Hunting to the ends of the Earth...

... and then far beyond into monotony. Last week we suffered the relentless bombardment by the media and pressure groups over the issue of fox-hunting. You know, that thing that should have been solved many years ago when Labour had the chance?

It seems that New Labour, in its usual attempt to be all things to all people, carried this one on for so long that eventually the majority in favour was eroded away quite significantly. If it had been banned many years ago, when the opportunity was there, it wouldn't have wasted so much time in Parliament.

Better late than never. But this bill has so many holes in it that you can't help but feel that it isn't going to last very long. The police have better thing to do, naturally, and so it could likely end up as one of those laws that people simply ignore.

Last week though, we seemed to have been given a non stop commentary on the progress and reaction to the law as the implementation date approached. It was extremely boring and very predictable.

Fact is, this is yet another of those issues that will not be resonating electorally. The people may have shifted position, but it may be more due to fatigue than anything else. There are an awful lot of "don't know/don't care"s in that survey cited above. The people had already made up their minds, and its consistently high position on the media's agenda is grossly disproportianate to its importance.

No sensible political party would make this their centrepiece of a strategy. The Tories may pledge to repeal it, but they will not dwell on it for fear of stoking the flames even more. They won't open the issue to a question of townies vs countryfolk as that is extremely divisive and would likely backfire. Talks of class warfare would only play into Labour's hands.

This one is dead. The law is probably dead too. We have to move on.