very bad for people. And THAT'S the reason it's being stopped.

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