BRITAIN: Britain's Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, faced the dilemma of how to resolve the conflict between pro and anti-hunt campaigners yesterday as MPs voted on the future of foxhunting.
With anti-hunt MPs expected to pass a vote in favour of banning hunting with dogs, it will fall to a vote in the Lords today to point the way forward for the Labour leadership, which is thought to prefer the so-called "middle way" option of licensed hunts.
As Downing Street illustrated the complexity of the debate - indicating that Mr Blair would vote for a ban while hoping for consensus on the issue - the Rural Affairs Minister, Mr Alun Michael, said plans on the way forward would be made public later this week. It is the detail of this proposed legislation and how it might address the differences between the pro- and anti-hunt lobbies that is expected to set the tone of future debate.
The Lords have previously voted against an outright ban but there was speculation yesterday that peers could move away from this position and opt for the middle way. Indicating she had changed her mind about an outright ban and now favoured the middle-way option, the Labour peer and president of the pro-hunting Countryside Alliance, Baroness Mallalieu, said if the debate was ever to be resolved there must be movement on both sides.
"First of all, there must be public confidence that hunting is properly conducted and regulated and, if that requires statutory licensing, then I'm for it," Baroness Mallalieu said.
"What I want to do . . . is to signal that at least the hunting community is willing to find a compromise."
Before the Commons vote giving MPs a choice between a ban, the status quo and the middle way, anti-hunt Labour MPs expressed their confidence that a majority would vote for an outright ban. Speaking as pro- and anti-hunt supporters staged demonstrations in Westminster Square, the former Labour sports minister, Mr Tony Banks, insisted "licensed killing" was not the way forward.
"The fact that the pro-hunters, particularly those in the House of Lords who previously voted for the status quo, have now retreated from that position and are prepared to enshrine the middle way in their vote is because the middle way is just hunting by another name," Mr Banks said.