Last Friday I took in both the South of England hound show at Ardingly and the Lobster Shoot at the wonderful Bereleigh Estate in Hampshire, which raises funds for the Countryside Alliance. Both events celebrated the best of the British countryside, people absolutely committed to their communities and the special bits of the country they live and work in. They ask little of government or wider society but contribute to both in economic terms, but also socially and culturally.
It is this context which makes the strange politics of the countryside even more difficult to understand, especially for those who are deeply embedded in a rural culture which perceives activities like hunting and shooting not just as acceptable, but as central to their way of life. Historically, political opposition to hunting and shooting was undoubtedly rooted in the perception that they were activities of the landed gentry and it was therefore the duty of class warriors to oppose them.
Some of this lingers on the left of the Labour Party, but during the current debate about trail hunting it has been noticeable how reticent most Labour MPs have been. There is little of the crowing triumphalism associated with the passing of the Hunting Act exemplified by Dennis Skinner’s claim that ‘this is for the miners’. In fact, the most consistent impression I get from rural Labour MPs is that they are slightly embarrassed by the priority the government has given the issue. As far as shooting is concerned, MPs seem to be even less concerned, yet the government has taken the extraordinary step of putting game shooting on the political agenda as well, with its threat to licence game shooting and the release of gamebirds. So, if this into being driven by party politics and class war, where is it coming from?
The answer seems to be as much about control as it is about class. There is a significant element of the environmental movement which does not like the fact that private landowners have the ability to decide how to manage their land and what happens on it. It is notable that the government’s proposals on game shooting appeared in its Land Use Framework, not its Animal Welfare Strategy. Environmental organisations aligned with those on the left who retain an element of the Marxist distaste about the ownership of capital create a potent lobby of those who want more control of what happens in the countryside.
Back in 2005, the Labour MP Peter Bradley wrote a famous piece where he admitted that the motivation for the original hunting ban was “class war”. Whilst that phrase created the headlines it was another section that is perhaps more relevant today:
“This was not about the politics of envy but the polities of power. Ultimately, it's about who governs Britain.”
The government’s ban on trail hunting and its threats to restrict shooting are not about class war, they are about culture war. A war against the independent, self-reliant and defiant culture of the countryside.