Why I’m not wild about fox hunting

The unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable - and I’m not talking about the US gun lobby’s attempt to hound ( ho, ho) Piers Morgan out of their country for pointing out that collectively they are the most stupid nation in history.

The debate about fox hunting has reared its head once more with senior Tories ruling out lifting the ban despite a clamour from many of their own back- benchers.

Sir Barney White- Spunner, who I’m guessing didn’t attend his local comprehensive*, is the chief executive of the Countryside Alliance and remains confident the ban on hunting will be lifted pointing out cryptically “in the meantime the Prime Minister will deliver what he can’’.

Presumably, that’s not a fox brush on a silver platter, although, of course, Mr Cameron did ride with a hunt several times before it was made illegal.

Locally, the hunts were out in force on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day at Stilton and Wansford.

It is an undeniably magnificent sight with the crimson coated huntsmen aboard their magnificent steeds and the enthusiastic hounds with the cold forcing steam to flow out of their nostrils.

I would hate to see that part of our heritage lost, but I find the idea of people taking pleasure out of the chasing and killing of an animal totally abhorrent.

As do most people with the latest opinion poll suggesting 76 per cent want the ban to remain in place.

The quote that this column began with is, of course, one of Oscar Wilde’s most famous.

He also said: “To disagree with three- fourths of the British public is one of the first requisites of sanity.’’

Which just goes to show that even the greatest wit this country has ever produced didn’t get it right every time.

And, conversely, even Piers Morgan does get it right every now and again.