February 18, 2005

The Price of Victory

Well, it's official. Fox hunting is illegal in England and Wales. (It was already outlawed in Scotland.) Tony Blair, who is not opposed to hunting, sacrificed it on the altar of the war in Iraq. In order to get enough support on his backbenches, he sold out the countryside.

All of the Labour townies, who live the politics of envy in their hatred of toffs, have now gotten a chance to stick their knives in. Most of the same MPs support the right to rip unborn children limb from limb - but foxes are a whole other matter. Foxes are hunted by rich people (forget that this is more perception than reality) and rich people must be punished for being rich. Especially if they inherited their wealth, they represent all that is wrong with this country. How dare they pay 40% of the value of their property in tax with each passing generation and still have enough money for a horse and fancy red jacket!

Actually, I mischaracterise inheritance tax in this country. I should say 40% of the value of the estate, plus the value of all non-exempt gifts made within seven years of death. The only exemptions are gifts to a spouse totalling up to £55,000 over the seven years, or gifts to UK-based charities, museums, universities, the National Trust (which will be happy to have the deed to your family home), or political parties. So if you die during your working life, you will have paid 40% income tax during those seven years, plus any of your money you gave away to your children or anyone else will be taxed against the giver again at 40%, plus anything left over will be taxed at 40%. But I digress...

The ban on fox hunting will not stop the killing of foxes. Foxes may still be killed with guns. They are, after all, pests. Until the Labour parliamentary mob completely run all the farmers out of business (and they are working hard at it) foxes will still kill livestock. They just may not be killed by hounds. This will put thousands of hounds out of work.

What happens to thousands of hounds out of work? They will have to be put down. So all the foxes will still be killed and now so will the hounds. And what of the jobs that depend on foxhunting? Those people will be at the local Job Centre claiming the tax money paid by the toffs, rather than being paid wages from the toffs. And they will no longer be paying any taxes, since they no longer earn a living.

So everyone loses except the Labour backbenchers. They have shown that with enough Parliamentary time and effort, horse trading and backstabbing, and the possibly illegal use of the Parliament Act to bypass the vote of the other House, they can take away a country pursuit enjoyed, in part, by rich people. What a victory for the common man.

Posted by david at February 18, 2005 12:30 AM
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